US President Donald Trump filed a lawsuit on Friday against Dow Jones, News Corp, Rupert Murdoch and two Wall Street Journal reporters, raising claims under federal libel law, court records show.
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A copy of the complaint was not immediately available. The case was filed in Miami federal court.
The lawsuit comes after The Wall Street Journal reported on a 50th birthday greeting to Jeffrey Epstein that Trump allegedly sent in 2003 that included a sexually suggestive drawing and a reference to secrets they shared.
Trump vehemently denied the Journal report, which Reuters has not verified. Trump warned Rupert Murdoch, the founder of News Corp, the paper’s parent company, that he planned to sue.
With pressure to release the Epstein files building, Trump on Thursday said he had directed US Attorney General Pam Bondi to ask a court to release grand jury testimony about Epstein.
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The US government on Friday filed a motion in Manhattan federal court to unseal those grand jury transcripts. The US Department of Justice said the criminal cases against Epstein and his former associate Ghislaine Maxwell are a matter of public interest, justifying the release of associated grand jury transcripts.