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Donald Trump‘s lawyers are asking a federal court for a quick deposition of media mogul Rupert Murdoch in the president’s defamation lawsuit over a Wall Street Journal article about his relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Trump’s lawyers request in the filing in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida that the court compel the owner of the Wall Street Journal to be deposed within 15 days, in part because of his advanced age. The filing argues Murdoch, 94, “is believed to have suffered recent significant health scares,” which underscores the urgency of having him testify quickly.
“Taken together, these factors weigh heavily in determining that Murdoch would be unavailable for in-person testimony at trial,” the filing reads.
The Trump lawyers allege Murdoch should be compelled to testify because he spoke to Trump about the story before it was published and is “widely known for having a hands-on approach over editorial decisions related to News Corp’s periodicals.”
“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 filing reads.