Law&Crime News
July 23, 2025
President
Donald Trump has all sorts of problems with the criminal justice system.
He pardoned hundreds of men and woman who were convicted
of storming the capitol on Jan. 6, and his Department of Justice has purged career prosecutors who effectively conducted
the prosecutions.
The Trump
DOJ, headed by Attorney General Pam Bondi, has
launched an investigation into the former director of the FBI James Comey and
former CIA Director John Brennan who looked into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Trump has
fared much better with civil lawsuits — not those litigated, but those settled.
His record with civil verdicts — those verdicts rendered by a jury — is not so
good. New York Attorney General Letitia James got a verdict for the people of New York for $355
million against Trump for business fraud. E. Jean Carroll was awarded $88.3 million as a result of two successful
defamation jury verdicts against Trump.
On the
other hand, Trump received a $15 million settlement – not in the form of a jury
award, but money forked over by ABC Disney Entertainment. Paramount CBS did
the same, handing Trump $16 million, and then announced the end of the popular "Late Show," hosted
by Stephen Colbert, after Colbert called the payment a bribe to secure an upcoming
merger.
No wonder,
then, that Donald Trump has filed another lawsuit against a big-time media
company. The president has sued Rupert Murdoch and two Wall Street Journal
reporters for libel and slander over claims that he sent disgraced financier
and convicted sex offender Jeffrey
Epstein a lewd letter and sketch of a naked woman.
President
Donald Trump, from left, speaks while signing an executive order as Commerce
Secretary nominee Howard Lutnick, Rupert Murdoch and Larry Ellison, chairman
and chief technology officer of Oracle Corporation, listen in the Oval Office
of the White House, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
The
lawsuit was filed in a Florida federal court seeking $10 billion in damages.
According to The Guardian, the suit came only a day after the WSJ
"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."
The card
reportedly concluded with "Happy Birthday – and may every day be another
wonderful secret."
Trump has
denied the report and claimed the letter is a fake.
This
lawsuit may be more about trying to extract Trump from the center of the Epstein scandal than to cash in
another cowering media outlet.
A little
more than a week ago, a
two-page memo from the Department of Justice and the FBI said they
found no evidence that Epstein blackmailed powerful people or kept a
"client list," and they reiterated that he died by suicide in his prison cell in 2019.
According
to NPR, Epstein's death and imprisonment have been the subject of numerous conspiracy theories, including a "prominent
belief amplified by numerous right-wing figures who now serve in the Trump
administration that the sex trafficker's death is proof, in part, that the
government is run by shadowy figures out to undermine Trump."
As the
outrage on the right grows, Trump posted a lengthy message on his Truth Social
website telling his supporters to "not waste Time and Energy on Jeffrey
Epstein, somebody that nobody cares about," and spread baseless
conspiracies that the so-called files were created by Democrats to go after
him. That post didn't go over well with Democrats or Republicans.
While
pressure from Democrats is the norm, dissent from within the Trump
administration is not. The President's inner circle — Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino — have been at odds with each other over
the handling of the Epstein files. Prominent GOP leaders, including House
Speaker Mike Johnson, have suggested the files be released.
Then, on
Friday, the president capitulated, ordering Bondi to seek the unsealing of grand jury
testimony from the prosecution against Epstein."
Will the
grand jury testimony calm the storm — or just fuel the growing tumult facing
Trump and his administration?
(Matthew T. Mangino is of counsel with Luxenberg, Garbett, Kelly & George P.C. His book The Executioner's Toll, 2010 was released by McFarland Publishing. He is a regular contributor to Law&Crime. You can reach him at www.mattmangino.com and follow him on Twitter @MatthewTMangino)
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