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Donald Trump filed suit<\/a><\/span> late Friday afternoon against the Wall Street Journal\u2019<\/em>s parent company, media mogul Rupert Murdoch, and several other defendants, saying he was defamed by a story that claimed he contributed to a 50th birthday album for Jeffrey Epstein in 2003<\/a>. Trump is demanding $10 billion in damages; in a post on TruthSocial, he called the legal action a \u201cPOWERHOUSE Lawsuit,\u201d calling the article \u201cfalse, malicious, defamatory, FAKE NEWS\u201d and the Journal<\/em> a \u201cuseless \u2018rag.’\u201d<\/p>\n The story concerns a birthday album compiled by Epstein\u2019s ex-girlfriend and procurer Ghislaine Maxwell, who\u2019s now serving 20 years on sex trafficking charges. In the album, the paper wrote, was a \u201cbawdy\u201d letter bearing Donald Trump\u2019s name.<\/p>\n \u201cIt contains several lines of typewritten text framed by the outline of a naked woman, which appears to be hand-drawn with a heavy marker,\u201d reporters Khadeeja Safdar and Joe Palazzolo wrote. \u201cA pair of small arcs denotes the woman\u2019s breasts, and the future president\u2019s signature is a squiggly \u2018Donald\u2019 below her waist, mimicking pubic hair.\u201d The typewritten text features an imaginary conversation between Epstein and Trump, written in the third person. The letter closes with the words, \u201cHappy Birthday \u2014 and may every day be another wonderful secret.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The Journal<\/em> story also prominently featured Trump\u2019s denial, in which he called the letter \u201ca fake thing,\u201d adding, \u201cI never wrote a picture in my life. I don\u2019t draw pictures of women,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not my language. It\u2019s not my words.\u201d<\/p>\n In the complaint, Trump\u2019s lawyers write that Safdar and Palazzolo \u201cfailed to attach the letter, failed to attach the alleged drawing, failed to show proof that President Trump authored or signed any such letter, and failed to explain how this purported letter was obtained.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n Trump also immediately threatened to sue the paper, \u201cjust like I sued everyone else.\u201d Paramount recently agreed to pay a $16 million settlement <\/a>to settle a suit from Trump alleging that CBS had engaged in election interference by what he loudly insisted was unfair editing of a 60 Minutes<\/em> interview with then-presidential nominee Kamala Harris. (For good measure, CBS is also canceling Stephen Colbert\u2019s show, <\/a>days after he called the Paramount settlement \u201ca big fat bribe\u201d on air, citing vague financial concerns.) In December 2024, ABC News agreed to make a $15 million donation<\/a> to Trump\u2019s presidential library to settle a lawsuit over comments that anchor George Stephanopoulos made about writer E. Jean Carroll\u2019s civil lawsuits, which she brought against Trump for sexual abuse and defamation. Trump was ordered to pay Caroll $5 million<\/a>, a judgment that was just upheld by a federal appeals court in June. But Stephanopoulos incorrectly stated that Trump was \u201cfound liable for rape,\u201d which he was not.\u00a0<\/p>\n In his suit against Murdoch and the Journal<\/em>, filed by Florida law firm Brito PLC, Trump also names Dow Jonesand NewsCorp CEO Robert Thomson as defendants as well as each journalist on the story individually. In the complaint, Trump\u2019s lawyers write that Safdar and Palazzolo \u201cfailed to attach the letter, failed to attach the alleged drawing, failed to show proof that President Trump authored or signed any such letter, and failed to explain how this purported letter was obtained.\u201d It also complains that the story went \u201cviral\u201d on the internet and Twitter, including screenshots of organizations like the Lincoln Project and figures like former MSNBC host Keith Olbermann sharing it.\u00a0<\/p>\n In a post on TruthSocial after the lawsuit was filed, Trump cast it as part of a long history of legal actions against the media.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe have proudly held to account ABC and George Slopadopoulos, CBS and 60 Minutes, The Fake Pulitzer Prizes, and many others who deal in, and push, disgusting LIES, and even FRAUD, to the American People,\u201d he wrote. \u201cThis 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 \u2018friends\u2019 are looking forward to the many hours of depositions and testimonies they will have to provide in this case.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n