Trump Tried to Pressure Wall Street Journal Into Spiking Epstein Story: Report
President Donald Trump personally called the editor-in-chief of The Wall Street Journal to try to get the paper to spike a story it was working on about Trump’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, Status News reported on Thursday.
The story was published shortly after the Status report came out. It tells of a birthday letter Trump sent to Epstein in 2003, which contained a drawing of a nude woman and an imaginary dialogue between Trump and Epstein.
The Trump administration has been reeling for more than a week after the Department of Justice concluded that the late child sex trafficker did not have the long-rumored client list many believed he had. That finding was received by many of the president’s supporters as a slap in the face, after several high-ranking Trump officials pledged to release the files relating to the Epstein case.
Trump has pushed back on the criticisms, calling Epstein’s case “boring” while even stating that “only pretty bad people” still want to talk about the matter.
Oliver Darcy of Status noted that the Rupert Murdoch-owned Journal had been working on “a potentially explosive” story detailing Trump’s ties to Epstein. The story drew the attention of the White House and prompted an intervention from Trump himself.
Darcy reported:
According to people familiar with the matter, The Journal is facing pressure from the White House over the story. In fact, Trump is said to have personally called Emma Tucker, The Journal’s editor-in-chief, to voice his objections. The specifics of the call remain unclear, but it’s hard to imagine Trump voiced anything but outrage. It’s unclear whether Trump reached out to Rupert Murdoch, whose News Corporation owns The Journal.
The Journal declined to comment to Darcy, while the White House did not respond to a request for one.
In February, Attorney General Pam Bondi told Fox News that Epstein’s client list was “sitting on my desk.” The statement raised the hopes of Trump supporters who want to expose famous Epstein associates they believe engaged in criminal activity.
On Wednesday, Bondi fired Maurene Comey, a federal prosecutor who prosecuted Epstein. She is the daughter of former FBI Director James Comey, whom Trump fired in 2017.
While the president has repeatedly brushed off questions about the case, he and his administration have helped keep the story very much in the news cycle.
