Obama Judge Gets Trump's $10B Murdoch Lawsuit Case By Eric Mack | Monday, 21 July 2025 10:00 AM EDT
A former President Barack Obama judge has reportedly been assigned to President Donald Trump's $10 billion defamation lawsuit against Rupert Murdoch and The Wall Street Journal.
U.S. District Judge Darrin Gayles in the Southern District of Florida was nominated by Obama in February 2014, and became the first openly gay Black federal judge.
Gayles was also assigned a Trump $500 million lawsuit against embattled former attorney Michael Cohen in 2023, but Trump was forced to temporarily pause that case due to court-date conflicts in the Democrat prosecutor-led cases he faced before the 2024 presidential election.
Gayles has filed dissent against voter ID laws, claiming they hurt minorities, potentially showing a bias against Trump, who signed anti-DEI executive orders his first day in office.
Trump filed his $10 billion lawsuit against the Journal and Murdoch on Friday, a day after the newspaper published a report on a 50th birthday note to Jeffrey Epstein, who Trump has admitted to having interacted with but severed ties when allegations of sex trafficking came to light.
The move came shortly after the Justice Department asked a federal court Friday to unseal grand jury transcripts in Epstein's sex trafficking case.
Trump promised to sue the Journal almost immediately, denying writing the letter claimed by the Journal, calling the story "false, malicious, and defamatory."
The suit accuses the paper and its reporters of having "knowingly and recklessly" published "numerous false, defamatory, and disparaging statements," which, it alleges, caused "overwhelming financial and reputational harm" to the president.
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https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/judge-defamation-lawsuit/2025/07/21/id/1219433/
