Donald Trump has filed an amended defamation lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal over the publication’s reporting on a birth certificate to Jeffrey Epstein.
A federal judge dismissed Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit in April, concluding that it failed to allege actual wrongdoing, but allowed the president to file an amended suit.
The new complaint also names Rupert Murdoch, parent Dow Jones, News Corp. CEO Robert Thomson and journalists Khadeeja Safdar and Joseph Palazzo as co-defendants.
Last summer, i Journal It was reported that a letter in Trump’s name was included in an album given to Jeffrey Epstein for his 50th birthday in 2003. Journal reports, “contains several lines of typewritten text framed by a naked woman, which appears to have been drawn by hand with a heavy marker,” adding that “small arcs indicate the woman’s breasts, and the future president’s signature is a squiggly ‘Donald’ below his waist, mimicking pubic hair.”
The article includes Trump’s denial that he wrote the letter, and that he was preparing to sue the Journal. When the case was dismissed in April, a spokesperson said, “We are pleased with the judge’s decision to dismiss this appeal.
In the updated lawsuit, Trump’s lawyers said that the reporters “falsified the fact that President Trump, in 2003, wrote, drew, and signed this letter. However, on the other hand, the Defendants Safdar and Palazzolo failed to attach this letter, failed to attach the alleged drawing, failed to show evidence that President Trump wrote or signed any of this letter. failure that the Defendants could not find any such letter when the Article was published, which is true because there is no authentic book or painting in existence Defendants Safdar and Palazzolo fabricated this story to defame the integrity of President Trump, and portray him in a deceptive manner.
A Dow Jones spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In September, the House Oversight Committee released documents that included an accompanying letter Journaldefinition. Trump has continued to deny that he wrote the letter.
A spokesperson for Trump’s legal team said, “The President will continue to prosecute those who mislead the American people with false news and defamation through their actions.”
In the amended lawsuit, the president’s legal team pointed to Trump’s denials that he wrote the letter and pointed to statements by Ghislaine Maxwell, an Epstein colleague who is currently serving time for her role in trafficking teenage girls. The lawsuit noted that Maxwell said he did not remember delivering Trump’s birthday letter to Epstein. The Journal story noted that he did not respond to a request for an interview, and his attorney did not respond to the letter.
The new lawsuit said, “Of the two survivors who can testify whether President Trump sent the birthday letter, one person, President Trump, has boldly denied the existence of the alleged letter, and the other has testified to a government official that he did not know about it.” The lawsuit also cited references to Trump as a “friend,” “friend,” or “family” of Epstein. The article noted that Trump and Epstein spent time together in the 1990s and early 2000s, and were photographed at social events.
The lawsuit said the Journal “recklessly ignored” that the letter was sent by Trump, noting that the article did not explain “how the signature on the alleged letter was verified,” among other things.
As in his original court case, Trump’s legal team said that before the story was published, he spoke to Murdoch to deny signing or sending the letter. The lawsuit said, “In response, Murdoch said, ‘I’ll handle it,’ which President Trump logically interpreted to mean that Murdoch believed President Trump, and that the article would not be published.”
