Donald Trump has followed through on his threat to sue Rupert Murdoch and his media companies over the Wall Street Journal ‘s report on a bawdy letter in his name that was included in an album given to Jeffrey Epstein for his 50th birthday in 2003.

Donald Trump has filed a $10bn (£7.5bn) lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal's parent company Dow Jones and its owner Rupert Murdoch over claims that he wrote a "bawdy" note to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Trump spent several days lobbying Murdoch, Wall Street Journal editor Emma Tucker and News Corp chief executive Robert Thomson to stop the paper from publishing the story. After the Journal published its story on Thursday evening, Trump claimed it was “false, malicious, and defamatory”.