Media: Trump to sue The NYT with a $15 bn lawsuit over Epstein reports
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Fuming over sustained media disclosures, US President Donald Trump on Monday said that he will file a USD 15 billion defamation lawsuit against The New York Times in Florida for its reporting on his alleged ties to late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump accused the newspaper of running a “decades-long method of lying” about him, his family and his political movement, the media reported on Tuesday.
“Today, I have the great honour of bringing a $15-billion defamation and libel lawsuit against The New York Times, one of the worst and most degenerate newspapers in the history of our country, becoming a virtual ‘mouthpiece’ for the radical Left Democrat Party. I view it as the single largest illegal campaign contribution, ever,” Trump said.
He also charged the newspaper with making an “illegal campaign contribution” by endorsing former Vice-President Kamala Harris, who ran against Trump in the 2024 presidential poll, claiming that the endorsement was unusually placed on the paper’s front page.
The embattled US President said The NYT has repeatedly targeted him. “The Times has engaged in a decades-long method of lying about your favourite President (me!), my family, business, the America First Movement, MAGA, and our nation as a whole,” he wrote.
He intends to hold the paper accountable, just as he had pursued lawsuits against other media outlets, which he claimed were settled for “record amounts.”
Trump’s announcement came a week after he threatened to sue the paper over its reporting on a sexually suggestive note and drawing allegedly linked to Epstein.
He also denied writing a birthday message to Epstein that the Democrats recently released.
Speaking to reporters, Trump said, “It’s not my signature, and it’s not the way I speak, and anybody that’s covered me for a long time knows that’s not my language.”
Trump also accused the media of trying to distract from his administration’s “great success” by focusing on the letter, which House Democrats claimed was part of evidence obtained from Epstein’s estate.
House Democrats published the alleged letter on their X account, saying, “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!”
The committee also released another page that appeared to show Epstein and a Mar-a-Lago member joking about selling a woman to Trump for USD 22,500.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt denied the allegations, saying, “The president did not write this letter. He did not sign this letter, and that’s why the president’s external legal team is aggressively pursuing litigation against the Wall Street Journal, and they will continue to.”
Epstein was accused in 2006 of sexually abusing underage girls and in 2008 pleaded guilty to two felony charges. He was later arrested in 2019 on federal charges of sex trafficking but died in jail while awaiting trial.
Media reports have suggested that Trump was friends with Epstein, and the two were often seen at parties in Florida and New York. However, Trump has said he expelled Epstein from his Mar-a-Lago club after repeated disputes.
