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Donald Trump has filed a lawsuit in opposition to Rupert Murdoch and Information Corp after The Wall Avenue Journal revealed a report of a letter that the US president allegedly wrote for the late paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
Court docket information present Trump filed a case in a Florida federal court docket on Friday in opposition to the WSJ’s father or mother corporations Information Corp and Dow Jones, two WSJ reporters and the newspaper’s proprietor, Murdoch.
Particulars of the grievance should not public, however court docket information present the libel swimsuit was filed within the Southern District of Florida.
The lawsuit comes after the WSJ reported that to mark Epstein’s fiftieth birthday in 2003, Trump wrote a letter that was compiled in an album and featured a lewd drawing. Within the letter, Trump wished Epstein a contented birthday and wrote “might daily be one other fantastic secret”, in line with the report.
Trump spent a number of days lobbying Murdoch, Wall Avenue Journal editor Emma Tucker and Information Corp chief government Robert Thomson to cease the paper from publishing the story.
After the Journal revealed its story on Thursday night, Trump claimed it was “false, malicious, and defamatory”.
He lashed out at Murdoch in social media posts, threatening to “sue his ass off, and that of his third-rate newspaper”.
Spokespeople for Murdoch, Information Corp and Dow Jones didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark. The White Home declined to remark.
The authorized motion comes because the Trump administration has sought to include fallout from a memo by the Division of Justice and FBI that earlier this month stated there was no Epstein “consumer checklist” and no “credible proof” that he had “blackmailed distinguished people”.
This marked a reversal from Trump’s marketing campaign pledge to launch information on Epstein’s loss of life by suicide in 2019. US attorney-general Pam Bondi in February stated a “consumer checklist” was “sitting” on her desk for assessment.
Hours after the WSJ revealed its story on Thursday, Trump stated in a submit to his Fact Social platform that he had requested Bondi to hunt the discharge of grand jury transcripts regarding Epstein.
Bondi responded together with her personal social media submit, saying: “President Trump — we’re prepared to maneuver the court docket tomorrow to unseal the grand jury transcripts.”
The DoJ filed a movement in federal court docket on Friday to launch the transcripts.
