Trump officially sues Wall Street Journal, Rupert Murdoch over Epstein story

President Donald Trump on Friday officially sued the Wall Street Journal, its owner Rupert Murdoch and some of its staff for publishing its story on the president and Jeffrey Epstein, fulfilling a promise he made Thursday night.

Trump made the promise in an angry social media post, where he claimed the story was "fake" and that the birthday card the outlet claimed he had sent to Epstein for his 50th birthday did not even sound like him. 

The text of the libel lawsuit, which was filed in federal court for the Southern District of Florida, was not immediately available, per CNBC.

The story claimed Trump had contributed to former Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell's 50th birthday project for the late financier in 2003, which consisted of notes from close friends. The letter Trump allegedly sent was bawdy and concluded with the words, "Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret.”

"I look forward to getting Rupert Murdoch to testify in my lawsuit against him and his 'pile of garbage' newspaper, the WSJ," Trump posted to Truth Social earlier Friday. "That will be an interesting experience!!!"

The lawsuit also names the Wall Street Journal's publisher Dow Jones as a defendant.

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.