President Donald Trump filed a lawsuit Friday against media mogul Rupert Murdoch and the Wall Street Journal over the newspaper’s reporting on ties between Trump and disgraced financier Jeffery Epstein.
The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Miami. It seeks at least $10 billion in damages.
On Thursday, The Wall Street Journal published a story describing a sexually suggestive letter that the newspaper says bore Trump’s name and was included in a 2003 album for Epstein’s 50th birthday. Trump denied writing the letter, calling it “false, malicious, and defamatory.”
The lawsuit comes amid heightened public interest in Epstein’s connections to Trump and other leaders, and as controversy continues to surround the Trump administration’s handling of records related to Epstein.
Other news we’re following today:
Justice Department seeks to make public Epstein case transcripts: Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche filed a motion urging the court to release the grand jury transcripts in Jeffrey Epstein’s case a day after Trump directed the Justice Department to do so. Trump in recent days has called his own supporters “weaklings” for vying for more records from the Epstein probe.Trump signs new cryptocurrency bill: Trump on Friday signed into law a new set of regulations for a type of cryptocurrency that is seen as a way to legitimize the burgeoning industry. The GENIUS Act sets initial guardrails and consumer protections for stablecoins, a type of cryptocurrency that is tied to a stable asset like the U.S. dollar to reduce price volatility. It passed both the House and Senate with wide bipartisan margins.Trump’s appointees requested more marble for the Fed’s $2.5 billion renovation: Trump has looked to the marble finishes and hefty price tag of the Federal Reserve headquarters to claim grounds to fire Chair Jerome Powell, with whom he has tussled for years over interest rates. But the extensive use of marble in the building is, at least in part, the result of policies backed by Trump himself.