As the public first learned of The Wall Street Journal’s report on Donald Trump’s alleged 2003 birthday letter to Jeffrey Epstein, the president responded with unsubtle threats. “President Trump will be suing The Wall Street Journal, NewsCorp, and Mr. Murdoch, shortly,” he wrote online, referring to himself in the third person for reasons unknown.
The Republican added soon after, “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.”
It seems he wasn’t kidding. CNBC reported:
President Donald Trump on Friday followed through on his threat to sue media mogul Rupert Murdoch after his Wall Street Journal published an article saying that Trump sent Jeffrey Epstein a ‘bawdy’ letter for Epstein’s 50th birthday. Court records show that Trump filed a lawsuit alleging libel against Murdoch, the Journal’s publisher, Dow Jones, and the reporters who wrote the article in federal court for the Southern District of Florida.
The civil lawsuit, which was filed in the Southern District of Florida, comes a day after Trump referred to the Journal as a “disgusting and filthy rag.” The suit seeks a jury trial and a judgment of at least $10 billion.
The listed defendants are the Journal’s parent company, News Corp.; its publisher, Dow Jones; the two Journal reporters who wrote Wednesday’s story; and News Corp. owner Rupert Murdoch and News Corp. CEO Robert Thomson. NBC News said Dow Jones, News Corp. and the two reporters did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
In a post on Truth Social on Friday evening, Trump wrote in part: “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. … 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.”
The move has become a familiar one for the incumbent president, who has, in recent years, also filed civil lawsuits against CBS News, ABC News, The Des Moines Register and CNN. It also comes two months after Trump told a reporter with the Journal that he considers the newspaper to be “rotten,” to have “truly gone to hell” and to be “really bad for this country.” Thursday’s report, however, appears to have taken the president’s contempt for the WSJ to a new level. The Journal advanced the controversy with a new report on a 2003 birthday album, collected by former Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell, which reportedly included a highly provocative letter bearing Trump’s name and signature. This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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