President Trump lashed out Thursday at the Wall Street Journal for publishing a letter he supposedly sent to disgraced late financier Jeffrey Epstein, calling the note a fake.
He’s now preparing a lawsuit against the New York-based newspaper, he said Thursday evening.
“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 wrote on Truth Social.
“Mr. Murdoch stated that he would take care of it but, obviously did not have the power to do so. The Editor of The Wall Street Journal, 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,” he said.
“Instead, they are going with a false, malicious, and defamatory story anyway,” Mr. Trump wrote, vowing to sue The Wall Street Journal, parent company NewsCorp, and Mr. Murdoch over the matter shortly.
“The Press has to learn to be truthful, and not rely on sources that probably don’t even exist,” he said.
Referencing successful lawsuits he filed against George Stephanopoulos of ABC News and CBS’s “60 Minutes,” Mr. Trump said he “looks forward to suing and holding accountable the once great Wall Street Journal.”
He described the newspaper as a “Disgusting and Filthy Rag” saying that its writing defamatory lies like this shows their desperation to remain relevant.
“If there were any truth at all on the Epstein Hoax, as it pertains to President Trump, this information would have been revealed by Comey, Brennan, Crooked Hillary, and other Radical Left Lunatics years ago,” he said.
“It certainly would not have sat in a file waiting for ‘Trump’ to have won three Elections. This is yet another example of fake news!”
Vice President J.D. Vance also called out the Wall Street Journal in even coarser language.
“Forgive my language but this story is complete and utter bulls***. The WSJ should be ashamed for publishing it. Where is this letter?” Mr. Vance wrote on X.
“Would you be shocked to learn they never showed it to us before publishing it? Does anyone honestly believe this sounds like Donald Trump?” he wrote.
The alleged 2003 letter, seen and reported by the Wall Street Journal, was framed and typewritten with Mr. Trump’s name wishing Mr. Epstein a Happy 50th birthday.
The letter was reportedly among several birthday letters that year that were collected among Epstein friends and associates by Ghislaine Maxwell.
It purportedly included a naked woman, which appears to be hand-drawn with a heavy marker and a pair of small arcs signifying the woman’s breasts, and the future president’s signature is a squiggly “Donald” in the area below her waist.
The letter concludes: “Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret.”
In an interview with the Journal, Mr. Trump disputed writing the letter or drawing the picture.
“This is not me. This is a fake thing. It’s a fake Wall Street Journal story,” he said.
“I never wrote a picture in my life. I don’t draw pictures of women,” he said. “It’s not my language. It’s not my words.”
Mr. Trump and other administration officials have demanded that all information about the Epstein case be released.
The accusation that Epstein had been sexually abusing girls first surfaced in 2006 and he was arrested that year.
He died in 2019 in jail after he was arrested and charged with sex trafficking conspiracy, a death that was ruled a suicide via hanging, though many are skeptical of the claim.
