Donald Trump vowed to sue the Rupert Murdoch, NewsCorp and the Wall Street Journal on Thursday night, not an hour after the paper published a story saying the future president had contributed a tawdry entry in a leather-bound compilation of birthday messages for then-50-year-old “pal” Jeffrey Epstein in 2003.
Half an hour after that, Trump said on his Truth Social platform that he had ordered Attorney General Pam Bondi to “produce any and all pertinent Grand Jury testimony, subject to Court approval.”
“This SCAM, perpetuated by the Democrats, should end, right now!” the president added.
Trump’s tirade was in response to a Thursday evening report in the Wall Street Journal, which said Trump wrote to Epstein in the birthday message that “We have certain things in common” and “May every day be a new wonderful secret,” part of a suggestive, typewritten entry framed by a silhouette of a naked woman and punctuated by his “squiggly” signature that suggests pubic hair on the hand-drawn figure.
Trump had spoken directly to paper before the story’s publication, saying in the interview that it wasn’t him, “this is a fake thing,” and threatening a lawsuit. After it went live, he posted:
“The Wall Street Journal, and Rupert Murdoch, personally, were warned directly by President Donald J. Trump that the supposed letter they printed by President Trump to Epstein was a FAKE and, if they print it, they will be sued,” Trump posted, roughly 45 minutes after the WSJ story was published. “Mr. Murdoch stated that he would take care of it but, obviously, did not have the power to do so.”
Trump said Wall Street Journal editor Emma Tucker “was told directly by Karoline Leavitt, and by President Trump, that the letter was a FAKE, but Emma Tucker didn’t want to hear that. Instead, they are going with a false, malicious, and defamatory story anyway.”
About 15 minutes later, Trump said that “Based on the ridiculous amount of publicity given to Jeffrey Epstein, I have asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to produce any and all pertinent Grand Jury testimony, subject to Court approval. This SCAM, perpetuated by the Democrats, should end, right now!”
And he wasn’t done.
“The Wall Street Journal printed a FAKE letter, supposedly to Epstein,” Trump continued in a subsequent post. “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. Thank you for your attention to this matter! DJT”
Trump’s threats were nakedly leveraging his previous success with attacking the media in the courts, on the heels of a $16 million settlement with CBS parent company Paramount and a previous, separate settlement with ABC News for $15 million.
