Trump sues Murdoch over Epstein birthday letter article by WSJ

President Donald Trump on Friday followed through on his threat to sue media mogul Rupert Murdoch after his Wall Street Journal published an article saying that Trump sent Jeffrey Epstein a “bawdy” letter for Epstein’s 50th birthday, courts records show.

Trump’s lawsuit, which alleges defamation, sued Murdoch, his News Corp, CEO Robert Thomson, the Journal’s publisher, Dow Jones & Co., and the two reporters who wrote the article in federal court for the Southern District of Florida, according to that court’s docket.

“On July 17, 2025, Defendants Khadeeja Safdar and Joseph Palazzolo co-authored and
published an article largely focused on President Trump that falsely claimed that he authored,
drew, and signed a card to wish the late—and utterly disgraced —Jeffrey Epstein a happy fiftieth
birthday,” the suit says.

“To attempt and inextricably link President Trump to Epstein, Defendants Safdar and
Palazzolo falsely claim that the salacious language of the letter is contained within a hand-drawn
naked woman, which was created with a heavy marker,” the suit says. “Worse, Defendants Safdar and Palazzolo falsely represent as fact that President Trump drew the naked woman’s breasts and signed his
name ‘Donald’ below her waist, ‘mimicking pubic hair.’ “

The suit says, “Despite the glaring failures in journalistic ethics and standards of accurate reporting,
Defendants Dow Jones and News Corp — at the direction of Defendants Murdoch and Thomson—
published to the world the false, defamatory, and malignant statements authored by” the reporters.

Trump earlier Friday posted on Truth Social about the accusation, saying, “I look forward to getting Rupert Murdoch to testify in my lawsuit against him and his ‘pile of garbage’ newspaper, the WSJ. That will be an interesting experience!!!”

Trump on Thursday night had angrily denied writing the letter to Epstein in 2003.

“The Wall Street Journal printed a FAKE letter, supposedly to Epstein,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post that evening.

“These are not my words, not the way I talk. Also, I don’t draw pictures. I told Rupert Murdoch it was a Scam, that he shouldn’t print this Fake Story. But he did, and now I’m going to sue his ass off, and that of his third rate newspaper.”

CNBC has requested comment from the White House and Dow Jones about the court filing.

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