WSJ hit with White House snub over shocking Epstein report

The Trump administration has excluded the Wall Street Journal from the press pool in Scotland following their release of last week's explosive reporting on the president's former friendship with deceased wealth manager and child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, Politico reported on Monday.

“As the appeals court confirmed, the Wall Street Journal or any other news outlet are not guaranteed special access to cover President Trump in the Oval Office, aboard Air Force One, and in his private workspaces,” said White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt. “Due to the Wall Street Journal’s fake and defamatory conduct, they will not be one of the thirteen outlets on board. Every news organization in the entire world wishes to cover President Trump, and the White House has taken significant steps to include as many voices as possible.”

The story detailed how Trump allegedly sent a salacious letter to Epstein for his birthday in 2003, proclaiming that "We have certain things in common, Jeffrey," and featuring a drawing of a naked woman.

Trump has filed a libel lawsuit against the Journal, a conservative-leaning paper under the umbrella of media tycoon Rupert Murdoch.

So far, the lawsuit is lacking in details, but Trump has publicly denied writing the letter and claims he doesn't even make drawings, despite the existence of several of his drawings that were put up for auction over the years.

The president has already used exclusion from the press pool as a punishment against news outlets that defy his wishes; the Associated Press has been locked out of White House press briefings for months after not updating its style guide to adopt Trump's "Gulf of America" language. A federal judge ordered the White House to stop the lockout, but that decision was put on hold by an appeals court panel last month.