10 months ago
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The federal judge randomly assigned to oversee Donald Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal is a former federal prosecutor appointed to the bench by Barack Obama.
Judge Darrin P. Gayles with the Southern District of Florida, a former U.S. attorney, was appointed by the former president in 2014. He was unanimously confirmed in the Senate by a vote of 98-0.
The Howard University and George Washington University School of Law graduate became the first openly gay Black man to serve on the federal bench.
Trump’s lawsuit filed in federal court in Miami on July 18 accuses the newspaper, its parent companies, executives and journalists of falsely accusing the president of writing a 50th birthday card to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in 2003.
The lawsuit names right-wing media mogul Rupert Murdoch and his News Corp, WSJ publisher Dow Jones, executive Robert Thomson, and two WSJ journalists whose bylines appeared on the story.
The birthday greeting is described as including a sexually suggestive drawing and a birthday wish that says “may every day be another wonderful secret.”
The defendants “failed to attach the letter, failed to attach the alleged drawing, failed to show proof that President Trump authored or signed any such letter, and failed to explain how this purported letter was obtained,” according to the lawsuit.
“The reason for those failures is because no authentic letter or drawing exists,” the complaint claims.
This is a developing story
