President Donald Trump has declared war on Rupert Murdoch as MAGA rages over the Epstein scandal, suing the media mogul and saying he “looks forward” to making him testify in court.
The looming showdown between the president and his on-again, off-again ally comes roughly 24 hours after Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal reported on a letter and drawing that Trump allegedly sent to Epstein two decades ago.
The letter was given to Epstein for his 50th birthday and, according to The Wall Street Journal, contained several lines of typewritten text framed by the outline of a naked woman.
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“We have certain things in common, Jeffrey,” Trump is alleged to have written on the gift.
“Enigmas never age, have you noticed that? … Happy Birthday—and may every day be another wonderful secret.”
The revelations have infuriated the president, who announced that he had filed a $10 billion libel lawsuit against Murdoch on Friday afternoon, along with the Journal’s publisher, Dow Jones & Co., and the two reporters who wrote the article in federal court for the Southern District of Florida.
“I look forward to getting Rupert Murdoch to testify in my lawsuit against him and his ‘pile of garbage’ newspaper. That will be an interesting experience!!!” Trump wrote earlier.
The lawsuit is the latest legal action Trump has taken against a media outlet.
He has also sued ABC News, which agreed to pay $15 million to Trump’s presidential library to settle a defamation lawsuit over anchor George Stephanopoulos’ inaccurate on-air assertion that the president had been found civilly liable for raping writer E. Jean Carroll.
This month, Paramount Global also agreed to pay $16 million to settle a legal dispute regarding an interview it broadcast on CBS with former Vice President Kamala Harris.
Friday’s lawsuit was the latest evidence of the complicated relationship between Trump and Murdoch, whose media outlets, such as Fox News, have propped up the president for years—even to the point of deluding its audience about the 2020 election.
Trump’s insistence that the election was stolen cost Murdoch $787.5 million in 2023 to settle a defamation lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems after Dominion accused Fox of rigging its voting machines to favor Joe Biden at the 2020 election.
The messy court case ended up with Murdoch giving evidence under oath that Fox presenters had “endorsed” Trump’s lies of a stolen election knowing they weren’t true.
The Epstein saga could prove equally explosive and revelatory if it ends up in court, adding to what has already become a political headache for the president.
MAGA anger over Epstein erupted after a Justice Department memo declared there was no evidence to suggest that Epstein was murdered, or that he had a “client list”—something that many Trump supporters have long believed.
Trump, who had come to office promising transparency over the Epstein files, has since tried to brand the issue as a Democratic hoax, and has become so frustrated that he accused “past” supporters of buying into the “bulls--t”.
“If you’re trying to do crisis management, this is probably a textbook case of how not to do it,” said Professor Todd Belt, from the George Washington University Graduate School of Political Management.
“Donald Trump gets frustrated and he loses his temper, but the people who have to answer for that are going to be the Republicans who are running for office next year. The longer this stays in the media, the bigger a problem it is.”
The Wall Street Journal article has raised further questions about the president’s relationship with Epstein, who died in a Manhattan jail in 2019 as he was awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges involving underage girls.
Epstein’s former girlfriend and associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, was subsequently sentenced to 20 years in jail for helping Epstein recruit and abuse underage girls.
The letter cited in the article was allegedly given to Epstein in 2003—five years before he was first convicted in Florida for sex crimes—and contained Trump’s signature.
But while Trump denies writing it, he was forced to abruptly reverse course and ask Attorney General Pam Bondi to “produce any and all pertinent Grand Jury testimony, subject to Court approval” regarding the Epstein case.
Bondi responded immediately with a post that undercut the memo her department sent out declaring the case closed.
“President Trump—we are ready to move the court tomorrow to unseal the grand jury transcripts,” she said on Thursday night.
The motion was filed on Friday afternoon, but legal experts say getting the court’s approval to release sensitive Grand Jury testimony is likely to be a long shot due to the longstanding secrecy surrounding them.
This secrecy is intended to protect various interests, including the subject of the investigation and potential witnesses.
“It won’t help him now,” said Trump critic and lawyer George Conway, the former husband of Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway.
“Because now everyone’s going to ask, what’s pertinent? What’s all the other material not presented to a grand jury?”
