(AFP) – US President Donald Trump asked a federal judge on Monday to expedite a deposition of Rupert Murdoch in his $10 billion defamation lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal, citing the media baron’s advanced age.
“Murdoch is 94 years old, has suffered from multiple health issues throughout his life (and) is believed to have suffered recent significant health scares,” Trump’s attorneys said in a filing with a district court in Florida. “These factors weigh heavily in determining that Murdoch would be unavailable for in-person testimony at trial,” they said, asking District Judge Darrin Gayles to compel an “expedited deposition.” Gayles gave lawyers for Murdoch until August 4 to respond.
Trump sued Murdoch and the Journal this month after it published an article about his friendship with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The newspaper reported that in 2003, the then-real estate magnate wrote a suggestive birthday letter to Epstein, illustrated with a naked woman and alluding to a shared “secret.” Trump denies any such letter exists.
Epstein, a longtime friend of Trump and multiple high-profile men, was found hanging dead in a New York prison cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on charges that he sexually exploited hundreds of underage girls at his homes in New York and Florida. The case sparked conspiracy theories, especially among Trump’s far-right voters, about an alleged international cabal of wealthy pedophiles.
When Trump returned to power for a second term this January, his supporters clamored for revelations, but the FBI and Justice Department released a memo this month saying Epstein had not blackmailed any prominent figures and did not have a “client list.”
In another development on Monday, a lawyer for Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s associate and the only person found guilty of crimes in connection with his activities, asked the Supreme Court to throw out her 2021 sex trafficking conviction.
Maxwell is seeking to have her conviction overturned on grounds that a plea deal reached in 2008 between Epstein and federal prosecutors in a Florida case ruled out prosecution of any “co-conspirators.” “This case is about what the government promised, not what Epstein did,” her lawyer, David Markus, said. “Petitioner’s alleged status as Epstein’s co-conspirator was the entire basis of her prosecution.”
The Justice Department has previously opposed Maxwell’s motion, but a top official met with her in Florida last week as the Trump administration struggles to tamp down a furor over the president’s handling of the Epstein case. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who is also Trump’s former personal attorney, has declined to say what he discussed with Maxwell in the highly unusual meetings between a convicted felon and a top DOJ official.
The former British socialite is serving a 20-year sentence after being convicted of recruiting underage girls for Epstein.
© 2024 AFP
