Team Trump to judge: Let us depose Rupert Murdoch while he's still alive
Trump's lawyer claims an expedited deposition is necessary because Murdoch is "94 years old" and "has suffered from multiple health issues."
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Donald Trump’s legal team has asked a federal judge to fast-track a deposition of News Corp. founder Rupert Murdoch for his defamation lawsuit over the fallout of the Wall Street Journal’s exposé about Jeffrey Epstein’s 50th birthday gift.
It would normally be far too early for Trump to seek depositions over a lawsuit that his legal team filed on July 18.
Depositions usually come during the discovery phase of litigation if the lawsuit survives a motion to dismiss, but Trump’s lawyer Alejandro Brito wants to preserve Murdoch’s testimony as soon as possible, insinuating that the mogul may be physically unable to testify once discovery begins.
“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,” Brito wrote in an 11-page motion. “Taken together, these factors weigh heavily in determining that Murdoch would be unavailable for in-person testimony at trial.”
Later in the motion, Trump’s lawyer rattles off reports of such health scares, including Murdoch’s 2022 hospitalization with COVID-19 and Murdoch fainting during a breakfast meeting with News UK CEO Rebekah Brooks this past February.
“Within the last five years, Murdoch has “suffered a broken back, seizures, two bouts of pneumonia, atrial fibrillation, and a torn Achilles tendon,” Brito wrote, citing Vanity Fair.
The White House recently disclosed that Trump, 79, has chronic venous insufficiency, a treatable condition that is common among older people. Obesity is said to be a risk factor.
Trump’s lawyer requested Murdoch’s deposition de bene esse — Latin for “of well being,” or conditionally — to preserve the media mogul’s testimony if the defamation case advances.
The lawsuit’s survival is far from certain in light of the high bar for public figures in defamation cases to prove actual malice.
For Trump’s case to advance to discovery, U.S. District Judge Darrin P. Gayles would have to find Trump plausibly alleged that the Wall Street Journal knew that the letter Trump reportedly sent to Epstein was a forgery before publishing their story, or that the paper recklessly published the article despite knowing the letter it described was likely fake.
Several sources quoted in the Journal’s reporting did not dispute the authenticity of the leather-bound notebook that Epstein received on his 50th birthday, which Epstein’s accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell created and filled with letters from his prominent friends. In their series of articles, the Journal reached out for comment to former President Bill Clinton, attorney Alan Dershowitz, financier Leon Black, and billionaire Les Wexner, none of whom claimed that the notebook was fake.
Lawyer Brad Edwards, who represents hundreds of Epstein’s victims, told MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell that he was aware of Epstein’s notebook, and Epstein’s victims helped make that gift, which Edwards said was in the custody of the executors of Epstein’s estate.
Murdoch must respond to Trump’s motion by Aug. 4. His attorneys did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment.
Read Trump’s motion in full here.
In other Epstein news:
How have the Trump Justice Department’s actions affected Epstein and Maxwell’s victims? Watch me explore that question with
in the YouTube video below.I also joined
for his “Talking Feds” podcast with fellow guests Susan Glasser of The New Yorker and Bill Kristol of .You can listen to that podcast below.
Well, I suppose it could not happen to a nicer crook, but this drive also shows what a craven and greedy psychopath Trump is. Human feelings and common decency just aren’t part of the equation.
Then I would think Murdoch ‘s lawyers would ask for Trump
for discovery - First!