President Donald Trump has all sorts of problems with the criminal justice system.

He issued pardons for hundreds involved in the January 6 Capitol incident, and his Justice Department has replaced long-standing prosecutors who successfully managed those cases.

Under the leadership of Attorney General Pam Bondi, the Trump DOJ has initiated an investigation into former FBI Director James Comey and former CIA Director John Brennan concerning their examination of Russian intervention 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)

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.