Donald Trump has called an alleged letter he wrote to paedophile Jeffrey Epstein “fake” and said he will sue the “ass off” Rupert Murdoch, who owns the paper that first published the claim.

In multiple posts on Truth Social, the US president accused The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) of fabricating the letter that it claimed was written by Mr Trump as part of a collection of letters addressed to Epstein that his former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell planned to give him as a birthday present in 2003.

According to documents seen by the WSJ, Mr Trump’s letter featured several lines of typewritten text framed by what appeared to be a hand-drawn outline of a naked woman.

The paper said the letter concludes “Happy Birthday – and may every day be another wonderful secret”, and featured the signature “Donald”, allegedly drawn across the woman’s waist, meant to mimic the appearance of pubic hair.

Image:
Epstein took his own life in prison in 2019. Pic: AP

Responding to the WSJ’s claims, Mr Trump wrote: “The Wall Street Journal printed a FAKE letter, supposedly to Epstein. 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. Thank you for your attention to this matter! DJT.”

He said earlier he would also sue the WSJ and News Corp, which Mr Murdoch owns. The WSJ is published by News Corp subsidiary company, Dow Jones & Co.

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From 16 July: Trump: Epstein case is ‘a boring story’

The Justice Department has not responded to the WSJ and the FBI declined to comment.

In a separate post, Mr Trump said he has asked the attorney general, Pam Bondi, to release “any and all pertinent grand jury testimony” in the case of the paedophile financier who was found dead in his Manhattan cell in August 2019, shortly after he was arrested on sex trafficking charges.

Analysis: The credibility of the Epstein-Trump letter rests on the word of the WSJ – until an actual document is produced

Classy, it’s not.  

The alleged letter sent to Jeffrey Epstein by Donald Trump has a typewritten note inside the hand-drawn outline of a woman. There’s a squiggly signature – “Donald” – below the waist. 

It shows friendship, certainly – the dialogue from “Donald” to “Jeffrey” reads: “Happy birthday – and may every day be another wonderful secret.”

However, it doesn’t quite produce definitive proof of impropriety.  

The Wall Street Journal hasn’t produced the document and, until it does, the story’s credibility rests on its word.  

Whether it rests easy will be tested by Team Trump – it was clear last night that prominent MAGA figures were rallying to the president’s cause and turning their anger towards the Wall Street Journal – circling the wagons and shooting the messenger.  

Trump has threatened to sue the Wall Street Journal and has targeted its owner, old friend Rupert Murdoch. “I’ll sue his ass off,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. 

It’s a billionaires’ struggle symptomatic of the wider acrimony.  Trump can pursue Rupert Murdoch through the courts, but the MAGA millions will be more difficult to pin down. 

Trump supporters who stood behind him as he screamed “cover-up” by the so-called “deep state”. They stand before him now, let down.

Donald Trump has authorised his attorney-general Pam Bondi to release grand jury testimony in the Jeffrey Epstein investigation – it’s something, but it’s far short of everything.

He is the man who did more than most to bake conspiracy theory into US political culture, so he can hardly complain it turns on him. 

It has, and how.

The release of any documents, Mr Trump said, would be subject to approval by a court.

The justice department has previously said it had around 200 documents relating to Epstein and that the FBI had thousands more. It is unknown how much of this is grand jury testimony – which is typically kept secret under US law.

Ms Bondi responded to the president on X, writing: “President Trump-we are ready to move the court tomorrow to unseal the grand jury transcripts.”

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Elon Musk, who claimed last month that Mr Trump appears in the Epstein files, was surprisingly among the first to come to the president’s defence over the WSJ claims.

“It really doesn’t sound like something Trump would say tbh,” the tech billionaire wrote on X, before going on to ask where the evidence against Epstein allegedly held by the FBI had gone.

The Trump administration has come under criticism after the president appeared to U-turn on his own promise to release more information about the Epstein case publicly.

In the run-up to the US election last year, Mr Trump drew on rumours and conspiracy theories that appeared to accuse the Biden administration of suppressing the extent of Epstein’s paedophilia, predatory behaviour and his so-called “client list” – thought to contain names of the rich and famous who conspired with him in a child sex trafficking operation.

Ms Bondi fuelled these rumours in February by telling Fox News that the alleged Epstein client list was “sitting on my desk right now to review”.

Read more:
Ghislaine Maxwell could challenge imprisonment
Why is Trump fighting with MAGA over Epstein?
The huge impact of Musk’s row with Trump

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In the same month, the justice department released some government documents regarding the case, but there were no new revelations.

After a months-long review of additional evidence, the department earlier this month released a video meant to prove that Epstein killed himself, but said no other files related to the case would be made public.

The decision was criticised by many in Mr Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement, who Mr Trump later called “weaklings”.

Sky News has contacted the White House for further comment.