President Donald Trump filed a lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal and its owner, billionaire Rupert Murdoch, and the two reporters who wrote the article ‘Jeffrey Epstein’s Friends Sent Him Bawdy Letters for a 50th Birthday Album. One Was From Donald Trump.’ Trump says the letter is “a fake thing” and is suing for defamation and seeks $10 billion in damages.
Trump filed the lawsuit federally in Florida, which as Andrew Fleischman on X points out, has a general anti-SLAPP law in place.
Note: SLAPPs are Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation, and according to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press they “have become an all-too-common tool for intimidating and silencing criticism through expensive, baseless legal proceedings.” Anti-SLAPP laws are meant to provide a remedy to SLAPP suits.
The first thing to note about Trump's WSJ lawsuit is that he filed it federally in Florida.
— Andrew Fleischman (@ASFleischman) July 19, 2025
In almost every jurisdiction, filing a lawsuit federally helps you avoid the anti-SLAPP statute.
But not in Florida. pic.twitter.com/N1WeLnXpNG
Florida’s general anti-SLAPP law “prohibits lawsuits brought against individuals for exercising their right of free speech in connection with a public issue or their rights to peacefully assemble, to instruct representatives of government, or to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
“Anti-SLAPP laws are intended to prevent people from using courts, and potential threats of a lawsuit, to intimidate people who are exercising their First Amendment rights.”
BREAKING
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) July 18, 2025
Ok the complaint in the lawsuit against WSJ, Rupert Murdoch et al has now been filed.
President Trump is seeking $10 billion in damages.
New Trump post on the matter. pic.twitter.com/Ev6yd26FPI
Fleischman provided an example of the effectiveness of the Florida anti-SLAPP law: In 2019, pro-Trump podcaster Dan Bongino (Trump’s current FBI deputy director) filed a lawsuit against The Daily Beast for publishing an article about his departure from NRATV, the media arm of the National Rifle Association.
The Daily Beast filed an anti-SLAPP motion and prevailed. The case was dismissed and a judge recommended that Bongino pay more than $30,000 in attorneys’ fees for his lawsuit against the Daily Beast. According to anti-SLAPP law, “whichever party prevails on the special motion is entitled to recover attorney’s fees and costs.”
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