President Donald Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal for reporting on his ties to convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein has been assigned to a federal judge appointed by former President Barack Obama. The news is unlikely to please Trump, who has already publicly expressed his anger about the continuing controversy surrounding his administration’s handling of the notorious case.
Judge Darrin P. Gayles, who serves on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, was assigned the case on Monday. Gayles was nominated for his position in 2014 and was unanimously confirmed that year. He was praised by activist groups as the first openly gay Black person to win a seat on the federal court.
Trump is suing The Wall Street Journal, owner Rupert Murdoch, and other executives and reporters at the conservative outlet after it published a report stating that Trump was part of a group of friends who sent Epstein sexually suggestive letters for his 50th birthday.
The Journal reported that the letter bearing Trump’s name included a drawing of a nude woman with “the future president’s signature is a squiggly ‘Donald’ below her waist, mimicking pubic hair.”
The publication of the story prompted a public meltdown from Trump, who attacked the Journal and claimed the entire story was “fake.” Trump has frequently described accurate reporting of his statements and actions as “fake.”
As evidence, Trump has claimed that “I don’t draw pictures,” but since the story was published, multiple instances of doodles made by Trump in the past have surfaced.
In fact, several assertions made by Trump and his defenders, including his son Donald Trump Jr., seeking to sow doubt about the story have fallen flat. These include the claim that he wouldn’t use the word “enigma”—which he has—and that he wouldn’t refer to himself in the third person, which he also has done countless times.
Suing Murdoch, who also owns the Journal’s sister media organization Fox News, is a sign of how concerned Trump is about the Epstein story, which has consumed him for weeks. Trump has invoked the unsavory story for years as a cudgel against the left, only to have his administration decide to keep the details of the investigation, and the so-called Epstein client list, under wraps.
Trump’s MAGA supporters had assumed he would disclose information they saw as damaging to their ideological enemies, and some have expressed feelings of betrayal.
Related: All the worst MAGA guys are mad at Trump’s Epstein cover-up
Murdoch’s media empire, which also includes the New York Post, has been the most reliable and visible promoter of pro-Trump propaganda for a long time. Trump’s lawsuit, which seeks a ridiculous $10 billion in damages, has exposed a major fault line in the conservative movement. Trump is apparently so upset that the Journal has been cut off from the press pool scheduled to accompany the president from an upcoming trip to Scotland.
And a judge picked by Obama, one of Trump’s most hated enemies, will now oversee the entire proceeding.