Trump Wants Murdoch Under Oath

Donald Trump's Florida lawyer on Monday filed a motion demanding that billionaire Rupert Murdoch be forced to sit for a deposition "within fifteen days," as the president sues the Wall Street Journal over a report claiming that Trump composed a "bawdy" 50th birthday card for sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Trump's motion notes that because Murdoch is 94 years old and has experienced "multiple health issues" and "scares" in the last five years, an "expedited" deposition under oath would be the appropriate course of action.

"[T]here is good cause to expedite Murdoch's deposition, and the Court should exercise its discretion to authorize the same," the motion for fast-tracked discovery says.

"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," wrote Trump lawyer Alejandro Brito. "Taken together, these factors weigh heavily in determining that Murdoch would be unavailable for in-person testimony at trial."

In the meantime, though, Trump is demanding crucial testimony from the owner of the Journal, whom Trump apparently failed to persuade not to publish the Epstein exclusive in the first place. The plaintiff insists that Murdoch has an "advantage" that Trump does not have, but that the scales would even out were an expedited deposition to occur.

"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," the motion continued. "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."

Notably, Trump's team continues to maintain that the birthday letter to Epstein attributed to Trump is not real.

"Because Murdoch is a director and majority owner of News Corp, he 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," the filing added. "Moreover, if the purported letter in the Article somehow actually exists, which it does not, and the Defendants have it in their possession, which they do not, Murdoch has easy access to it."

"Overwhelming good cause exists to expedite Murdoch's deposition without delay," the motion adds.

On Monday, U.S. District Judge Darrin Gayles ordered the defendants to respond by Aug. 4 to Trump's request, according to the federal docket.

Dow Jones and Company, Inc., News Corp, the Wall Street Journal, its defendant reporters Joseph Palazzolo and Khadeeja Safdar, and Murdoch have yet to answer Trump's complaint. Gayles, a Barack Obama appointee, set Sept. 22 as the deadline for those responses.

Read Trump's motion here.