‘I’m Not So Sure Donald Trump Has Fully Thought This One Through’: CNN Legal Analyst Says President Taking a Huge Risk by Suing Murdoch, WSJ

President Donald Trump officially sued The Wall Street Journal, its parent company News Corp, and Rupert Murdoch on Friday after threatening to do so earlier this week.

On Thursday, the Journal published a report detailing a 2003 birthday letter Trump sent to Jeffrey Epstein, who was later convicted of child sex crimes. The letter reportedly contained a drawing of a nude woman and a bizarre imaginary dialogue between Trump and Epstein. Trump denied the report and told the Journal on Tuesday that he would sue the paper if it were to publish the story.

After the libel suit was filed on Friday, CNN Senior Legal Analyst Elie Honig appeared on The Lead, where he was asked by Jake Tapper about discovery in the case.

“Might this not end up just dredging up a lot of stuff Trump doesn’t want to talk about anyway?” the host inquired.

Honig responded:

I’m not so sure Donald Trump has fully thought this one through, Jake, because you showed at the beginning of the show his very recent social media post where he said, “Oh, I look forward to deposing Rupert Murdoch under oath. That should be fascinating.”

Well, guess who else is going to have to testify under oath at a deposition. The plaintiff in this case, the person who’s suing, Donald John Trump. And the subject of that testimony, which again, will be under oath, will be his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. No holds barred. And by filing this lawsuit, he is walking himself right into that scenario. Discovery goes both ways. Plaintiff has to turn stuff over to the defendant and vice versa. So, I have some questions about the legal strategy here.

Trump and his administration have been reeling the last two weeks thanks to the Department of Justice’s ham-fisted handling of the Epstein files, which the president and several of his top officials said would be released. Instead, the DOJ concluded that, despite Attorney Pam Bondi’s initial insistence to the contrary, Epstein did not actually possess a client list of rich and powerful people who engaged in criminal behavior.

The president has responded to the predictable backlash by attacking his own supporters and suggesting that they are “pretty bad people” for wanting more information about Epstein and his associates.

Watch above via CNN.