A federal judge on Monday dismissed President Donald Trump's defamation suit against the Wall Street Journal that he brought in response to the outlet publishing an alleged letter he sent to Jeffrey Epstein in 2003.

U.S. District Judge Darrin Gayles issued the decision, asserting that Trump's suit failed to adequately address the requirement of actual malice for the suit to proceed.

“Because the Court finds that the Complaint fails to adequately allege actual malice, it declines to address these issues at this juncture,” Gayles said, according to The Hill. “Moreover, whether President Trump was the author of the Letter or Epstein’s friend are questions of fact that cannot be determined at this stage of the litigation.”

Trump brought the suit in July of last year, asserting that he had not written the alleged 50th birthday letter to Epstein. Weeks later, he asserted that the paper had discussed a settlement, though nothing came of it.

"I've been treated badly by the Wall Street Journal," Trump said at the time. "I would have assumed that Rupert Murdoch controls it, but, you know, maybe does, maybe doesn't. They are talking to us about doing something but we'll see what happens. Maybe they would like us to drop that, so we'll see ... they want to settle it. When I get treated unfairly, I do things about it."

Ben Whedon is the Chief Political Correspondent at Just the News. Follow him on X.