- Lawyers for President Donald Trump asked a judge to order Rupert Murdoch to sit for an expedited deposition in Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit accusing the media mogul of defaming him in a Wall Street Journal article.
- The article said Trump sent a “bawdy” birthday letter to the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in 2003.
- Trump’s lawyers cite Murdoch’s advanced age to submit to questioning under oath earlier than would be normal, suggesting that Murdoch will either be too ill or dead to testify at trial.
Attorneys for the PresidentIn his $10 billion lawsuit against Rupert Murdoch, Donald Trump urged a judge on Monday to order the media tycoon to appear for a deposition within 15 days. The lawsuit claims that Murdoch defamed him in a Wall Street Journal report about a “bawdy” birthday greeting to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
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In their move to force Murdoch to testify earlier than would be customary in such a lawsuit, Trump’s attorneys cited his elderly age to submit to questioning under oath as a primary point, implying that Murdoch will either be too sick or deceased to testify by the time the matter goes to trial.
Trump’s attorneys stated in their filing in federal court in Miami that “Murdoch is 94 years old, has suffered from multiple health issues throughout his life, is believed to have suffered recent significant health scares, and is presumed to live in New York, New York.”
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“Taken together, these factors weigh heavily in determining that Murdoch would be unavailable for in-person testimony at trial,” the attorneys concluded.
The lawyers also pointed out that there is now no order setting a time for the case’s testimony and evidence exchange.
“Murdoch has an advantage over President Trump as Murdoch is able to defend himself because he has access to all the information and documents related to the below-defined malicious and defamatory Article, and the decision behind deciding to publish it,” they stated.
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“On the other hand, President Trump has very limited information related to the Article.”
“For these and other reasons that follow, Murdoch would not suffer any prejudice significant enough to outweigh the good cause that exists to grant this Motion,” they stated.
According to the complaint, Murdoch is against being asked to appear for an expedited deposition.
CNBC has asked Murdoch’s lawyers to comment.
Later on Monday, the case’s presiding judge, Darrin Gayles, issued an order instructing Murdoch’s attorneys to reply to the motion by August 4.
Additionally, the motion requests certain papers from Murdoch.
They consist of any correspondence he may have had with other defendants in the case.
A log of his calls from July 10 to July 25 is also requested, along with “Any text messages, iMessages, WhatsApp messages, Slack messages, Signal messages, WeChat messages, or any other form of digital communication on any mobile device related to the Article that You have sent or received.”
Earlier this month, the Murdoch’s News Corp.-owned Journal reported that Trump wrote Epstein a letter on his 50th birthday in 2003.
According to the publication, the letter “contains several lines of typewritten text framed by the outline of a naked woman, which appears to be hand-drawn with a heavy marker.”
“The letter concludes: ‘Happy Birthday and may every day be another wonderful secret,'” reported the newspaper.
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Trump has vehemently disputed that he wrote the letter.
News Corp., its CEO Robert Thomson, the Journal’s publisher Dow Jones & Company, and the two reporters whose bylines appear on the article, Khadeeja Safdar and Joseph Palazzolo, are also named as defendants in his complaint against Murdoch.
When one of the reporters contacted the White House to inquire about the letter, “President Trump reached out to, and spoke directly with, Murdoch and advised him that the letter referenced in the Article was fake,” according to the motion filed Monday by Trump’s attorneys.
“Murdoch advised President Trump that ‘he would take care of it,'” stated the motion.
“Because Defendants published the Article after President Trump spoke directly with Murdoch and advised him that the letter referenced in the Article was fake, Murdoch’s direct involvement further underscores Defendants’ actual malice and intent behind the decision to publish the false, defamatory, disparaging, and inflammatory statements about President Trump identified in the Complaint,” the motion stated.
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