The White House engaged in an unsuccessful pressure campaign to try and stop the Wall Street Journal from releasing a bombshell story about President Donald Trump sending a birthday letter to Jeffrey Epstein this past week, according to a report.
Amid intense public criticism around the so-called “Epstein Files”, White House officials and staffers were on “a f****** warpath” to try to prevent the Journal from publishing the alleged lewd letter, which contained a drawing of the outline of a naked woman, Rolling Stone reported Thursday.
Trump directed his staff to prioritize the matter. Staff reportedly reached out to several contacts and pitched different angles to try to get the Journal, which is owned by media mogul Rupert Murdoch, to drop the story.
Ultimately, the story was published, which only intensified scrutiny over the administration’s handling of the files.
While Trump has not been accused of any formal wrongdoing or charged with any crime, his proximity to Epstein, someone he once called a friend, has heightened conspiracy theories that the government is withholding documents that could reveal embarrassing information about high-profile individuals.
Trump and the White House have denied the Journal’s report about the president’s letter to Epstein.
“The Wall Street Journal published a hatchet job article with a FAKE ‘birthday letter’ that is supposedly from 2003,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote on X.
“The WSJ refused to show us the letter and conceded they don’t even have it in their possession when we asked them to verify the alleged document they’re basing their ENTIRE fake story on,” Leavitt added.
On Truth Social, 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.”
Tension around the Epstein Files came to a head last week when the Justice Department and FBI released a memo denying the existence of a “client list” and confirming Epstein died by suicide while in federal jail in 2019.
It was an abrupt ending to the years-long saga – especially disappointing for some because Trump, Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel, and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino had all promised to release the documents at various points.
Many of those disappointed were Trump’s own supporters, including prominent conservative influencers, and online personalities who had bolstered conspiracy theories about Epstein for years.
Despite the president’s base having a reputation for absolute loyalty to him, many have called for Bondi, Patel, or Bongino to be held accountable for not releasing the documents.
However, after the WSJ’s story was published, many of those who had hit out at the administration’s handling of the Epstein case rushed to support the president, including conservative pundit Megyn Kelly and even Elon Musk, who branded it a “hit piece.”
Trump directed Bondi to release all grand jury testimony “pertinent” to the Epstein investigation.
