‘Press has to learn to be truthful’: US President Trump to sue WSJ for Epstein report

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Friday threatened to sue The Wall Street Journal, NewsCorp and Rupert Murdoch for the Jeffrey Epstein story they published on the Epstein files.

The reaction by Trump was catalysed by a report by the Wall Street Journal that the former sent an alleged letter to Epstein, the contents of which were sexually suggestive.

pic.twitter.com/s4Pd84hb2x

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) July 18, 2025

“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.

“President Trump has already beaten George Stephanopoulos/ABC, 60 Minutes/CBS, and others, and looks forward to suing and holding accountable the once great Wall Street Journal. It has truly turned out to be a “Disgusting and Filthy Rag” and, 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. 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!” Trump said.

As per CNN, a collection of letters gifted to Jeffrey Epstein for his 50th birthday in 2003 included a note bearing Donald Trump’s name and an outline of a naked woman, according to a Wall Street Journal report published on Thursday (local time).

Trump, in an interview with the Journal on Tuesday, denied that he wrote the letter or drew the picture and threatened to sue the newspaper if it published the story, as per CNN. “I never wrote a picture in my life. I don’t draw pictures of women”, he said, according to the Journal. “It’s not my language. It’s not my words”.

Epstein, a financier who socialized with a range of politicians and other powerful figures, was charged in 2019 with sex trafficking minors in Florida and New York. He was later found dead in his jail cell. Medical examiners ruled the death a suicide, but the circumstances have since opened a bag of worms, spinning conspiracy theories, as per CNN. (ANI)