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Lawyers for The Wall Street Journal blasted Donald Trump’s defamation lawsuit against the publishers and journalists who uncovered his alleged birthday letter to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, which the president claims does not exist.
A letter allegedly signed by Trump — which features a sexually suggestive drawing and a birthday wish that says “may every day be another wonderful secret” — was first published by the newspaper and then shared with members of Congress by the Epstein estate.
Trump’s $10 billion defamation lawsuit claims that “no authentic letter or drawing exists.”
The president’s lawsuit “does not include a single plausible allegation” that any of the defendants — which include right-wing media mogul Rupert Murdoch and the newspaper’s parent companies — knowingly published false statements about him, lawyers wrote Monday.
“The Article is true,” lawyers wrote, and the evidence is publicly available for anyone to see.
“This case calls out for dismissal,” they wrote, calling Trump’s lawsuit “an affront to the First Amendment” and an attempt to “silence a newspaper for publishing speech that was subsequently proven true by documents released by Congress to the American public.”
“By its very nature, this meritless lawsuit threatens to chill the speech of those who dare to publish content that the president does not like,” according to Monday’s filing.
The president has denied ever writing such a greeting to Epstein or even drawing “pictures of women,” though the allegations arrived as his administration sought to dismiss the so-called Epstein files as a Democratic “hoax” after his Department of Justice claimed there was “no basis” to release any more documents surrounding the case.
The Justice Department’s attempt to draw the investigation to a close has renewed scrutiny into the president’s relationship with Epstein, who was accused of sexually abusing dozens of minors before he was found dead in his jail cell in 2019.
The president has repeatedly threatened media outlets, publishers and journalists with legal action, and he routinely suggests he can revoke broadcast licenses for networks over their antagonistic coverage.
Last week, a federal judge lambasted the president’s legal team in a scathing order dismissing the president’s $15 billion lawsuit against The New York Times, which the judge called “decidedly improper and impermissible.”
This is a developing story
