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In tonight’s edition, the Wall Street Journal published Thursday a story with fresh reporting into the relationship between Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein. Breaker now hears that the White House went to great lengths to have the yarn killed.

Also tonight, The New York Times masthead answers questions on their Mamdani coverage, New York Daily News staffers rally against Alden Capital, and the reassignments NYT critics have been offered.

Finally, tonight, who made the guestlist for the hot ticket book parties for Michael Grynbaum’s Empire of the Elite and Josh Dawsey, Tyler Pager, and Isaac Arnsdorf 2024 – and the media stars who were spotted at both!

Mentioned tonight: Joe Kahn, Carolyn Ryan, Jesse Green, Jon Pareles, Margaret Lyons, Zach Woolfe, Elyse Cheney, Heath Freeman, Susanne Craig, Katie Robertson, Ben Mullin, Astead Herndon, Clare Malone, Jon Lemire, Carrie Melago, Katie Kingsbury, Mara Gay, Ben Smith, Sarah Ellison, Ruby Cramer, Stu Loeser, Lis Smith, Alex Levy, Nate Evans, Josh Vlasto, Juli Weiner, Graydon Carter, Mark Guiducci, Sam Dolnick, Ellen Pollock, Maureen Dowd, Michael Barbaro, Lisa Tobin, Andrew Ross Sorkin, Shawn McCreesh, Stella Bugbee, Vanessa Friedman, Annie Karni, John Koblin, Alex Vadukul, Taffy Brodesser-Akner, Jon Caramanica, Jacob Gallagher, Andrew Trunsky, Max Tani, Chris Rovzar, Pater Lattman, Jim Bankoff, Lauren Starke, Charlotte Klein, Erik Maza, Emma Alpern, Matthew Schneier, Oli Coleman, Sarah Ball, Rory Satran, Isabella Simonetti, Oliver Darcy, Elise Shae, Emily Sundberg, Aidan McLaughlin, Chris Black, Samantha Leach, Nate Freeman, Natalie Korach, Taylore Scarabelli, Jake Nevins, Willa Bennett, Sasha Mutchnik, Gabe Doppelt, Laura Brown, Dana Brown, Molly Jong-Fast, Risa Heller, Liana Satenstein, Reyhan Harmanci, Scoop Wasserstein Kate Klobe, Audrey Gelman, lan Zechory, Aimee Bell, Brianna Scharfenberg, Jeffrey Toobin, Sue Chan, Alyssa Reeder, Bennett Madison, Steven Chaiken, Monty Hermann, Jane Sarkin, Adam Platzner, Ava Donaldson, Brandon Borror-Chappell, Steven Phillips-Horst, Lori Stein, Josh Duboff, David Kamp, Jake Cohen, Bruce Handy, Gary He, Sadie Stein and Gabrielle Bluestone.

The Wall Street Journal published Thursday a story with new revelations about Jeffrey Epstein's ties to Donald Trump that had the White House “freaking out.”

There had been efforts in recent days from the White House to have the story killed, including a phone call to Journal editor Emma Tucker from White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, where Trump was on the line, Breaker has learned. 

The Journal piece includes fresh revelations about Trump and Epstein's relationship, including a personal letter sent from Trump to Epstein in 2003. The letter was organized by Ghislaine Maxwell to be added to a birthday album and gifted to Epstein that year.

The Journal has previously broken stories about Epstein's relationship with Bill Gates. Oliver Darcy’s Status first reported on Thursday about the new Journal story that the White House was hoping to kill. 

Earlier this week, Breaker reported on a series of tense phone calls from Trump to Journal owner Rupert Murdoch in which the President complained about the Journal’s coverage of him. 

A spokesperson for The Wall Street Journal and News Corp declined to comment. Leavitt and the White House did not respond to a request for comment. 

(Exclusive.) At The New York Times, there is one thing people love to talk about – The New York Times. 

So, at 11 am on Thursday, around 150 Times staffers gathered on the 15th floor of The New York Times building (with more joining via livestream) for the company's monthly town hall. 

During the bit over an hour-long meeting hosted by CEO Meredith Kopit Levien, staffers heard about Wesley Morris’ new Cannonball podcast and the Real Estate section's popular “The Hunt” column before cutting to a Q and A.

There was one burning topic staffers wanted answers on – the Times’ story about Zohran Mamdani’s application to Columbia University in 2009. 

The story, which reported the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York identified his race on the form as “Black or African American” and “Asian,” generated heat for several days from readers and staff.

The episode even saw some clever wag create MamdaniTimes.com, which generates headlines such as: ‘Eric Adams Questions Mamdani's Commitment to Serving Interests of Turkey,’ ‘Mamdani Brown-splains Pronunciation of Last Name’ and ‘Voters Rally Behind Free Buses, Rent Freezes But Warn Against Mamdani's 'Unrealistic' Optimism for Mets This Season.’

It was left to Pat Healy, the Times’ new assistant managing editor, overseeing standards and trust (and a contender to be the next executive editor of the Gray Lady), to defend the story…