WASHINGTON, July 18. /TASS/. US President Donald Trump has asserted that he plans to sue The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), NewsCorp and media magnate Rupert Murdoch over the fake news item that he allegedly gifted a drawing of a naked woman to US financier Jeffrey Epstein, who was accused of sex trafficking minors and committed suicide in 2019.
"The Press has to learn to be truthful, and not rely on sources that probably don’t even exist," Trump wrote on the Truth Social network.
He emphasized that the WSJ and Murdoch had been warned that the letter to Epstein was fake and "Murdoch stated that he would take care of it but, obviously, did not have the power to do so."
The US leader branded the newspaper as a "Disgusting and Filthy Rag" and pointed out that, had such note with an erotic drawing really existed, his political rivals would have long publicized this information.
He added that "based on the ridiculous amount of publicity given to Jeffrey Epstein, I have asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to produce any and all pertinent Grand Jury testimony, subject to Court approval."
Earlier, the WSJ reported that Trump sent a drawing with an outline of a woman’s breasts accompanied by a letter as a gift for Epstein’s 50th birthday.
Epstein was detained by New York state law enforcement operatives on July 6, 2019. The district attorney said there was evidence that in 2002-2005, he organized visits of dozens of underage young women, with the youngest being 14, to his residence in Manhattan. The circle of his acquaintances included many current and former officials from the US and many other countries, including former heads of state, major entrepreneurs and showbiz stars. Criminal charges against the financier were dropped in the US after his suicide in a prison cell on August 10, 2019.