President Donald Trump is turning up the legal heat on the Wall Street Journal after it published a sensational—and unverified—report tying him to Jeffrey Epstein. On Friday, Trump filed a defamation lawsuit in the Southern District of Florida targeting the Journal‘s parent company News Corp., its publisher Dow Jones, two reporters, and media tycoon Rupert Murdoch himself. At the center of the lawsuit is a claim that Trump sent a lewd birthday letter to Epstein in 2003—complete with a crude drawing of a naked woman.

Trump has repeatedly denied the story, calling it “FAKE” and a “scam,” and says Murdoch ignored his direct warning not to run with it. “These are not my words, not the way I talk. Also, I don’t draw pictures,” Trump said on Truth Social. “I told Rupert Murdoch it was a Scam… But he did, and now I’m going to sue his ass off, and that of his third-rate newspaper.”

The legal complaint, filed just one day after the Journal’s report ran, follows through on Trump’s threat to take the outlet to court if it published what he described as a totally fictitious letter. Notably, the Journal never provided the original document, nor has it verified its authenticity. In fact, Trump’s team says the paper admitted privately that it didn’t have the letter in its possession at the time of publication.

Trump’s lawsuit isn’t just about revenge—it’s about reshaping the legal battlefield around the Epstein narrative, which has exploded in the headlines again this week. He’s already ordered Attorney General Pam Bondi to move toward unsealing any credible grand jury testimony related to the Epstein case, a move meant to short-circuit political efforts to smear him by association.

Bondi confirmed she’s ready to file the court motion, but warned the process could take time. In her view, transparency is critical—but only if it’s grounded in truth, not partisan fiction.

The Epstein story has become a central political flashpoint in recent days. Democrats attempted to pass a resolution calling for the wholesale release of documents, which House Republicans blocked—then replaced with a cleaner version that allows the release of only verified grand jury material. That shift, designed to avoid a repeat of the Steele dossier fiasco, exposed Democrat motives and left them voting against their own calls for disclosure.

Now, with the Wall Street Journal embroiled in legal trouble, Trump’s strategy is crystal clear: expose the lies, force accountability, and get ahead of the narrative before it morphs into another media-manufactured scandal.

And Murdoch may find himself in the witness chair as a result. “I look forward to getting Rupert Murdoch to testify,” Trump wrote, promising that it “will be an interesting experience!”

This lawsuit marks a major escalation in the information war between Trump and the legacy media, and it could send shockwaves through the 2025 news cycle. If Trump wins, it won’t just be a legal victory—it’ll be a public rebuke of the entire media establishment’s handling of the Epstein case.