Donald Trump has sued Rupert Murdoch and two Wall Street Journal newspaper reporters for libel and slander over claims that he sent sex offender Jeffrey Epstein a bawdy note and sketch of a naked woman.
Trump’s lawsuit on Friday, which also targets Dow Jones and News Corp, was filed in the southern district of Florida federal court in Miami.
It came after the Journal reported on a 50th birthday greeting that Trump allegedly sent to Epstein in 2003 that included a sexually suggestive drawing and reference to secrets they shared. It was reportedly a contribution to a birthday album compiled by Ghislaine Maxwell.
I don’t think that Trump comes out ahead in any legal battle. Even if he’s in the legal right, which I seriously doubt — now you’ve got a huge, high-profile feud going on with the guy that owns a large chunk of the right wing media out there. I mean, you’re gonna lose in the court of public opinion.
And the standard for defamation specifically in US courts specifically for public figures is very high. Like, let’s even say that the report was in error (which I also kinda doubt). To win a defamation case in the US, the defamation has to be intentionally false, done with the intent of causing harm, and a collection of other things that are gonna be hard to win on.
And if you lose, now the news headline is “Trump loses/abandons case against News Media X over his involvement in sexy stuff with Epstein”.
He doth protest too much. He may not have drawn the picture, but he definitely signed it. Either way, no good because he approved of its message.