Darrin P. Gayles

Darrin Phillip Gayles (born in 1966) is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida and former Florida Circuit Court judge.

Education and legal career

Gayles received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1990 from Howard University. He received a Juris Doctor in 1993 from the George Washington University Law School. He began his career as an assistant state attorney in the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office from 1993 to 1997. From 1997 to 1999, he served as an assistant district counsel at the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service. From 1999 to 2004, he served as an assistant United States attorney for the Southern District of Florida.

Judicial career

State judicial service In 2004, Gayles became a judge, serving as a county judge in Miami-Dade County within the Eleventh Judicial Circuit. From 2011 to 2014, he served as a circuit court judge on the Eleventh Judicial Circuit Court of Florida. He received a hearing before the United States Senate Judiciary Committee on April 1, 2014. On May 8, 2014, his nomination was reported out of committee by a voice vote. On June 16, 2014, the United States Senate invoked cloture by a 55–37 vote. On June 17, 2014, his nomination was confirmed by a 98–0 vote, making him the first openly gay African-American federal judge. He received his judicial commission on June 19, 2014.

In 2025, Gayles was assigned Donald Trump's lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal and Rupert Murdoch after the WSJ ran a story on an alleged lette r Trump wrote to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein for his 50th birthday. In April 2026, Gayles dismissed the lawsuit citing a failure to "adequately allege actual malice".