On the 18th, U.S. President Trump filed a lawsuit in a federal court in Miami under the Federal Defamation Law against media mogul Murdoch, News Corp, Dow Jones & Co, and two journalists from The Wall Street Journal, seeking at least $10 billion (approximately 42.461 billion Malaysian Ringgit) in damages.
Murdoch is the founder and current honorary chairman of News Corp. News Corp is the parent company of Dow Jones & Co, and The Wall Street Journal is a media outlet under Dow Jones.
The lawsuit stems from a previous report by the Journal, which claimed that Trump sent a letter to Epstein in 2003 congratulating him on his 50th birthday, and that the letter contained inappropriate drawings and referenced a “secret” shared between the two men.
On the morning of the 18th, Trump posted on social media saying he looked forward to seeing Murdoch “testify in the case where I sue him and his ‘junk heap’ newspaper, The Wall Street Journal. That will be an interesting experience.”
The day before, Trump posted on social media stating that both he and the White House spokesperson had directly informed The Wall Street Journal’s editor-in-chief, Tucker, that the so-called “Trump to Epstein letter” was completely fabricated, but the Journal insisted on publishing the report. In addition, Trump stated that he had directly warned Murdoch about this, and Murdoch had agreed at the time to “deal with” the matter.
Epstein, who had close ties with numerous political and business elites in the U.S., was arrested for alleged sex crimes and died in prison in August 2019, officially ruled a “suicide.” While running for president last year, Trump pledged to release Epstein’s “client list” and expose the crimes and truth behind Epstein’s death.
On the 7th, the U.S. Department of Justice released a joint memorandum, stating there is no “client list” and that no more documents related to the Epstein case will be published.