Trump files libel lawsuit over Wall Street Journal report on Jeffrey Epstein’s birthday letters

By Michael Williams, Dan Berman and Brian Stelter, CNN

(CNN) — President Donald Trump is filing a libel lawsuit against the publisher of the Wall Street Journal and reporters who wrote a story about a collection of letters gifted to Jeffrey Epstein for his 50th birthday in 2003, including a note bearing Trump’s name and an outline of a naked woman.

The lawsuit is an extraordinary escalation of Trump’s ongoing legal campaign against media companies he views as opponents.

According to the docket filed in federal court in South Florida, Trump is suing for libel, assault and slander. A copy of the lawsuit was not attached to the docket.

Trump has denied that he wrote the note.

Trump had threatened to sue almost immediately after the story, which was written by Journal reporters Khadeeja Safdar and Joe Palazzolo, was published late Thursday afternoon. Both reporters are named in the docket as defendants.

“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,” the president said in a Truth Social post.

The president added in that post that Murdoch, the owner of News Corp, the Journal’s parent company, “stated that he would take care of it.”

“But, obviously, did not have the power to do so,” Trump added.

CNN has reached out to the Wall Street Journal for comment.

The president’s relationship with Epstein, the late convicted sex offender who died in a New York City jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges, has come under increased scrutiny in recent weeks.

Trump said during his 2024 campaign that he would consider releasing additional files on Epstein, vowing to fulfill the demands of influential right-wing figures who have long pushed for increase governmental transparency around the case and publicly casted doubt on whether his death was a suicide, as was ruled by multiple official investigations.

A memo released by his Justice Department earlier this month claimed there is no evidence that Epstein, who rubbed shoulders with some of the most influential men in politics and business during the late 20th century, maintained a “client list” that named or implicated these men in alleged sex crimes.

That revelation has disappointed some of the president’s most loyal followers and was the catalyst of a split that threatened to fracture his MAGA coalition.

Trump has had a hot-and-cold professional relationship with Murdoch that has spanned decades. Murdoch’s company also owns Fox News, the most-watched and most-prominent Trump-friendly cable news network, which also employs the president’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump.

Trump’s latest media battle

Legal experts consulted by CNN said they could not immediately recall any past instances of a sitting president suing a news outlet over a story.

Trump filed several suits in 2024 while he was running for reelection. In March of that year, he sued ABC, claiming George Stephanopoulos and ABC News defamed him when the anchor repeatedly said on air that a jury found Trump had “raped” E. Jean Carroll.

A jury found that Trump had sexually abused Carroll and held him liable for battery, but the jury did not find that she proved he had raped her. (Trump has denied all wrongdoing toward Carroll.) ABC’s parent company Disney settled with Trump and agreed to pay $16 million toward his future presidential library, setting a precedent of sorts for other settlement deals.

Just two weeks ago, Trump agreed to drop his October 2024 lawsuit against CBS News over a segment on “60 Minutes” during the closing stretch of the campaign. Paramount said it would pay $16 million for the library.

Meta and X have also settled with Trump over lawsuits that predated his second term in office. At least three other cases against media and tech companies are still pending.

University of Richmond law professor Carl Tobias told CNN that Trump’s challenge to the Journal goes hand in hand with the recent settlements and the rescission package targeting public broadcasting.

In each case, “his attacks on the media undermine the First Amendment by making the media and others more cautious in covering Trump, his administration and other federal and state politicians,” Tobias said.

This story is breaking and will be updated.

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