When The Wall Street Journal reported two months ago that Donald Trump had written a suggestive letter to Jeffrey Epstein in celebration of the notorious child abuser’s 50th birthday, in 2003, the administration had a choice of available responses. The strategy it went with was indignant denial.

“Democrats and Fake News media desperately tried to coordinate a despicable hoax,” said the White House spokesperson Liz Huston. “Forgive my language but this story is complete and utter bullshit,” Vice President J. D. Vance wrote on X. “The WSJ should be ashamed for publishing it. Where is this letter? Would you be shocked to learn they never showed it to us before publishing it? Does anyone honestly believe this sounds like Donald Trump?” Trump sued the Journal’s parent company and its owner, Rupert Murdoch, for defamation, seeking $10 billion in damages. In the legal complaint, Trump’s lawyers accused the paper of “malicious, deliberate, and despicable actions,” including publishing “a series of quotes from the nonexistent letter.”

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