US President Donald Trump has filed a defamation lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal and its owners, including Rupert Murdoch, seeking at least $20bn in damages over a report about an allegedly "lewd" letter the newspaper said he sent to Jeffrey Epstein. The lawsuit, an unprecedented escalation in Trump's legal campaign against media organizations he considers adversaries, was filed after the newspaper reported on Thursday that a 2003 birthday album for the late sex offender Epstein contained a "lewd" and "profane" letter from Trump. Trump has denied writing the letter. In an 18-page court filing, Trump's legal team accused the newspaper's parent company of "gross failures in journalistic ethics and standards of accuracy," CNN reported. The lawsuit noted that the newspaper did not publish the alleged letter or a drawing it said Trump had included. "The reason for this failure is that there is no original letter or drawing," Trump's lawyer wrote. Trump had threatened the lawsuit immediately after the story was published on Thursday evening. "The Wall Street Journal, and Rupert Murdoch personally, were directly warned by President Donald J. Trump that the alleged letter they attributed to him and printed was fake, and if they published it, they would be sued," Trump wrote on Truth Social. He added that Murdoch, the executive chairman of News Corp, "said he would take care of it, but obviously he didn't have the power to do so." A spokesperson for Dow Jones, which owns the newspaper, said: "We are fully confident in the accuracy and professionalism of our reporting and will vigorously defend against any lawsuit." Trump's relationship with Epstein has recently returned to the spotlight. During his 2024 election campaign, Trump said he was considering releasing additional files related to Epstein, responding to demands from right-wing figures who question the official account of his suicide. However, a recently published Justice Department memo stating there was no evidence Epstein kept a "client list" disappointed some of Trump's most loyal supporters, leading to a rift within his "Make America Great Again" (MAGA) movement. Legal experts told CNN they could not recall a previous instance of a sitting US president suing a media outlet for defamation. "I don't think a sitting president has ever sued a journalist or a news organization, because the office gives him a platform more powerful than any court to clarify the truth," said attorney Ted Boutrous. Trump filed several lawsuits during his 2024 campaign, including one against ABC News in March over comments by journalist George Stephanopoulos. Disney, ABC's parent company, settled the case with Trump by paying $16 million to his presidential library fund. He also recently dropped a lawsuit against CBS after its parent company, Paramount, agreed to pay $16 million to the same library. After filing the lawsuit against the Journal, Trump wrote on Truth Social: "I hope Murdoch and his friends are ready for the long hours of depositions and testimony they will have to give in this case."
