US President Donald Trump has threatened to sue The Wall Street Journal after it published a story about an alleged off-colour letter written by him to the late disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
The Journal story, which quickly reverberated around the US capital on Thursday, says the note to Epstein bearing Trump's signature was part of a collection of notes for Epstein's 50th birthday in 2003.
The newspaper said it reviewed the letter but did not print an image.
The story said that Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's partner, was preparing a special gift to mark the occasion. She turned to Epstein's family and friends. One of them was Donald Trump.
Maxwell collected letters from Trump and dozens of Epstein's other associates for a 2003 birthday album, according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
Pages from the leather-bound album — assembled before Epstein was first arrested in 2006 — are among the documents examined by Justice Department officials who investigated Epstein and Maxwell years ago, according to people who have reviewed the pages, as per the Journal.
A fake letter?
Trump lashed out against the newspaper in a post on Truth Social: The Wall Street Journal and Rupert Murdoch, personally, were warned directly by President Donald J. Trump that the supposed letter they printed by President Trump to Epstein was a FAKE and, if they print it, they will be sued.
It went on: Mr. Murdoch stated that he would take care of it but, obviously, did not have the power to do so. The Editor of The Wall Street Journal, Emma Tucker, was told directly by Karoline Leavitt, and by President Trump, that the letter was a FAKE, but Emma Tucker didn’t want to hear that. Instead, they are going with a false, malicious, and defamatory story anyway. President Trump will be suing The Wall Street Journal, NewsCorp, and Mr. Murdoch, shortly.
The Press has to learn to be truthful, and not rely on sources that probably don’t even exist, Trump said.
