US President Donald Trump has renewed his legal battle with The Wall Street Journal, filing a revised defamation lawsuit against its publishers after a court last month dismissed his previous lawsuit.
The dispute centers on a report about an "embarrassing" birthday letter that the newspaper said Trump sent to financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
A Florida district court dismissed the initial lawsuit in April. Judge Darrin P. Gales ruled that Trump had not reasonably shown that the newspaper acted “with malice” in publishing the alleged letter to Epstein, and that the president’s lawsuit has no fundamental legal basis.
The Wall Street Journal reported today that in his revised lawsuit, Trump again claims that the newspaper acted with malice. The lawsuit also notes that the president has consistently denied any involvement in the letter.
As in his previous lawsuit, Trump is seeking at least $10 billion in damages.
The Wall Street Journal last year reported on a letter sent to Epstein in 2003 for his 50th birthday, allegedly signed by Trump. The newspaper said the letter contained sexually explicit text and a pencil sketch of a female figure. Trump denied writing it.
The president then filed a lawsuit against newspaper and media mogul Rupert Murdoch, whose media empire includes the WSJ, seeking $10 billion.
Trump has repeatedly targeted media organizations he considers hostile, including the Washington Post, CNN and the BBC.
Last year, after long resistance from Trump, Congress forced the Justice Department to begin releasing a slew of documents and photographs related to years of investigations.
Trump was among those who associated with Epstein in the 1990s and early 2000s. However, there is no evidence linking him to Epstein's criminal activities, and the president has maintained that he was never "friends with Jeffrey Epstein."