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Judge Tosses Trump's $10 Billion Wall Street Journal-Murdoch Suit Over Epstein Reporting
The fight seemingly isn't over, with a spokesperson for the president pledging that he will "refile this powerhouse lawsuit," which critics have called part of his war on free speech.
Apr 13, 2026
A Florida-based federal judge on Monday dismissed President Donald Trump's $10 billion lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal over its reporting on a "bawdy" birthday letter the Republican allegedly gave to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Trump denies writing the letter or drawing the outline of a naked woman around the text. He sued the journalists behind the July report—Joseph Palazzolo and Khadeeja Safdar—and the newspaper, plus its parent company News Corp, chief executive Robert Thomson, and founder Rupert Murdoch.
The US House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform subsequently subpoenaed the Epstein estate for all materials that now-imprisoned co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell allegedly compiled for the dead financier's birthday book, including the letter attributed to Trump—and in September, the panel published those documents online.
US District Judge Darrin P. Gayles, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, found on Monday that Trump's "complaint fails to adequately allege actual malice." However, Gayles also gave Trump the opportunity to amend his filing within the next two weeks.
While The Wall Street Journal did not immediately respond to CNN's request for comment, a spokesperson for Trump's legal team said in a statement that the president intends to continue the case.
"President Trump will follow Judge Gayles' ruling and guidance to refile this powerhouse lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal and all of the other defendants," the spokesperson said. "The president will continue to hold accountable those who traffic in Fake News to mislead the American People."
CNN noted that despite the legal battle, "the 95-year-old Murdoch has maintained a cozy if complicated relationship with the president, including multiple meetings at the White House in recent months."
The suit over the birthday letter to Epstein—whom Trump was publicly friends with in the 1980s and '90s until a reported falling out in the early 2000s—is just part of a sweeping effort by the president and his political enablers "to undermine and chill the most basic freedoms protected under the First Amendment," as the advocacy group Free Press put it in a December analysis.
In addition to the Journal case, examples included Trump's legal battles with the BBC and The New York Times, the White House taking control of the presidential press pool, the administration blocking The Associated Press from the Oval Office over its refusal to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, ABC temporarily suspending late-night host Jimmy Kimmel following comments from Trump's Federal Communications Commission chair, and the Pentagon's legally contested media policy.
Such attacks continue. Last month, as the costs of his unconstitutional war on Iran mounted, Trump floated "treason" charges against media outlets that he accused of reporting false information about the conflict.
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'Opportunistic' Fossil Fuel Execs Cashed In on Trump's Iran War With Record Stock Sales
One climate reporter warned their windfalls "will go toward political campaigns and lobbying organizations dedicated to fighting climate regulation, blocking clean energy policy, and fueling authoritarianism."
Apr 08, 2026
After pouring money into President Donald Trump's successful campaign to take back the White House, US fossil fuel industry executives cashed in on his and Israel's war on Iran with record-setting stock sales, according to a VerityData analysis reported on Wednesday by The Wall Street Journal.
"Much of the selling for the first quarter began before the US and Israel began bombing Iran on February 28," and some "were prearranged under plans that allow executives to sell stock automatically at specific times or share prices without making in-the-moment decisions that could leave them open to allegations of improper trading," the newspaper acknowledged.
However, as share prices for the industry skyrocketed—Iran responded to the US-Israeli assault by shutting down the Strait of Hormuz, a key trade route for fossil fuels—executives at Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Diamondback Energy, and other oil and gas companies collectively sold $1.4 billion in stock.
"At nearly a dozen companies, the number of executives selling in the quarter reached or surpassed 10-year records, and in some cases set all-time records," the Journal detailed. "The sales hit a 15-year peak, with nearly six executives selling for every one that bought shares in the first quarter—well over double the usual ratio."
"CEOs stood out as big sellers in many cases," the newspaper highlighted, noting that "Chevron chief executive Mike Wirth sold some $104 million worth of shares between January and March. ConocoPhillips's Ryan Lance netted about $54.3 million in share sales in March alone. Lorenzo Simonelli, CEO of oil field services company Baker Hughes, sold about $33 million worth of stock that same month."
VerityData's head of research, Ben Silverman, said that "it speaks to the opportunistic behavior of everyone involved—it could be opportunistic set months earlier, it could be opportunistic in the moment... There was a breathlessness to the selling, and the message they sent was to cash in now because the ride won't last forever."
Who's profiting from ridiculous and unnecessary wars? Big Oil CEOs, to name one obvious group. @emorwee.bsky.social heated.world/p/chevrons-c...
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— Ross Macfarlane (@rossmacfarlane.bsky.social) April 8, 2026 at 5:04 PM
In her Heated newsletter, climate journalist Emily Atkin pointed out that "this isn't the first time a small group of extraordinarily wealthy oil CEOs used a war to make themselves richer. In the weeks after President Joe Biden said that he was 'convinced' Russia would invade Ukraine in 2022, Big Oil CEOs sold almost $99 million worth of shares, according to an analysis by Friends of the Earth and BailoutWatch."
According to Atkin:
What really makes this story remarkable is not simply that oil executives got rich from a war. It's how perfectly legal and normal it all is, and what that legality reveals about who wins and who loses when America goes to war.
When America goes to war, the costs are distributed broadly, onto every American who drives a car or heats a home. The benefits are distributed narrowly, flowing to a small group of men whose compensation is designed to capture exactly this kind of windfall.
And the cash windfall these oil executives make from the war won't go primarily toward yachts and private jets (they already have those). It will go toward political campaigns and lobbying organizations dedicated to fighting climate regulation, blocking clean energy policy, and fueling authoritarianism.
The Journal reporting came on the heels of Trump and Iran agreeing to a fragile two-week ceasefire negotiated by Pakistan late Tuesday. While Israel is supposedly on board, it escalated attacks on Lebanon on Wednesday.
As a Pakistani official publicly reiterated that Lebanon is still part of the deal and Iran threatened to back out altogether, Janet Abou-Elias, a researcher with the Democratizing Foreign Policy program at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, told Common Dreams that Israel's assault "appeared to be a direct attempt to blow up the ceasefire, and it worked."
Meanwhile, although oil prices dropped after the ceasefire announcement, "'fossilflation'—or inflation caused by volatile and rising prices of oil and gas—is still likely to continue," the global climate group 350.org warned on Wednesday.
"Even if the Strait of Hormuz reopens and the ceasefire holds, oil and gas prices will stay above pre-war levels, and consumers will pay," said Andreas Sieber, 350.org's head of political strategy. "Volatility remains high, and supply will stay tight due to infrastructure damage and inventory rebuilding."
The group said last week that war-related spikes in oil and gas prices "have already cost consumers and businesses an additional $104.2-$111.6 billion" globally, and an analysis from Democratic members of the congressional Joint Economic Committee found that Americans spent an extra $8.4 billion at the fuel pump during the first month of Trump's war.
Throughout the conflict, 350.org and other green groups have advocated for a windfall profits tax targeting oil and gas giants, as well as renewed calls for a swift and just international transition away from climate-wrecking fossil fuels.
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Billionaires Are 'Becoming a Problem for the Economy,' Declares Wall Street Journal Report
"Debate about how much tax billionaires pay is likely to grow as America’s fiscal situation deteriorates and its wealth gap widens."
Feb 18, 2026
A report published Wednesday by the Rupert Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal outlined how billionaires' tax evasion schemes are causing problems for the US economy.
The report, written by London-based columnist Carol Ryan, began by noting how completely the US economy has come to depend on the spending habits of its richest households, whose wealth is primarily tied to the fortunes of the stock market, which "could mean the entire economy pays a steep price in the next market correction."
Ryan then walked through some of the plusses and minuses of the wealth tax being debated in the state of California, which has more billionaires than any state in the nation.
Even while personally finding flaws with the California proposal, Ryan said that plans to extract wealth from the super-rich aren't going away, even if the California tax plan is ultimately defeated.
"Debate about how much tax billionaires pay is likely to grow as America’s fiscal situation deteriorates and its wealth gap widens," Ryan wrote. "Data from the Federal Reserve shows that only the richest 1% of households have grown their share of overall US wealth since 1990."
Ryan also broke down how the very richest Americans have tax evasion options that mere multimillionaires don't have.
"A common strategy is to avoid salaries, which are heavily taxed," she wrote. "Billionaires prefer to be paid in shares, which are subject to capital-gains taxes when sold. But they don’t need to sell to fund their lifestyles. Billionaires use borrowed money for living expenses, pledging their shares or other assets as collateral."
Ryan added that "the interest on the debt is much lower than a capital-gains tax bill would be," and billionaires compound this wealth by passing it off to their children as part of a “buy borrow die” tax avoidance plan.
Boston College law professor Ray Madoff told Ryan that the wealth at the very top has grown so concentrated that even "very well-off Americans with high incomes" are now aligned "much more with the middle class" than in the past.
Ryan's report isn't the only one published by the Journal in recent weeks to warn of dangerous levels of US wealth inequality.
Chief Wall Street Journal economics commentator Greg Ip last week posted data showing that corporate profits' share of gross domestic income is now the highest it has been in more than 40 years, while the share of income paid out in workers' wages is at the lowest.
"Profits have soared since the pandemic, and the market value attached to those profits even more," wrote Ip. "The result: Capital, which includes businesses, shareholders, and superstar employees, is triumphant, while the average worker ekes out marginal gains."
Ip also said that this problem could grow worse if artificial intelligence lives up to its creators' hype and starts replacing human workers on a mass scale.
In such a scenario, wrote Ip, the "biggest winners" of the economy would be shareholders who, as Ryan explained in her piece, have ample tools to avoid paying taxes.
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As Companies Plot Price Hikes, GOP Congress Urged to End Trump Tariffs
"Republicans in Congress have the power to end these cost-raising policies, but instead are voting to rubber-stamp them and put more strain on their constituents," said a leader at Unrig Our Economy.
Feb 16, 2026
A national campaign "to fix the rules of our economy to make it work for working people" took aim at Republicans in Congress on Monday in response to reporting that US companies are planning another round of price hikes due to President Donald Trump's tariffs.
"Companies had raised prices last year after tariffs hoisted costs. Yet starting in the fall, many firms held off on increases and sometimes offered discounts to capture holiday shoppers," the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday. "The pricing break is over."
"Some companies have pointed a finger at tariffs for their increases, while others, especially small businesses, also blame higher wages and hefty health insurance costs that firms said they can't absorb or share with suppliers," the Journal detailed.
Citing a December survey of 600 entrepreneurs by Vistage Worldwide, the newspaper noted that "more than half of small business leaders said they planned to increase prices in the next three months," and "nearly 70% planned increases of 4% to 10%, while another 10% forecast increases of more than 10%."
In a Monday statement about the reporting, Unrig Our Economy campaign director Leor Tal declared that "Americans are once again bracing for higher costs thanks to Republican-backed tariffs. Republicans in Congress have the power to end these cost-raising policies, but instead are voting to rubber-stamp them and put more strain on their constituents."
Last Wednesday, all but six Republicans in the GOP-controlled US House of Representatives opposed a resolution expressing disapproval of Trump's tariffs targeting Canada. Shortly before the vote, the president said on his Truth Social platform, "Any Republican, in the House or the Senate, that votes against TARIFFS will seriously suffer the consequences come Election time, and that includes Primaries!"
Tal said Monday that "from pushing for the largest cuts to healthcare in history, to backing tariffs that raise the price of everyday goods for Americans, Republicans in Congress have made life less affordable for their constituents at every turn—all while giving billionaires massive tax breaks."
GOP lawmakers stuffed those tax breaks into the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act that Trump signed last summer. The budget package also featured massive cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and did not extend tax credits that helped millions buy health insurance on Affordable Care Act (ACA) exchanges.
Subsequent efforts to continue the ACA subsidies—which lapsed at the end of last year—have also failed. That means millions of Americans now face skyrocketing health insurance premiums alongside rising costs tied to policies that include Trump's tariffs.
Trump often insists that foreign producers pay for his tariffs, but a major study released last month by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, a German think tank, made clear that—in line with decades of economic research—US businesses and consumers are largely paying for the president's taxes on imports.
Democrats on the congressional Joint Economic Committee last month released another report showing that the average American family paid $1,625 in higher costs last year due to tariffs and other Trump policies. In some states—including Alaska, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York—the impact for the typical household exceeded $2,000.
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'Moral and Political Debacle': Right-Wing Media, CEOs Urge Trump to Stop Deadly ICE Crackdown
"The American people didn’t vote for these scenes and you can’t continue to order them to not believe their lying eyes,” the New York Post editorial board wrote.
Jan 26, 2026
"The Trump administration spin on this simply isn’t believable."
That's what the editorial board of the right-wing Wall Street Journal wrote Sunday calling for a "pause" in Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) anti-immigrant blitz following Saturday's killing of 37-year-old intensive care nurse Alex Petti—who was disarmed before being shot by federal agents in Minneapolis—and top administration officials' claims that the man who helped save US military veterans' lives was a "domestic terrorist."
The Journal's editors called Pretti's killing “the worst incident to date in what is becoming a moral and political debacle” for President Donald Trump and his administration.
The Journal wasn't alone. Other right-wing outlets owned by the Murdoch media empire, including the New York Post, published editorials calling for a suspension of Trump's crackdown on undocumented immigrants, during which dozens of people have died in ICE custody and federal enforcers have killed two Americans. Even staunchly pro-Trump Fox News challenged administration officials over the shooting.
"It's time to de-escalate in Minneapolis, Mr. President," the Post's editorial board wrote Sunday.
"Not because you’re wrong to enforce immigration law, nor to go after fraudsters who’ve stolen billions in federal funds—but because these enforcement tactics won’t turn the tide, and instead are backfiring," the editors clarified. "Swing voters—Hispanics and independents who turned to you at the last election—see US citizens dying at federal agents’ hands, and recoil in horror."
"The hasty and misleading rhetoric coming out of the administration needs to stop," the Post said. "And while Pretti was horribly misguided, there is no evidence he was a 'terrorist' intent on a 'massacre' of law enforcement."
As they did with Renee Good, the 37-year-old mother and poet who was shot dead by an ICE agent in Minneapolis earlier this month, Trump and some of his senior officials accused Pretti of being a "domestic terrorist"—a move in line with the administration's designation of left-wing activism as terrorism.
US Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino said that it looked like Pretti—who eyewitnesses said died while trying to help a woman who had been pepper-sprayed by ICE—“wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement."
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller attempted to smear Pretti as an "assassin" who "tried to murder federal agents."
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem accused Pretti of "domestic terrorism."
As the Wall Street Journal's editors put it, "Alex Pretti made a mistake, but he wasn’t a ‘domestic terrorist.'"
"Videos of an event aren’t always definitive, but this is how it looks to us," they wrote. "Pretti attempted, foolishly, to assist a woman who had been pepper-sprayed by agents. Multiple agents then tackled Pretti, and he had a phone in one hand as he lay on the ground. An agent discovered a concealed gun on Pretti, and disarmed him. An agent then shot Pretti, and multiple shots followed."
The Post editors concluded, "Mr. President, the American people didn’t vote for these scenes, and you can’t continue to order them to not believe their lying eyes."
Meanwhile, more than 60 CEOs of Minnesota-based companies including Target, Best Buy, UnitedHealth, 3M, and General Mills published an open letter Sunday calling for "an immediate deescalation of tensions and for state, local, and federal officials to work together to find real solutions."
Gun rights groups including the National Rifle Association have called for a full investigation of Pretti's killing. The NRA pushed back against arguments that Pretti should not have brought a gun—which he was legally carrying—to a protest, calling such assertions "dangerous and wrong."
"Responsible public voices should be awaiting a full investigation, not making generalizations and demonizing law-abiding citizens," added the NRA, which was criticized for its initial silence following the killing of Philando Castile, a Black man who was legally carrying a gun when he was shot dead by police in front of his girlfriend and her 4-year-old daughter during a 2016 traffic stop in suburban Minneapolis.
Even Republican lawmakers who support Trump have expressed their dismay over Pretti's killing, with Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana calling the incident "incredibly disturbing."
Chris Madel, an attorney who provided legal counsel to Jonathan Ross—the ICE agent who killed Good—was, until Monday, also a Republican candidate for Minnesota governor. However, Madel said that he dropped out of the race and implied that he would quit the GOP because he “cannot support the national Republicans’ stated retribution on the citizens of our state."
“Nor can I count myself a member of a party that would do so," he said.
I am ending my campaign for Minnesota Governor. I describe why in the below video. Please watch until the end. (It is 10 minutes, 52 seconds.)
Thank you,
Chris pic.twitter.com/2nfyAyTzNZ
— Chris Madel (@CWMadel) January 26, 2026
" United States citizens, particularly those of color, live in fear," Madel continued. "United States citizens are carrying papers to prove their citizenship. That’s wrong."
“At the end of the day, I have to look my daughters in the eye and tell them I believe I did what is right," he added. "I am doing that today."
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WSJ, Media Outlets Slammed for Spreading Feds' False Claim That Kirk Shooter Expressed 'Transgender Ideology'
"What a truly disgusting week for American journalism," said one transgender writer.
Sep 12, 2025
The Wall Street Journal and other media outlets are facing widespread criticism after publishing a false report that the assassin who shot right-wing activist Charlie Kirk in Utah this week had left behind symbols of "transgender ideology" at the scene of the crime.
On Thursday, with the assassin still at large, the Journal published a news update stating that "investigators found ammunition engraved with expressions of transgender and antifascist ideology inside the rifle that authorities believe was used in the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk." The report did not identify what these markings were nor the source of the report, instead attributing it to "an internal law enforcement bulletin and a person familiar with the investigation."
The New York Times reported hours later that the bulletin came from the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), but noted that "a senior law enforcement official with direct knowledge of the investigation cautioned that the report had not been verified by ATF analysts, did not match other summaries of the evidence, and might turn out to have been misread or misinterpreted."
It was later revealed that the Wall Street Journal's source of the initial unconfirmed bulletin was Steven Crowder, another far-right influencer known for his antagonism of transgender people.
On Friday, officials revealed the identity of the suspect, a 22-year-old cisgender white man named Tyler Robinson, and Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R) described the marked engravings in detail.
As Erin Reed, a transgender journalist who reports on LGBTQ+ rights, explained, "none were 'transgender' or 'LGBTQ' symbols":
The bullet that killed Charlie Kirk was engraved with the phrase “notices bulges owo what’s this”—a furry and anime meme that has circulated online for a decade, generally meant as a joke about something unexpected. Three other unfired casings were recovered: “hey fascist! Catch! ↑ → ↓↓↓,” a reference to the Helldivers 2 video game code used to drop the 500kg bomb; “O bella ciao, bella ciao, ciao, ciao,” the Italian anti-fascist folk song; and “If you read this you are gay lmao,” a trolling insult common in meme subcultures.
In other words: internet detritus. Not a single engraving had anything to do with “transgender symbols,” let alone the trans community.
Data shows transgender people are no more likely to commit acts of gun violence than any other group. According to data from the Gun Violence Archive from the past decade analyzed by The Trace in July, out of more than 5,300 mass shootings, just four of them were committed by a person who identified as transgender or nonbinary.
Despite this, many right-wing activists online have attempted to foment the narrative of a "transgender violence epidemic," often preemptively blaming trans people for shootings that turn out to be perpetrated by others.
This narrative has reached the Trump administration, with the Department of Justice reportedly considering a policy to strip transgender people of the right to own firearms following a school shooting in Minneapolis in August, that was carried out by a transgender person.
Following Kirk's assassination, Donald Trump Jr. said in a Fox News interview, "I frankly can't name a mass shooting in the last year or two in America that wasn't committed by a transgender lunatic that's been pumped up on probably hormones since they were 3-year-olds."
Even after law enforcement and the Journal had begun to walk back the initial report that "transgender ideology" had influenced Kirk's murder, Reed wrote, "the damage was already done, with the falsehood ricocheting across the internet." By this point, numerous media outlets, including the Daily Beast, the New York Post, The Telegraph, and others, had already repeated the claim.
As Reed noted, "conservative influencers flooded social media blaming the killing on transgender people," in some cases using dehumanizing rhetoric.
One conservative activist, Joey Mannarino, who has nearly 640,000 followers on X, and often interacts with elected Republicans, wrote: "If the person who killed Charlie Kirk was a transgender, there can be no mercy for that species any longer. We’ve already tolerated far too much from those creatures."
The falsehood even reached Capitol Hill. Even as law enforcement said Thursday it still had no identity for the shooter, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) told reporters, "It sounds like the shooter was a tranny, or pro-tranny."
Trump Jr., meanwhile, continued to assert that there was "trans paraphernalia written on the cartridges of this rifle that killed one of my dearest friends in life." He described being transgender as "an absolute sickness."
The Journal is now facing harsh criticism for spreading an unverified report that has further fueled the right's demonization of transgender Americans.
"The FBI and Wall Street Journal doing a 'whoops, our bad' after spending a day saying they had evidence it was a trans antifa shooter is so deeply messed up," wrote Ryan Grim of Drop Site News on X.
Charlotte Clymer, a transgender writer, called it a "truly disgusting week for American journalism."
"Nearly 48 hours of relentless anti-trans propaganda and news reports over the murder of Charlie Kirk, and all of that for not a single shred of evidence that trans people or trans rights had anything to do with it," Clymer said. "When do we get a retraction from the Wall Street Journal for erroneously claiming the assassination was related to trans people? When do we get apologies from every journalist who spread that disinformation?"
As criticism has continued to mount, the Journal added an editor's note to the initial article, acknowledging that Cox "gave no indication that the ammunition included any transgender references."
Jeet Heer, a columnist for The Nation wrote in response that the Journal's reporting on this issue was "a scandal."
"The news section of the Wall Street Journal has tarnished its great reputation," Heer wrote. "The only way to recover is to appoint a public editor to review this and explain how it happened to readers."
NOTE: This article has been updated to include the Wall Street Journal's editor's note and subsequent criticism from Jeet Heer.
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'End This White House Cover-Up': House Dems Pounce on Latest Trump-Epstein Bombshell
"All of this is so disturbing and so disgusting," said Rep. Greg Landsman.
Sep 08, 2025
Democrats on the House Oversight Committee on Monday released a photo showing a pornographic birthday card that US President Donald Trump allegedly sent to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The birthday card's existence was originally reported by The Wall Street Journal back in July, and it features an outline of a naked woman along with Trump's squiggly signature in the area where the woman's pubic hair would be.
🚨🚨HERE IT IS: We got Trump’s birthday note to Jeffrey Epstein that the President said doesn’t exist.
Trump talks about a “wonderful secret” the two of them shared. What is he hiding? Release the files! pic.twitter.com/k2Mq8Hu3LY
— Oversight Dems (@OversightDems) September 8, 2025
Trump has for weeks denied that he ever sent Epstein such a birthday card and he filed a libel lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal that sought at least $20 billion in damages for what it described as "glaring failures in journalistic ethics and standards of accurate reporting."
With the note's existence seemingly confirmed, however, many Democratic lawmakers rushed to charge the president with trying to cover up the full extent of his relationship with Epstein, who was accused by multiple women of sexually abusing them when they were teenagers.
"We got the Epstein note Trump says doesn't exist," said Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.). "Time to end this White House cover-up."
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) called on the Trump White House to release the full Epstein files.
"Trump said it didn't exist, but here it is," she said. "Thank you, Oversight Dems, for proving he is lying. And if he's lying about this, what else is he lying about? Makes it clear why he is so opposed to releasing these files..."
Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.) had a similar reaction to the card.
"No surprise the note does exist," she said. "More proof this White House cover-up is to protect Trump, the powerful, and the wealthy. Release the full files now."
Rep. Greg Landsman (D-Ohio) also took note of Trump's past denials about the letter's existence and declared, "All of this is so disturbing and so disgusting."
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt took a defiant tone after the note's publication and continued to insist that it was all a "hoax."
"As I have said all along, it's very clear President Trump did not draw this picture, and he did not sign it," she said. "President Trump's legal team will continue to aggressively pursue litigation... This is FAKE NEWS to perpetuate the Democrat Epstein Hoax!"
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'Huge Win for the American People' as House Subcommittee Votes to Subpoena Epstein Docs
"The public deserves to know who was complicit in Epstein's heinous crimes, including people with immense power in our government," said the top House Oversight Committee Democrat.
Jul 23, 2025
A congressional subcommittee voted Wednesday to subpoena the U.S. Department of Justice to hand over files related to deceased convicted child sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein, thwarting an apparent effort by Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson to delay further action on the matter until after summer recess.
The House Oversight Subcommittee on Federal Law Enforcement voted 8-2 on a motion by Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.) to subpoena the DOJ for all records related to the investigation into Epstein. The longtime former friend of President Donald Trump was convicted of procuring a child for prostitution in 2008 and faced federal child sex trafficking charges at the time of his suspicious 2019 jailhouse death, which was officially ruled a suicide.
"Numerous members of this committee and this subcommittee have called for answers and transparency," said Lee, the top Democrat on the subcommittee. "So let's do something about it."
In addition to Lee, the motion was backed by Oversight Committee Ranking Member Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) and Reps. Wesley Bell (D-Mo.), Brian Jack (R-Ga.), Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), Scott Perry (R-Pa.), Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), and Lateefah Simon (D-Calif.).
"Today, Oversight Democrats fought for transparency and accountability on the Epstein files and won," Garcia said in a statement. "House Republicans didn't make it easy, but the motion was finally passed to force the Department of Justice to release the Epstein files."
"Let's be clear: This is a huge win for the American people," he added. "The public deserves to know who was complicit in Epstein's heinous crimes, including people with immense power in our government. Today's vote was just the first step toward accountability, and we will continue pushing for the truth."
Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) must now sign the subpoena so it may be officially issued to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi. Comer agreed to subpoena Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell—who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for child sex trafficking and other crimes as part of Epstein's alleged operation—following a separate Oversight subcommittee's vote on Tuesday.
Johnson (La.) on Tuesday said the lower chamber would adjourn on Wednesday, one day earlier than scheduled. Critics called the move a blatant attempt to thwart a vote on the Epstein documents, pointing to other recent moves, including the House Rules Committee blocking an amendment that would have forced the DOJ to release the full files to the public, as proof of GOP stonewalling.
Epstein allegedly ran a sex trafficking network involving underage girls, whom he is accused of flying aboard his personal jet—dubbed the "Lolita Express"—to his private island, Little St. James in the U.S. Virgin Islands, where the billionaire financier and his guests abused the children.
Trump partied with Epstein in the 1990s and early 2000s and flew on the "Lolita Express" numerous times—although there is no evidence that he ever visited Little St. James or was involved in any of Epstein's crimes. Still, the president has appeared eager to move on from the issue after he and key members of his administration repeatedly advocated for the release of the Epstein files. Trump has accused Democrats of amplifying the Epstein "hoax" and has derided his supporters demanding full disclosure of all related documents as "weaklings."
Apparently confirming what estranged Trump adviser Elon Musk and others have asserted, Bondi informed the president in May that his name appears in the Epstein files, according to Wall Street Journal reporting published Wednesday. Trump is suing the paper and two reporters, as well as parent company News Corp and its founder Rupert Murdoch, over reporting about a bawdily illustrated letter Trump allegedly wrote for Epstein.
Asked by CNN Wednesday whether her constituents care about the Epstein case, Lee replied, "Yes, I think the American people want transparency."
"At the end of the day, we have to send a message that whether you are the littlest guy or you are the most powerful person in this nation, that if you commit a crime, if you do things that we aren't supposed to do, that there will be some accountability," she added. "Right now, if we don't vote on this, or if we don't release these files, we're sending a message that if you are a powerful abuser... you'll be covered."
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'No Sh*t, Sherlock': WSJ Reports DOJ Told Trump He's in Epstein Files in May
"It was always the simplest explanation," said one Democratic congressman.
Jul 23, 2025
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi told President Donald Trump in May that he appears in the Department of Justice's files for Jeffrey Epstein, according to The Wall Street Journal—which Trump is currently suing over previous reporting about his relationship with the dead sex offender.
Citing unnamed senior administration officials, the Journal reported that during a "routine briefing that covered a number of topics," Bondi and her deputy, Todd Blanche, told Trump that his name appeared multiple times in the "truckload" of documents.
"They told the president at the meeting that the files contained what officials felt was unverified hearsay about many people, including Trump, who had socialized with Epstein in the past," the newspaper detailed. "They also told Trump that senior Justice Department officials didn't plan to release any more documents related to the investigation of the convicted sex offender because the material contained child pornography and victims' personal information."
It was always the simplest explanation.www.wsj.com/politics/jus...
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— Congressman Don Beyer (@beyer.house.gov) July 23, 2025 at 3:20 PM
There have been mounting calls for the DOJ to release the files while protecting victims' identities—particularly since billionaire Elon Musk claimed in early June, shortly after leaving the Trump administration, that the president "is in the Epstein files" and "that is the real reason they have not been made public."
Congressional Democrats—and a handful of Republicans—have joined the growing demands for the full release, but both chambers are controlled by the GOP, and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) this week sent lawmakers home for summer recess early to avoid a vote on the Epstein files until they return in September.
Meanwhile, journalists in recent weeks have continued to publish revelations about Trump's ties to Epstein—whose suspicious 2019 death in jail while facing a federal sex trafficking case was ruled a suicide, a conclusion met with widespread skepticism.
Trump's public comments suggest the two men met in the late 1980s and remained friends until a reported falling out over a business deal in 2004, before Epstein was indicted in 2006. CNN on Tuesday published photos confirming that Epstein attended Trump's 1993 wedding to Marla Maples, and footage from a 1999 Victoria's Secret fashion event in New York in which the two men are talking and laughing.
That followed the Journal's reporting last week that Trump wrote a "bawdy" letter for a leather-bound album that Ghislaine Maxwell—now serving a 20-year prison sentence for conspiring with Epstein to sexually abuse minors—prepared for Epstein's 50th birthday.
Trump—a well-documented liar—denied writing the letter and threatened to sue the paper, as he has ABC and CBS. He then filed a $10 million libel lawsuit against the journalists who wrote the piece; Dow Jones & Company, which publishes the Journal; its parent company News Corp; and the company's billionaire founder, Rupert Murdoch. The publisher plans to defend against the suit.
While Steven Cheung, the White House communications director, claimed that the Wednesday reporting "is another fake news story, just like the previous story by The Wall Street Journal," Bondi and Blanche said in a statement to the paper that "as part of our routine briefing, we made the president aware of the findings."
According to the Journal, Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Kash Patel privately told other officials that Trump's name appeared in the files. He declined to answer the paper's inquiry but said in a statement that the Justice Department's recent memo explaining why it won't release more Epstein files was "consistent with the thorough review conducted by the FBI and DOJ."
Amid heightened scrutiny over Trump's relationship with the sex criminal, the president said on social media last Thursday: "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. This SCAM, perpetuated by the Democrats, should end, right now!"
U.S. District Judge Robin Rosenberg—an appointee of former President Barack Obama in the Southern District of Florida—concluded Wednesday that she had to dismiss the DOJ's request because of grand jury secrecy rules with few exceptions.
The decision is a setback for the president and Bondi's effort to "stave off the fury of Trump's MAGA base, which has demanded public disclosures of evidence," Politico noted, but "DOJ leaders have also asked two federal judges in New York, where prosecutors brought cases against Epstein and his co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell, to unseal grand jury transcripts. And New York's federal courts have generally taken a less stringent approach to grand jury secrecy."
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White House Ousts Wall Street Journal From Scotland Press Pool Over Epstein Report
"Due to The Wall Street Journal's fake and defamatory conduct, they will not be one of the 13 outlets on board," said White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.
Jul 21, 2025
U.S. President Donald Trump's White House on Monday once again retaliated againstThe Wall Street Journal days after it published a story about a sexually explicit birthday card that Trump reportedly gave to late billionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein to celebrate his 50th birthday back in 2003.
Politico reports that the Journal has been removed from the pool of reporters who are tagging along with the president during his upcoming trip to Scotland. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told Politico that the move was a direct response to the Rupert Murdoch-owned paper's decision to publish a story about the card Trump allegedly sent to Epstein, whom authorities have concluded died by suicide in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking charges.
"Due to The Wall Street Journal's fake and defamatory conduct, they will not be one of the 13 outlets on board," Leavitt said. "Every news organization in the entire world wishes to cover President Trump, and the White House has taken significant steps to include as many voices as possible."
A spokesperson for the Journal declined to comment when contacted by Politico.
According to the Journal's reporting, the card Trump sent to Epstein "contains several lines of typewritten text framed by the outline of a naked woman, which appears to be hand-drawn with a heavy marker" and features "the future president's signature" as "a squiggly 'Donald' below her waist, mimicking pubic hair."
Trump quickly filed a libel lawsuit against the paper that sought at least $20 billion in damages for what it described as "glaring failures in journalistic ethics and standards of accurate reporting." WSJ parent company Dow Jones stood by the paper's reporting in the wake of the Trump lawsuit and said that "we have full confidence in the rigor and accuracy of our reporting."
The Trump administration earlier this year revoked The Associated Press' access because it refused to refer to the body of water known as the Gulf of Mexico as the "Gulf of America."
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