Donald Trump is seeking an expedited deposition of Rupert Murdoch as part of his defamation litigation against the media titan and The Wall Street Journal.
In a motion filed on Monday in federal court in Miami, Trump’s legal team are seeking Murdoch’s deposition because of his age, 94, citing that he “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. Taken together, these factors weigh heavily in determining that Murdoch would be unavailable for in-person testimony at trial.”
Trump sued the Journal, Murdoch, News Corp. and others earlier this month for $10 billion, claiming that he was defamed by the WSJ report on a letter in Trump’s name that was included in an album given to Epstein for his 50th birthday in 2003. The letter, the Journal reported, “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 Journal reported, adding that a “pair of small arcs denotes the woman’s breasts, and the future president’s signature is a squiggly ‘Donald’ below her waist, mimicking pubic hair.”
Trump has denied writing the letter, and when informed of the story by the Journal, he threatened to sue. He said that he even reached out to Murdoch.
In the latest filing arguing for Murdoch’s deposition, Trump’s legal team wrote that he “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. On the other hand, President Trump has very limited information related to the Article.”
A spokesperson for the Journal has said, “We have full confidence in the rigor and accuracy of our reporting, and will vigorously defend against any lawsuit.”
A News Corp. spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment.
