Trump sues US newspaper for $10bn over Epstein link report

To prevail on his defamation claims, Trump must show the defendants acted with ‘actual malice,’ meaning they knew the article was false

- Reuters

US President Donald Trump sued the Wall Street Journal and its owners including Rupert Murdoch for at least $10 billion, on Friday, over the newspaper's report that his name was on a 2003 birthday greeting for Jeffrey Epstein that included a sexually suggestive drawing and a reference to secrets they shared.

The lawsuit filed in Miami federal court names Murdoch, Dow Jones, News Corp and its Chief Executive Robert Thomson, and two Wall Street Journal reporters as defendants, saying they defamed Trump and caused him to suffer “overwhelming” financial and reputational harm.

Epstein, the disgraced financier and sex offender, died by suicide in a New York jail cell in 2019. His case has generated conspiracy theories that became popular among Trump's base of supporters who believed the government was covering up Epstein’s ties to the rich and powerful. Trump has said he parted ways with Epstein before the financier’s legal troubles became public in 2006.

The president has vehemently denied the Journal report, which Reuters has not verified, and had warned Murdoch that he planned to sue. Dow Jones, the parent of the newspaper, is a division of News Corp.

“We have just filed a POWERHOUSE Lawsuit against everyone involved in publishing the false, malicious, defamatory, FAKE NEWS ‘article’ in the useless ‘rag’ that is, The Wall Street Journal,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.