UPDATED, with additional Trump comment: Donald Trump said that he planned to sue Rupert Murdoch‘s “ass off” after The Wall Street Journal published a story about his relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The Journal reported earlier on Thursday on a birthday album that was given to Epstein in 2003, featured collected letters from some of his friends. Among the letters was one bearing Trump’s name that “contains several lines of typewritten text framed by the outline of a naked woman, which appears to be hand-drawn with a heavy marker,” the Journal reported, adding that a “pair of small arcs denotes the woman’s breasts, and the future president’s signature is a squiggly ‘Donald’ below her waist, mimicking pubic hair.”
Informed of the letter, Trump denied writing it, and told the Journal that he would sue them if they went forward with the story.
On Truth Social, he wrote, “The Wall Street Journal printed a FAKE letter, supposedly to Epstein. These are not my words, not the way I talk. Also, I don’t draw pictures. I told Rupert Murdoch it was a Scam, that he shouldn’t print this Fake Story. But he did, and now I’m going to sue his ass off, and that of his third rate newspaper. Thank you for your attention to this matter! DJT”
Earlier, a post was published on his Truth Social account that read, “The Wall Street Journal, and Rupert Murdoch, personally, were warned directly by President Donald J. Trump that the supposed letter they printed by President Trump to Epstein was a FAKE and, if they print it, they will be sued. Mr. Murdoch stated that he would take care of it but, obviously, did not have the power to do so. The Editor of The Wall Street Journal, Emma Tucker, was told directly by Karoline Leavitt, and by President Trump, that the letter was a FAKE, but Emma Tucker didn’t want to hear that. Instead, they are going with a false, malicious, and defamatory story anyway. President Trump will be suing The Wall Street Journal, NewsCorp, and Mr. Murdoch, shortly. The Press has to learn to be truthful, and not rely on sources that probably don’t even exist.
“President Trump has already beaten George Stephanopoulos/ABC, 60 Minutes/CBS, and others, and looks forward to suing and holding accountable the once great Wall Street Journal. It has truly turned out to be a ‘Disgusting and Filthy Rag’ and, writing defamatory lies like this, shows their desperation to remain relevant. If there were any truth at all on the Epstein Hoax, as it pertains to President Trump, this information would have been revealed by Comey, Brennan, Crooked Hillary, and other Radical Left Lunatics years ago. It certainly would not have sat in a file waiting for ‘TRUMP’ to have won three Elections. This is yet another example of FAKE NEWS!”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt republished Trump’s legal threat on her X account.
A spokesperson for News Corp. did not immediately return a request for comment. A spokesperson for Fox Corp. had no comment. A spokesperson for Dow Jones, the publisher of the Journal, said, “The story speaks for itself.”
Trump has been irked by the Epstein story since it resurfaced earlier this month, when the Justice Department announced in a memo that there was no “Epstein” list and that the evidence showed that he died by suicide in 2019. That drew a MAGA backlash, as figures like current FBI director Kash Patel and Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino have pushed conspiracy theories surrounding Epstein. Trump has tried to tamp the talk down, even blaming it on the Democrats and calling it a “hoax.”
In a Truth Social post later on Thursday, Trump wrote, “Based on the ridiculous amount of publicity given to Jeffrey Epstein, I have asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to produce any and all pertinent Grand Jury testimony, subject to Court approval. This SCAM, perpetuated by the Democrats, should end, right now!”
Trump has issued many legal threats against media outlets, and a number of them never lead to actual litigation. Murdoch, though, has recently drawn Trump’s praise, even as the president has at times lashed out at Fox News over various personalities and guests. Murdoch attended Trump’s inauguration and, in a visit to the Oval Office in February, Trump called Murdoch “in a class by himself. He’s an amazing guy.”
