The American President Donald Trump filed a lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal on Friday following reports about a letter from Trump to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. He accuses the parties of defamation and demands at least $10 billion (€8.6 billion).
Trump is taking legal action because of an article by The Wall Street Journal about a letter he allegedly sent to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in 2003. It allegedly contained a sexually suggestive drawing and a reference to their shared secrets.
Trump denies this vehemently and threatened legal action earlier this week. In court documents, he claims to have suffered financial damage and argues that his reputation has been damaged by the reporting. On Truth Social, his own platform, Trump said on Friday: “I look forward to having Rupert Murdoch testify in my lawsuit against him and his mountain of garbage of a newspaper, the WSJ. That will be an interesting experience!”. Murdoch is the major shareholder of News Corp, the publisher of the newspaper.
The case is causing quite a stir in the US. Epstein committed suicide in 2019 in a New York prison after being charged with sexual exploitation. The FBI shared a memo last week showing that it was indeed suicide and that Epstein was not murdered. There would be no evidence that Epstein would blackmail people and keep a list of other suspects.
That contradicts several conspiracy theories. Critics, including Trump’s supporters, believe that Epstein was eliminated to protect his powerful friends. The American government would withhold details to protect other possible perpetrators and government agencies. No evidence has yet been provided for this. Trump promised to release the Epstein files during his election campaign.
After the reports from The Wall Street Journal, Trump promised to request a court to release certain testimonies from Epstein’s lawsuit. According to many in Trump’s support base, however, this is not enough. They want all documents from the case to be made public, writes The New York Times.