US President Donald Trump has threatened legal action against The Wall Street Journal following its publication of a report claiming he sent a birthday letter to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein for his 50th birthday.
The revelation has sparked fresh controversy over Trump’s past ties with Epstein, which the President has repeatedly downplayed.
“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. 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. Instead, they are going with a false, malicious, and defamatory story anyway. President Trump will be suing The Wall Street Journal, NewsCorp, and Mr. Murdoch, shortly. The Press has to learn to be truthful, and not rely on sources that probably don’t even exist,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
He called it “yet another example of FAKE NEWS!”
The Wall Street Journal reported that Ghislaine Maxwell put together a special birthday album for Jeffrey Epstein’s 50th birthday, featuring messages from his family and friends — among them, a letter from Donald Trump.
The report states that the letter signed with Donald Trump’s name includes several lines of typewritten text, allegedly bordered by a hand-drawn outline of a nude woman sketched in bold marker.
In a Tuesday evening interview with The Wall Street Journal, Trump dismissed the letter and drawing as fake. He claimed that the report is a fabricated story by the Journal.
The Epstein case has split the Trump support base. Elon Musk is among those who have been pressing for the release of the Epstein files that purportedly contain the sex trafficker's full client list.
Many American and global big names figure in the list is what many including a section of Trump's MAGA fan base believe.