President Donald J. Trump is fighting to move forward with his massive $10 billion defamation lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones, and News Corp, accusing them of launching a “deliberate smear campaign” intended to destroy his reputation.
According to ABC News, Trump’s legal team filed a motion late Monday night urging a Florida federal judge to deny the Journal’s request for dismissal, arguing that the outlet’s July article, which tied Trump to a bawdy letter allegedly penned in Jeffrey Epstein’s so-called “birthday book,” was “malicious, defamatory, and politically motivated.”
In their latest filing, Trump’s attorneys blasted the Journal:
“Defendants did not publish the article on the front page of The Wall Street Journal based on a mere harmless joke between friends. Indeed, such an assertion strains credulity beyond repair. The article, and the surrounding media around it, were all a deliberate smear campaign designed to damage President Trump’s reputation.”
Trump’s lawyers are now pushing for oral arguments to expose a coordinated media effort to smear the president.