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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
Business
Richard Luscombe

US judge throws out Trump’s $3.8bn defamation lawsuit against Washington Post

The Washington Post headquarters
The Washington Post headquarters in Washington DC on 27 January 2026. Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

A federal judge in Florida has thrown out Donald Trump’s $3.8bn defamation lawsuit against the Washington Post over an article that said a bank with links to the pornography industry helped fund his fledgling social media operation.

In a brief order granting summary judgment to the newspaper, Tampa district court judge Thomas Patrick Barber, a Trump appointee, said the Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG) had “failed to present evidence that would allow a jury to find by clear and convincing evidence” that the Post acted with actual malice, the benchmark for such an action to succeed.

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