Trump Demands Speedy Deposition From Rupert Murdoch Because He May Die Before Trial

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President Donald Trump filed a motion Monday requesting an expedited deposition of Rupert Murdoch, listing as his first argument the fact that the News Corp owner is 94 years old and has had health issues, implying he would die before he could testify at trial.

The Trump administration has had an astonishingly tumultuous time in the aftermath of his Department of Justice issuing a memo denying disgraced financier and convicted sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein had maintained a client list to blackmail the rich and powerful men who participated in his sexual abuse and trafficking of young women and underage girls.

This lawsuit arose from The Wall Street Journal’s bombshell article by Khadeeja Safdar and Joe Palazzolo that described an album allegedly compiled by Epstein’s former girlfriend and accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell for his 50th birthday in 2003.

According to the report, Trump contributed a letter for the birthday collection that included a lewd drawing and referenced the two men sharing a “wonderful secret”:

The letter bearing Trump’s name, which was reviewed by the Journal, is bawdy—like others in the album. It contains several lines of typewritten text framed by the outline of a naked woman, which appears to be hand-drawn with a heavy marker. 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 filed the complaint in federal court in Miami earlier this month against the Journal, the Journal’s publishing firm Dow Jones, parent company News Corp, owner Murdoch, News Corp CEO Robert Thomson, and the two Journal reporters, Safdar and Palazzolo. He alleges two claims, defamation per se and defamation per quod, and demands $10 billion in damages.

On Monday, All Rise News editor-in-chief (and former managing editor of Law&Crime) Adam Klasfeld reported that Trump had filed a motion to compel the expedited deposition de bene esse of Murdoch (a de bene esse deposition is also sometimes called a “preservation deposition,” and is intended to be taken to preserve testimony for trial.

As Klasfeld noted, “[I]t would typically be far too early for such a request, but Trump’s lawyer claims the rush is necessary to preserve his testimony” because of Murdoch’s age and health issues.

“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,” the motion argues. “Taken together, these factors weigh heavily in determining that Murdoch would be unavailable for in-person testimony at trial.”

Later on, the motion cites several news reports to list various ailments, injuries, and other health issues Murdoch has “suffered” during the past five years, including “a broken back, seizures, two bouts of pneumonia, atrial fibrillation, and a torn Achilles tendon.”

Trump’s attorneys also argue that “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,” and “President Trump has very limited information related to the Article,” claiming that “Murdoch would not suffer any prejudice significant enough to outweigh the good cause that exists to grant this Motion.”

The motion specifies that Trump is only seeking an expedited deposition regarding Murdoch, and not the other defendants.

Several attorneys and legal scholars were quick to express skepticism of Trump’s legal arguments in this motion, noting the hurdles established by long-standing legal precedent.

Klasfeld noted in his report that Trump’s motion faced procedural hurdles for the case to move forward to discovery at all, much less to get the judge to grant any sort of expedited discovery, and there were also multiple sources who “did not dispute” key elements of the Journal’s reporting:

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’s deadline to respond to this motion is August 4. Mediaite reached out to a representative of News Corp. for comment but did not receive a reply.