Trump worked to kill a story about his friendship with Epstein. Now we know why

How worked up was he? “On a fucking warpath,” one administration official told Rolling Stone magazine.

No, there’s another element – and a brutal one for the president. It’s where the story was published: in the Wall Street Journal, whose conservative opinion side has often backed him and whose news side has a reputation for ensuring that explosive stories are bulletproof: accurate in their facts and fully prepared to stand up under legal scrutiny.

What’s more, the newspaper is controlled by Rupert Murdoch, Trump’s most important media ally.

This lines up with Trump constantly saying this or that media organization is nasty. It's with him or against him kind of thing.

And I doubt that Trump really wants to put himself through legal discovery, with all the ugliness that might be exposed.

This won't be the first time he chickened out on a lawsuit when discovery reared it's head and probably not the last time either.