Latest / The Vault: The Epstein Files / Trump Refiles the $10 Billion Epstein Lawsuit Against the Wall Street Journal (5/29/26)

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Trump Refiles the $10 Billion Epstein Lawsuit Against the Wall Street Journal (5/29/26) · The Vault: The Epstein Files

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: What's up, everyone, and welcome to another episode of the
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  Epstein Chronicles. About a month ago, a judge threw out
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  the lawsuit that was filed by Donald Trump against the
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  Wall Street Journal over their allegations about the birthday card
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  that he allegedly sent to Jeffrey Epstein. Well, Donald Trump
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  has refiled that lawsuit and has reignited the battle with
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  the Wall Street Journal over those allegations. And the reason
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  that he's allowed to refile this lawsuit is because the
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  judge who dismissed it the first time didn't do so
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  with prejudice, and that ruling opened the door for Donald
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  Trump to refile the lawsuit minus the technicalities that were
• 0:39
  found in the first one. Now, of course, the question
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  is will it hold up? Is there enough there there?
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  And in my opinion, I don't think so. I think
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  that the card is real, and I think that Donald
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  Trump suing the Wall Street Journal is nothing more than intimidation,
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  just another way for Donald Trump to say, Look, if
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  you come after me, I'll come after you. And I
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  have the DOJ on my side. And that's certainly a
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  pretty powerful position to be in, right, and Trump knows that,
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  and he's wielding the DOJ like his own personal weapon.
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  And all these people that are cheering now, they're not
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  going to be cheering later on down the road when
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  the shoe is on the other foot, and you know
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  that's coming eventually, and all the same people that are
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  cheering for it now, that tune's going to change. But
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  I'm here to tell you I don't like retribution from
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  government officials, no matter who's doing it, whether it's Donald
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  Trump or anybody else. As I've told you from the beginning,
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  all of our problems are much bigger than Donald Trump.
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  He's just a symbol of the actual rot that is
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  affecting not just America but the whole world. And when
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  critics see Donald Trump fil a lawsuit like this against
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  the Wall Street Journal, they take notice. And then you
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  add to that, you see the DOJ going after E.
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  Gene Carroll, and obviously the optics are bad there. It
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  looks like retribution. It looks like retaliation, even if it's not,
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  that's what it looks like. And it plays into the
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  overall picture that the Trump administration, led by Donald Trump,
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  is trying to intimidate its critics into silence, which is
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  completely odd considering this is the most transparent administration in
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  the history of America. Today's article is from The Guardian
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  and the headline Trump refiles ten billion dollar lawsuit against
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  Wall Street Journal over report on alleged Epstein ties and
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  this article was authored by Reuter's staff. Donald Trump is
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  refiled a defamation lawsuit seeking at least ten billion dollars
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  in damages against the Wall Street Journal over its reporting
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  on his alleged ties to Jeffrey Epstein after a judge
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  throughout an earlier version over legal deficiencies, loopholes and technicalities.
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  So Donald Trump refiled. And I think it's a bad
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  idea for him, because I think it's a lot in case.
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  I think that the birthday card is real, and I
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  think that the evidence that we've seen proves at So
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  I really don't know what his goal is here. I
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  honestly don't know what he thinks he's doing here, because
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  at some point you'll get to discovery, right and they'll
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  have to turn over the birthday card. They'll have to
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  look at it, and then what get it authenticated? And
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  what happens when it comes back and it authenticates to Trump?
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  We then and look, if it's a forgery, how come
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  the FBI hasn't launched an investigation into who forged it.
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  The lawsuit is one of several the US president has
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  brought in his personal capacity against news organizations and as
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  part of what critics say is a wider pressure campaign
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  against the media. One thousand percent. For all the bravado
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  and all the tough talk, Donald Trump sure hates criticism,
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  and if you criticize him, you become his enemy. And
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  that's really what it comes down to. The Wall Street
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  Journal decided to criticize Donald Trump, and now they made
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  his enemies, and he's hoping that he can intimidate them
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  and make them back off covering this story. That's the
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  whole goal. They want this to go away. They want
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  you to move on. They want to talk about anything
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  but this, even if that means talking about the absolute
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  failure in Iran, anything but Ebstein. So that means we
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  should be talking about nothing but Epstein. Trump's lawsuit, filed
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  on Wednesday, claimed that Rupert Murdoch owned newspaper tarnished his
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  reputation with an article describing a birthday card to the
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  disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Ebstein as bearing Trump's signature.
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  Trump and his lawyers said the card was fake even
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  after it was released by lawmakers investigating Epstein's case. So
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  look sounds like a bunch of bs from Donald Trump.
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  I'm sorry, but it doesn't make sense. And in my opinion,
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  that birthday card is real. And if that card is real,
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  then it's another indication of the cover up that's underway.
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  And people can say whatever they want about who did this,
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  who did that, who is guilty of what? But what
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  we're watching right now in real time is an actual
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  cover up. And if no crimes were committed, then what
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  are they so scared of. I mean, if there was
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  nothing to hide, nothing that embarrassed the government or Donald
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  Trump or his friends, then they would have released all
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  the files without all the nonsense. But of course they
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  didn't do that, did they. Trump seeking at least ten
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  billion in damages. According to the amended lawsuit, he had
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  sought the same amount previously. At the time of publication.
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  Defendant recklessly disregarded whether the defamatory statement were true, and
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  or they purposefully avoided the discovery of truth, lawyers for
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  Trump wrote in the amended complaint, So what exactly is
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  the truth? Is it a forgery? Again, if it is,
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  why is nobody charged. Why isn't there a gigantic investigation
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  into who's trying to frame the president of the United
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  slime states? That seems like a pretty big investigation. No,
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  they want to investigate everything else, why not this? And
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  it's their hesitation to do so that really leads me
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  to believe that it's real. The lawsuit, filed in Miami
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  federal court, names Rupert Murdoch, dal Jones News Corp. And
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  its CEO, Robert Thompson, along with two Wall Street Journal
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  reporters Kadigious Aftar and Joseph Paulizzolo as defendants, saying they
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  defame Trump and caused him to suffer overwhelming financial and
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  reputational harm. Well, I would think your relationship with Epstein
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  had a part to play in that. No, and the
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  fact that you lied about it might have something to
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  do with it. But sure, let's just blame everybody else.
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  It's everybody else's fault. It's not my fault for hanging
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  out with Epstein, not my fault for being his buddy.
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  It's your fault for noticing and reporting on it. I mean,
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  for real, that's where we are as a country. The
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  president of the United States is suing newspapers. Okay, sure,
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  that's not a slippery slope. Dow Jones has said it
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  has full confidence in the rigor and accuracy of the
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  wsja's reporting and will vigorously defend the lawsuit. Good they should.
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  And I think that they have a very good case.
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  And I think that when all a said and done,
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  they'll end up winning the case, because I think that
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  that card is real for all the reasons we just
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  went through. Epstein died in New York jel Cell in
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  twenty nineteen. His case generated conspiracy theories that became popular
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  among Trump's Basis supporters, who believe the government was covering
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  up Epstein's ties to the rich and powerful. Trump has
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  said he parted ways with Epstein before the financiers legal
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  troubles became public in two thousand and six. Well, one
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  of the stories, anyway, what do we have what three
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  four stories about the origin of their relationship and how
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  they quote unquote broke up. I guess it's like the
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  hardy Boys, choose your own adventure. US District Court Darren P.
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  Gells and a pointee of the former President Barack Obama.
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  Throughout Trump's first complaint in April. The judge found that
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  Trump had not met the actual malice legal standard for
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  public figures in a defamation case, which requires evidence that
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  a defendant published this statement that they knew or should
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  have known was false. Well, I don't think that it's false.
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  I think that it's true. And all this carrying on
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  is designed to make sure that this gets dragged out.
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  That's what they want to do. That's what they've always
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  wanted to do. It's always been about obfuscating. It's always
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  been about confusion. That's the whole goal. The longer this
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  goes on, the more people forget, the more people start
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  moving on to other things, and the easier it is
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  for people like Donald Trump and his administration to build narratives.
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  And then you add to that a media that's scared
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  to cover the guy because they're going to get sued.
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  Not exactly what I call a fertile ground for a
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  truth and transparency to spring up. Trump also filed defamation
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  and other lawsuits against other media organizations, including The New
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  York Times, the BBC, and iowa's Das Moines Register. Those
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  outlets have denied wrongdoing and are fighting the cases in court.
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  The Trump administration has acted to restrict press access to
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  government agencies and threaten to use regulatory powers against critical outlets,
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  drawing legal challenges by media organizations. The guy wants to
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  do whatever he wants to do with no criticism, and
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  if that doesn't terrify people, I don't know what to say. Honestly,
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  when you're a politician, you have to have thick skin.
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  You have to be able to take the brunt of
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  what people are thrown at you. But Donald Trump, I'm
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  going to sue this one. I'm going to sue that one.
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  The story's getting old, the smell is getting still, and
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  the whole grift is getting tiresome. And the fact that
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  people keep falling for it is it's rather obvious. This
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  man doesn't want anyone reporting on him unless they're, you know,
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  jiggling his nuts. But besides that, forget it. Don't criticize
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  Donald Trump, or you might end up like the Wall
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  Street Journal. That's the message. And what they hope is
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  that people see what's going on and they curb their
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  own criticism so they don't find themselves in a similar
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  situation as the Wall Street Journal. But I think they
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  might have blundered here. And I think that the case
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  that they're trying to bring is going to get laughed
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  out of court by the judge. So, like usual, we'll
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  keep an eye on this one and we'll see where
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  it all ends up, because the battle between Donald Trump
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  and the Wall Street Journal has just begun. All the
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  information that goes with this episode can be found in
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  the description box.