White House officials called the Wall Street Journal to try to kill a possible coming story about President Donald Trump's ties to deceased wealth manager and child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, Status News reported on Thursday.
"The article, said to be in the works for days, had still not appeared as of Thursday afternoon — raising eyebrows and fueling speculation across Washington and New York," said the report. "According to people familiar with the matter, The Journal is facing pressure from the White House over the story."
The report claimed Trump was "said to have personally called Emma Tucker, The Journal's editor-in-chief, to voice his objections."
Further details on that reported call weren't immediately known. Status' author Oliver Darcy, a former CNN correspondent, has reported that the story relies on "documentation" and is "potentially explosive."
This follows days of turmoil for the White House and the GOP after the Trump Justice Department closed the book on a review of the investigation into Epstein, concluding his death was a suicide as initially reported and that there is no long-fabled "client list" of wealthy celebrities, executives, and politicians who participated in his trafficking ring.
It was a massive 180 for many of Trump's law enforcement officials who had spent years fanning the flames of conspiracy theory about the case, and it led to many of Trump's supporters revolting against him and accusing him of hiding the truth.
Trump and his inner circle have scrambled to contain the fallout, with the president defending the work of the Justice Department and even criticizing his own supporters, demanding they move on from the issue.
