Donald Trump Speaks Out After Suing Over WSJ’s Jeffrey Epstein Story

President Donald Trump issued a statement on Truth Social saying he filed a “powerhouse” lawsuit over a Wall Street Journal story revealing the details of a “bawdy” letter Trump sent the disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The lawsuit seeks at least $10 billion in damages and accuses Rupert Murdoch’s publication of engaging in a “malicious” effort to “malign” the president with a story based on a “nonexistent” letter.

The Context

Trump has raged against the Journal since the publication reported on Thursday that Trump sent Epstein a letter for his 50th birthday. According to the report, Trump’s note to Epstein featured several lines of typewritten text surrounded by the outline of a naked woman, sketched in marker, and included Trump’s signature.

“Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret,” the letter said, according to the report.

Trump told the Journal in a Tuesday interview that he would file a lawsuit if it published its story about the letter, which he said was “fake,” and added in a Truth Social post Thursday evening that the newspaper had put out “defamatory lies” about him.

What To Know

Trump’s Friday lawsuit, obtained by Newsweek, names six defendants: the Journal‘s publisher Dow Jones, its parent company NewsCorp, NewsCorp CEO Robert Thomson, NewsCorp founder and media mogul Rupert Murdoch, and Journal reporters Khadeeja Safdar and Joe Palazzolo, who broke the story about the letter.

Messages seeking comment from Safdar and NewsCorp were not immediately returned Friday.

“BREAKING NEWS: 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,” the president wrote. “This historic legal action is being brought against the so-called authors of this defamation, the now fully disgraced WSJ, as well as its corporate owners and affiliates, with Rupert Murdoch and Robert Thomson (whatever his role is!) at the top of the list.”

He added: “This lawsuit is filed not only on behalf of your favorite President, ME, but also in order to continue standing up for ALL Americans who will no longer tolerate the abusive wrongdoings of the Fake News Media. 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. Thank you for your attention to this matter. We will, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

The 18-page lawsuit accuses the defendants of “malicious, deliberate, and despicable actions” and alleges that the letter at the center of the Journal‘s story is “nonexistent.”

It also reiterates the White House’s allegation that Trump was never shown the letter the story was based on.

“Defendants concocted this story to malign President Trump’s character and integrity and deceptively portray him in a false light.”

Trump’s lawsuit accuses the defendants of defamation and emphasized how widely-read the Journal‘s story was, saying “hundreds of millions of people” have viewed the “false and defamatory” statements. The suit was filed in the Southern District of Florida.

The Journal‘s reporting complicated the president’s efforts to distance himself from Epstein, whom he called a “creep” last week while denigrating the media’s focus on his administration’s handling of the investigation into the financier’s death.

The president said after the story was published that he had “personally” warned the outlet and Murdoch before they printed the report that he would sue them if they pressed ahead with publication, and said that Murdoch had assured him that he would “take care of it but, obviously, did not have the power to do so.”

“The Press has to learn to be truthful, and not rely on sources that probably don’t even exist,” he wrote on Truth Social on Thursday evening, adding that he “looks forward to suing and holding accountable the once great Wall Street Journal.”

This explosive story about Trump’s letter to Epstein also came as the administration continues grappling with the fallout over its handling of the investigation into Epstein’s 2019 death.

Trump administration officials have faced a firestorm of blowback the MAGA base after the Department of Justice released a memo last week confirming Epstein died by suicide and that the government was not in possession of an “incriminating” list of his clients.

The two-page document flew in the face of years of conspiracy theories amplified by Trump’s allies—including Attorney General Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel and Vice President JD Vance—suggesting that Epstein was murdered as part of a vast government cover-up.

Trump, for his part, has alternated between saying there are no Epstein files, calling the investigation that his own officials hyped up a “hoax,” and claiming that the files are part of a Democratic effort to undermine his presidency.

What People Are Saying

Trump ripped the Journal over its report on Friday, writing on Truth Social: “If there was a ‘smoking gun’ on Epstein, why didn’t the Dems, who controlled the ‘files’ for four years, and had [then Attorney General Merrick] Garland and [former FBI Director James] Comey in charge, use it? BECAUSE THEY HAD NOTHING!!!”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote on X on Thursday evening: “The Wall Street Journal published a hatchet job article with a FAKE ‘birthday letter’ that is supposedly from 2003 … The WSJ refused to show us the letter and conceded they don’t even have it in their possession when we asked them to verify the alleged document they’re basing their ENTIRE fake story on.”

She added: “When has President Trump ever spoken like the conversation alleged in the fake WSJ story? That’s not at all how he speaks or writes. The WSJ knowingly published false information to smear the President of the United States.”

Update 7/18/25, 7:40 p.m. ET: This story has been updated with additional information and context.