Buried in the coverage of Judge Darrin Gayles’s dismissal of President Donald Trump’s $10 billion defamation suit against the Wall Street Journal was one factoid emblematic of the country’s obsession with convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. Trump sued the outlet when it broke a front-page story about an album celebrating Epstein’s 50th birthday that apparently included a drawing and greetings from Trump.
In making their case for the suit to be dismissed, the Wall Street Journal’s defense attorneys argued that the paper had never attributed the letter to Trump. This was despite headlines which clearly depicted Trump as the author. Well, let the facts be damned. Gayle bought the defense claim and declared Trump’s suit a nothingburger. As I cautioned in these pages last year, the Trump greeting may be an AI-generated forgery, a possibility the Wall Street Journal’s defense lawyers now seemingly endorse.
