Donald Trump has filed a massive $10 billion defamation lawsuit against media tycoon Rupert Murdoch and the parent companies of The Wall Street Journal News Corp and Dow Jones over a controversial story involving Jeffrey Epstein.
The legal complaint, submitted to the federal court in Miami, Florida, comes shortly after the Journal published claims suggesting Trump had written a questionable birthday note to Epstein in 2003. Epstein, the disgraced financier, was accused of abusing multiple minors and died in jail in 2019 under suspicious circumstances.
The Alleged Letter and Its Contents
According to the report, Trump’s letter was supposedly part of a birthday album created by Epstein’s associate Ghislaine Maxwell. The note reportedly included a drawing of a naked woman, with Trump’s signature placed in a way that suggested sexual innuendo. It also included a reference to “wonderful secrets.”
Trump Calls the Story Fake
Trump immediately rejected the report as false. On his platform Truth Social, he posted: “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.”
He insisted that he warned Rupert Murdoch not to run the story. “I told Rupert Murdoch it was a scam, that he shouldn’t print this fake story. But he did, and now I am going to sue his a** off, and that of his third-rate newspaper.”
In a separate post, Trump added that Murdoch had promised to handle the issue: “Murdoch stated that he would take care of it, but obviously did not have the power to do so. Instead they are going with a false, malicious, defamatory story anyway.”
Legal Action After Repeated Warnings
Trump’s lawsuit fulfills the threat he made earlier to take legal action after the article was released. He made it clear that he intends to hold Murdoch personally accountable. “I look forward to getting Rupert Murdoch to testify in my lawsuit against him and his ‘pile of garbage’ newspaper, the WSJ. That will be an interesting experience.”
This legal battle adds yet another chapter to Trump’s long-running conflict with major media houses, especially those he believes are out to damage his reputation ahead of the 2024 presidential race.
