According to the docket filed in federal court in South Florida, Trump is suing for libel, assault and slander. A copy of the lawsuit was not attached to the docket.
Trump has denied that he wrote the note.
Trump had threatened to file a lawsuit almost immediately after the story, which was written by Journal reporters Khadeeja Safdar and Joe Palazzolo, was published late Thursday afternoon. Both reporters are named in the docket as defendants.
“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,” the president said in a Truth Social post.
The president added in that post that Murdoch, the owner of News Corp, the Journal’s parent company, “stated that he would take care of it.”
“But, obviously, did not have the power to do so,” Trump added.
CNN has reached out to the Wall Street Journal for comment.
The president’s relationship with Epstein, the late convicted sex offender who died in a New York City jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges, has come under increased scrutiny in recent weeks.
Trump said during his 2024 campaign that he would consider releasing additional files on Epstein, vowing to fulfill the demands of influential right-wing figures who have long pushed for increase governmental transparency around the case and publicly casted doubt on whether his death was a suicide, as was ruled by multiple official investigations.
A memo released by his Justice Department earlier this month claimed there is no evidence that Epstein, who rubbed shoulders with some of the most influential men in politics and business during the late 20th century, maintained a “client list” that named or implicated these men in alleged sex crimes.
That revelation has disappointed some of the president’s most loyal followers and was the catalyst of a split that threatened to fracture his MAGA coalition.
