Donald Trump has sued the Wall Street Journal and its owner Rupert Murdoch for £7 billion after it claimed he wrote to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The US President has launched the lawsuit against WSJ’s parent company Dow Jones, after denying that he sent a ‘bawdy’ message for Epstein’s 50th birthday in 2003, before he first faced criminal charges in 2006.
‘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’, Trump wrote on his platform Truth Social.
He continued: ‘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 alleged letter was collated as part of an album of messages by Ghislaine Maxwell and are among documents investigated by the Department of Justice on her and Epstein.
According to the WSJ report on Thursday, Trump’s letter was a ‘several lines of typewritten text framed by the outline of a naked woman, which appears to be hand-drawn with a heavy marker’.
It said that Trump’s signature was a squiggly ‘Donald’ below a ‘small pair of arcs’ denoting a woman’s breasts.
The letter also contained a cryptic message reading: ‘A pal is a wonderful thing. Happy Birthday – and may every day be another wonderful secret.’
Trump, however dismissed the allegations as ‘fake’, adding it ‘was not the way I talk’ and that he doesn’t draw pictures, the BBC reported.
Murdoch’s media empire is often credited as helping to propel Trump to the White House.
It comes after Trump instructed attorney general Pam Bondi to seek the release of documents relating to Epstein’s grand jury testimony.
The justice department, which made the formal request, said it was also seeking documents relating to Maxwell.
Bondi herself came under pressure from MAGA loyalists to quit after saying in February that the Epstein files were ‘on her desk’.
Republican Chad Bianco, who is running to be California’s governor, said that he was disappointed with Trump’s handling of the Epstein files.
He said: ‘We feel like we’re being talked down to like stupid children.’
A spokesperson for Dow Jones said it had ‘full confidence’ in the accuracy of its reporting.
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