Last year, President Donald Trump sued The Wall Street Journal, claiming the newspaper had defamed him by reporting that he contributed to a 2003 album marking the 50th birthday of financier Jeffrey Epstein, who was later convicted of soliciting a minor for prostitution in Florida and committed suicide in 2019 while facing federal charges involving sex trafficking of minors. On Monday, a federal judge in Miami dismissed that lawsuit without prejudice, meaning Trump can try to correct the legal deficiencies in his initial complaint.
Given the facts of the case, it seems doubtful that Trump can meet that challenge. But even if he can, the sloppiness of his initial complaint is not surprising, since Trump has a long history of filing shaky lawsuits against people whose speech offends him. Although those lawsuits are framed as attempts to vindicate Trump's legal rights, the main point is to punish his adversaries by forcing them to defend against his claims and thereby deter others from crossing him. As Trump sees it, the speech-chilling impact of such litigation is a feature, not a bug.
