US President Donald Trump (pictured) is suing media magnate Rupert Murdoch and the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) for at least $10bn over publication of a bombshell article on his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein.
The defamation lawsuit, filed in federal court in Miami, saw the 79-year-old Republican hitting back at a scandal threatening to cause serious political damage.
“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 posted on Truth Social late on Friday.
The Journal reported on Thursday that in 2003, the then-real estate magnate wrote a suggestive birthday letter to Epstein, which included a drawing, and alluding to a shared “secret”.
Trump reacted in a series of furious social media posts, saying “it’s not my language. It’s not my words.”
“I never wrote a picture in my life. I don’t draw pictures of women,” he said.
US media has published multiple drawings done by Trump in the past, with several dating to the early 2000s when he used his celebrity status to donate sketches for charity.
Trump has said he parted ways with Epstein before the financier’s legal troubles became public in 2006.
The lawsuit, which also names two reporters, the Dow Jones corporation, and Murdoch’s parent company News Corp as defendants, claims that no such letter exists and that the paper intended to malign Trump with a story that has now been viewed by hundreds of millions of people.
“And given the timing of the Defendants’ article, which shows their malicious intent behind it, the overwhelming financial and reputational harm suffered by President Trump will continue to multiply,” it said.
Dow Jones, the Journal’s longtime publisher, responded to Trump’s libel suit on Friday saying that it is standing by the story.
“We have full confidence in the rigour and accuracy of our reporting, and will vigorously defend against any lawsuit,” a Dow Jones spokesperson said in a statement.
In another bid to dampen outrage among his own supporters about an alleged government cover-up of Epstein’s activities and 2019 death, Trump ordered US Attorney-General Pam Bondi to seek the unsealing of grand jury testimony from the prosecution against the disgraced financier.
In a filing in New York, Bondi cited “extensive public interest” for the unusual request to release what is typically secret testimony.
Epstein, a longtime friend of Trump and multiple high-profile men, was found hanging dead in a New York prison cell while awaiting trial.
The case sparked conspiracy theories, especially among Trump’s far-right voters.
Epstein’s death – declared a suicide – before he could face trial supercharged the narrative.
When Trump returned to power for a second term this January, his supporters clamoured for revelations about Epstein’s supposed list of clients.
However, Bondi issued an official memo this month declaring there was no such list.
The discontent in Trump’s “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) base poses a rare challenge to the Republican’s control of the political narrative in the United States.
It remained unclear whether a court would authorise the unsealing of the grand jury testimony.
Trump was close with Epstein for years, and the two were photographed and videoed together at parties, although there has never been evidence of wrongdoing.
To prevail on his defamation claims, Trump must show that the defendants acted with “actual malice”, meaning they knew the article was false or acted with reckless disregard for its truth.
A $10bn award would far exceed the largest defamation judgments and settlements in recent history.
These include a $1.5bn judgment against conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, and Fox News’ settlement with Dominion Voting Systems for $787.5mn.
“Ten billion dollars is a ridiculously high number,” said Jesse Gessin, a lawyer with experience in defamation and First Amendment litigation. “It would be the largest defamation verdict in US history.”