Epstein scandal sparks $10 billion clash between Trump and Murdoch
At the center of this crisis is a scrapbook, one among many, created in 2003 for Epstein's 50 th birthday. According to The Wall Street Journal, Trump had, at the request of Ghislaine Maxwell – Epstein's associate who was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2022 – signed an explicit drawing of a naked woman, with the comment: "Happy Birthday − and may every day be another wonderful secret."
The president, who has tried to explain that he cut ties with Epstein before the criminal accusations began two decades ago and was never involved in his secret and criminal life, vehemently denied the report. "This is not me. This is a fake thing. It's a fake Wall Street Journal story," he told the newspaper's reporters. His calls to The Wall Street Journal 's editor-in-chief, British journalist Emma Tucker, and his interventions with the paper's owner, the American-Australian media tycoon Murdoch, were to no avail. The story broke anyway.
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