Washington, DC [US], July 29 (ANI): U.S. President Donald Trump’s legal team is seeking to depose Rupert Murdoch, the 94-year-old founder of News Corp, within the next 15 days in connection with Trump’s $10 billion defamation lawsuit against Murdoch and The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times reported.
The lawsuit arises from a July 17 article that alleged Trump wrote a sexually suggestive birthday letter to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in 2003 — a claim Trump has denied.
Trump’s attorneys are pushing for an expedited deposition, citing Murdoch’s advanced age and a series of health issues, including a 2023 incident in which Murdoch fainted during a breakfast meeting.
In a filing with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, Trump’s lawyers argued that Murdoch should be deposed “as soon as possible” because he “has suffered, but thankfully overcome, multiple health issues throughout his life” and may be unable to testify in person at a later trial.
“President Trump is requesting only to conduct Murdoch’s deposition and have him produce documents associated only with his involvement in, and any discussions related to, the decision to publish the article,” the filing stated.
Trump filed the suit on July 18, one day after The Wall Street Journal published the article claiming Trump wrote a crude birthday note to Epstein in 2003, five years before Epstein pled guilty to soliciting prostitution from a minor. The article included a sexually suggestive drawing allegedly by Trump. Trump has strongly denied both the note and the drawing, calling them “fake.”
The request to depose Murdoch also referenced a Vanity Fair article that reported Murdoch had been hospitalized in recent years for COVID-19, a broken back, seizures, two bouts of pneumonia, atrial fibrillation, and a torn Achilles tendon.
Trump is suing Murdoch, News Corp, Dow Jones, and two Wall Street Journal reporters, alleging the article was defamatory. The motion argues that Murdoch, as the director and majority owner of News Corp, “sits in the unique position of having readily available all documents, communications, and other information related to the article and the decision to publish it.”
Trump’s lawyers also contended that Murdoch had “an advantage” because he has access to internal information about the article’s publication, while Trump has “very limited information.”
Murdoch’s representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for Dow Jones, which publishes The Wall Street Journal, previously stated, “We have full confidence in the rigor and accuracy of our reporting, and will vigorously defend against any lawsuit.”
Along with Murdoch, Trump is suing Dow Jones; News Corp, the parent company of Dow Jones; Robert Thomson, the chief executive of News Corp; and the two reporters who authored the article.
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