President Trump is suing Rupert Murdoch, Dow Jones — the Wall Street Journal’s parent company — and two of the paper’s reporters for $10 billion over the Journal’s story about a lurid birthday card that Trump allegedly sent to the deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in 2003.

Trump claims that the card, which contains arguably compromising statements, was fabricated by unnamed Democrats. He posted about “a POWERHOUSE Lawsuit against everyone involved in publishing the false, malicious, defamatory, FAKE NEWS ‘article’ in the useless ‘rag’ that is, The Wall Street Journal.”

Murdoch and Trump have had an off-again-on-again relationship over the years. Murdoch’s media outlets, principally the Journal and Fox News, after largely opposing Trump during the 2016 Republican primary, have been credited with helping propel him to the White House.

According to the Journal’s story, a letter bearing Trump’s name “contains several lines of typewritten text framed by the outline of a naked woman, which appears to be hand-drawn with a heavy marker.”

“Inside the outline of the naked woman was a typewritten note styled as an imaginary conversation between Trump and Epstein, written in the third person,” the paper reported.

It reportedly contained a joking reference that “enigmas never age” and ended with the words, “A pal is a wonderful thing. Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret.”

Trump denied writing the note after the article was published, posting, “These are not my words, not the way I talk. Also, I don’t draw pictures.”

The birthday note, if authentic, hints at Trump’s contemporaneous awareness of Epstein’s criminal behavior — as might Trump’s comment to a reporter less than a year........

© The Hill