By Corinne Ramey and Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg
President Trump on Friday filed a lawsuit against the publisher of The Wall Street Journal, alleging the newspaper defamed him in an article about a birthday letter sent to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in the Southern District of Florida, includes as defendants Dow Jones & Co. and its parent company News Corp. It also names News Corp.chair emeritus Rupert Murdoch, its CEO Robert Thomson and two Journal reporters.
The suit alleges that the article in question falsely claimed that Trump in 2003 wrote and signed a letter that included a drawing of a naked woman for Jeffrey Epstein. No authentic letter or drawing exists, according to the suit.
"Defendants concocted this story to malign President Trump's character and integrity and deceptively portray him in a false light," the lawsuit says.
Representatives for the Journal and News Corp didn't respond to requests for comment.
On Thursday, the Journal reported that the British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell collected letters from Trump and other Epstein associates for a 2003 album for Epstein's 50th birthday. The Journal reported that the book contained a bawdy letter bearing Trump's name. The letter, which the Journal reported it had reviewed, included several lines of typewritten text framed by the outline of a naked woman. It ends: "Happy Birthday -- and may every day be another wonderful secret."
Pages from the leather-bound album -- assembled before Epstein was first arrested in 2006 -- are among the documents examined by Justice Department officials who investigated Epstein and Maxwell years ago, according to people who have reviewed the pages. It's unclear if any of the pages are part of the Trump administration's recent review.
Trump denied writing the letter or drawing the picture. "I never wrote a picture in my life. I don't draw pictures of women," he said. "It's not my language. It's not my words." He had threatened legal action.
Questions around the release of Epstein-related documents, and the president's relationship with the financier, have engulfed Trump's administration. After the Journal article was published, Trump said on social media that he had directed Attorney General Pam Bondi to "produce any and all pertinent grand jury testimony, subject to Court approval!" On Friday, the Justice Department sought court approval for that public release.
Federal prosecutors in 2019 charged Epstein with sex-trafficking underage girls in Florida and New York. He died in a Manhattan federal jail while awaiting trial. The medical examiner ruled his death a suicide.
Trump for years has been a frequent litigant against media outlets, filing suits against a range of leading newspapers and networks. A number of his cases have been dismissed at early stages. Public figures face a high legal bar in defamation litigation. Supreme Court precedent requires them to prove a defendant knowingly published a false statement or acted with reckless disregard for the truth.
Trump did secure a pair of notable recent settlements. In one, Walt Disney's ABC News agreed to pay $15 million plus attorney's fees to settle his suit against the network and its star anchor George Stephanopoulos. And in July, Paramount Global, which owns CBS, agreed to pay a similar sum to settle Trump's suit over a "60 Minutes" interview with Vice President Kamala Harris that he claimed was misleading and intended to help his rival's presidential election campaign.
Trump is seeking $10 billion in monetary damages from Friday's lawsuit.
Write to Corinne Ramey at corinne.ramey@wsj.com and Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg at Jeffrey.Trachtenberg@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 18, 2025 19:56 ET (23:56 GMT)
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