US president files libel case following media group’s report on his alleged correspondence to Jeffrey Epstein
Washington
Donald Trump has filed a lawsuit seeking $10bn from Rupert Murdoch and other defendants after The Wall Street Journal published a report of a letter that the US president allegedly wrote for the late paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
Court records show Trump filed a case in a Florida federal court on Friday against the Wall Street Journal, its parent companies News Corp and Dow Jones, two WSJ reporters and the newspaper’s owner, Murdoch.
In the libel suit, filed in the Southern District of Florida, Trump said he was seeking damages and other costs that were “not to be less than $10 billion” and requested a jury trial.
In the court filing, he accused the reporters and publishers of “malicious, deliberate, and despicable actions” and said the letter to Epstein was “nonexistent”.
It said statements in the article would “lower his professional reputation in the community or deter third persons from associating or dealing with him”. He is being represented in the case by Florida firm Brito, PLLC.
The lawsuit comes after the WSJ reported that to mark Epstein’s 50th birthday in 2003, Trump wrote a letter that was compiled in an album and featured a lewd drawing. In the letter, Trump wished Epstein a happy birthday and wrote “may every day be another wonderful secret”, according to the report.
Trump spent several days lobbying Murdoch, Wall Street Journal editor Emma Tucker and News Corp chief executive Robert Thomson to stop the paper from publishing the story.
After the Journal published its story on Thursday evening, Trump claimed it was “false, malicious, and defamatory”.
He lashed out at Murdoch in social media posts, threatening to “sue his ass off, and that of his third-rate newspaper”.
A Dow Jones spokesperson said in a statement: “We have full confidence in the rigor and accuracy of our reporting, and will vigorously defend against any lawsuit.”
The White House declined to comment.
The legal action comes as the Trump administration has sought to contain fallout from a memo by the Department of Justice and FBI that earlier this month said there was no Epstein “client list” and no “credible evidence” that he had “blackmailed prominent individuals”.
This marked a reversal from Trump’s campaign pledge to release files on Epstein’s death by suicide in 2019. US attorney-general Pam Bondi in February said a “client list” was “sitting” on her desk for review.
Hours after the WSJ published its story on Thursday, Trump said in a post to his Truth Social platform that he had asked Bondi to seek the release of grand jury transcripts relating to Epstein.
Bondi responded with her own social media post, saying: “President Trump — we are ready to move the court tomorrow to unseal the grand jury transcripts.”
The DoJ filed a motion in federal court on Friday to release the transcripts.
