President Donald Trump has filed a lawsuit against Dow Jones & Company, the parent company of The Wall Street Journal, less than 24 hours after the newspaper published a report claiming the president sent convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein a lewd birthday letter in 2003.
President Trump said Thursday night that he had warned Rupert Murdoch, the media executive whose company owns the paper, that a lawsuit was imminent. Murdoch is named in the lawsuit, along with the two reporters, Joseph Palazzolo and Khadeeja Safdar, who authored the article.
"We have just filed a POWERHOUSE Lawsuit against everyone involved in publishing the false, malicious, defamatory, FAKE NEWS 'article' in the useless 'rag' that is, The Wall Street Journal," President Trump said on his Truth Social platform. "I hope Rupert and his 'friends' are looking forward to the many hours of depositions and testimonies they will have to provide in this case."
According to the WSJ, the letter was part of a 50th birthday gift Ghislaine Maxwell was assembling for Epstein. The newspaper reported that it was one of dozens of letters compiled into an album.
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The report states that President Trump’s letter included “typewritten text framed by the outline of a naked woman,” along with his signature. It read: “Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret.”
President Trump is quoted in the article denying that he wrote it.
“I never wrote a picture in my life. I don’t draw pictures of women. It’s not my language. It’s not my words,” Trump told the WSJ.
The lawsuit, filed in a federal court in Miami, claims Palazzolo sent White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt an email on July 15 notifying the administration about the newspaper's intent to publish the article. The lawsuit said President Trump's counsel replied on the same day with an email stating that the claims were false and warned Dow Jones to cease and desist from publishing.
The article titled, "Jeffrey Epstein’s Friends Sent Him Bawdy Letters for a 50th Birthday Album. One was from Donald Trump," was published on July 17.
"Defendants elaborated on their false, defamatory, unsubstantiated, and disparaging claims against President Trump by claiming that he drew an outline of a naked woman, drew breasts on her, and signed his name below her waist 'mimicking pubic hair,'" the lawsuit stated.
The lawsuit also claimed the letter in question is a "typewritten note styled as an imaginary conversation between Trump and Epstein, written in the third person."
"[The reporters] failed to attach the letter, failed to attach the alleged drawing, failed to show proof that President Trump authored or signed any such letter, and failed to explain how this purported letter was obtained," the lawsuit stated. "The reason for those failures is because no authentic letter or drawing exists. Defendants concocted this story to malign President Trump’s character and integrity and deceptively portray him in a false light."
The lawsuit claims President Trump will suffer financial and reputational harm based on the Wall Street Journal's report — which quickly gained a viral reach.
President Trump is seeking at least $10 billion in damages and has requested a jury trial.
In addition to the lawsuit, the Department of Justice filed a request to unseal grand jury transcripts related to the Epstein case in the Southern District of New York. Jeffrey Epstein was indicted in 2019 by a federal grand jury on sex trafficking charges involving underage girls. He died by suicide in a Manhattan jail while awaiting trial.
In her filing, Attorney General Pam Bondi asks the court to unseal the related transcripts, citing overwhelming public interest and a need for transparency.
Following the WSJ's report, President Trump said he directed Bondi to pursue the release of the records, an apparent effort to counter criticism that his administration has not done enough to make the files public.
RELATED STORY | Epstein investigation turned up no 'incriminating client list,' FBI says
President Trump has faced growing backlash from some of his most loyal supporters after the DOJ and FBI released a memo stating that a comprehensive review of the Epstein investigation uncovered no “incriminating client list,” no evidence of blackmail involving prominent individuals, and no grounds to charge additional parties.
That conclusion disappointed many of President Trump’s allies, who had expected his administration to reveal a so-called “client list” connected to Epstein’s network.
