President Trump on Tuesday claimed that the Wall Street Journal wants to settle the defamation lawsuit he filed after the outlet reported on a letter Trump allegedly sent to Jeffrey Epstein.
“It’s in the lawyer’s hands. I’ve been treated very unfairly by The Wall Street Journal,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One, when asked about his lawyers efforts to expedite a deposition from the Journal’s owner, Rupert Murdoch.
“They are talking to us about doing something, but we’ll see what happens. Maybe, they would like us to drop that,” Trump said, adding “they want to settle it.”
Trump’s suit against the Journal claims that the Epstein story caused “overwhelming financial and reputational harm” for the president and demands billions in damages.
The president has denied writing the letter detailed in the Journal’s reporting, an alleged 2003 birthday message to the late sex offender. According to the outlet, the message appears to bear Trump’s signature and included a suggestive drawing.
The White House last week barred the Journal from taking part in Trump’s travels to Scotland amid the tensions, drawing pushback from the White House Correspondents’ Association.
The judge in the ongoing matter ruled that the lawyers for Murdoch, the billionaire conservative media mogul with whom Trump has feuded in the past, have until Aug. 4 to respond to the request from Trump’s team.
Trump has snagged settlements against other major news outlets in recent months as his administration feuds with national media. CBS earlier this month settled for $16 million after the president sued over a “60 Minutes” interview with then-Vice President Harris during the 2024 cycle. And late last year, ABC settled for $15 million a defamation lawsuit Trump filed over an anchor’s mischaracterization of a jury verdict finding the president liable for sexual abuse.
The Hill has reached out to Dow Jones, the parent company of the Wall Street Journal, for comment.
