President Trump and Rupert Murdoch struck a deal to postpone depositions in Trump’s $10 million defamation lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal.
Last month President Trump on filed a libel lawsuit against Dow Jones, News Corp, Rupert Murdoch, and two Wall Street Journal reporters after the Wall Street Journal dropped a Jeffrey Epstein hit piece.
The lawsuit was filed in a Miami federal court.
According to the hit piece published by The Wall Street Journal, President Trump wrote Jeffrey Epstein a “bawdy” letter for his 50th birthday depicting a naked woman.
President Trump denied he wrote the letter.
Ghislaine Maxwell allegedly prepared a ‘special gift’ and collected letters written from Trump and other people.
“Maxwell collected letters from Trump and dozens of Epstein’s other associates for a 2003 birthday album, according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal,” The Wall Street Journal reported.
“Pages from the leather-bound album—assembled before Epstein was first arrested in 2006—are among the documents examined by Justice Department officials who investigated Epstein and Maxwell years ago, according to people who have reviewed the pages. It’s unclear if any of the pages are part of the Trump administration’s recent review,” WSJ reported.
“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,” The Wall Street Journal reported.
Trump lashed out at Rupert Murdoch last month as he announced the lawsuit.
“The Wall Street Journal printed a FAKE letter, supposedly to Epstein. These are not my words, not the way I talk. Also, I don’t draw pictures. I told Rupert Murdoch it was a Scam, that he shouldn’t print this Fake Story. But he did, and now I’m going to sue his ass off, and that of his third rate newspaper. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” Trump said last month.
Trump’s attorneys originally asked for Murdoch to be deposed within 15 days because he would be dead or too sick to testify by the time the lawsuit made it to trial.
However, President Trump’s lawyers said in a court filing they agreed to postpone Murdoch’s deposition if the 94-year-old media mogul gives updates about his health.
CNBC reported:
Conservative media baron Rupert Murdoch will give President Donald Trump regular updates on his health as part of an agreement to postpone Murdoch’s deposition in Trump’s $10 billion defamation lawsuit against him over a Wall Street Journal article about late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The unusual stipulation in Miami federal court comes a week after Trump’s lawyers sought a deposition from Murdoch within 15 days. Their motion had implied that Murdoch might be either dead or too sick to testify in person by the time the case went to trial.
“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,” Trump’s lawyers said in their filing last week.
Murdoch’s new agreement to divulge highly personal information about his health to Trump and his lawyers contrasts sharply with the cozy relationship Murdoch’s Fox News has had with the president over the years.
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