President Donald Trump has asked a US court to order a swift deposition of Rupert Murdoch in his lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal, citing the media mogul’s advanced age.
Trump sued the billionaire over an article in the Journal, which is owned by Murdoch’s News Corp, that alleged the president had written a “bawdy” letter to celebrate sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s birthday in 2003.
In a court filing on Monday, Trump’s lawyers stated that he had informed Murdoch prior to the report being published that the letter was “fake”.
Trump’s lawyers argued that Murdoch should be asked to depose swiftly, noting that he was 94 and “is believed to have suffered recent significant health scares”.
“Taken together, these factors weigh heavily in determining that Murdoch would be unavailable for in-person testimony at trial,” Trump’s lawyers stated in their filing in Miami federal court.
The $10bn (£7.5bn) lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal states that the publication was attempting to harm the president’s reputation.
Dow Jones, the Journal’s publisher, has stood by the reporting and said it was prepared to defend itself against the president’s lawsuit.
US District Judge Darrin Gayles, who is presiding over the case, has asked Murdoch to respond to Trump’s deposition request by 4 August.
According to the Wall Street Journal, a letter bearing Trump’s name “contained several lines of typewritten text framed by the outline of a naked woman, which appears to be hand-drawn with a heavy marker”.
“Inside the outline of the naked woman was a typewritten note styled as an imaginary conversation between Trump and Epstein, written in the third person,” the paper reported.
It reportedly contained a joking reference that “enigmas never age” and allegedly ended with the words: “A pal is a wonderful thing. Happy Birthday – and may every day be another wonderful secret.”
Trump denied writing the note after the article was published on 17 July, posting: “These are not my words, not the way I talk. Also, I don’t draw pictures.”
The article was published amid mounting pressure on the Trump administration to disclose more information about Epstein.
Trump and Epstein had a publicly known friendship spanning several years. The president has claimed their relationship soured in 2004, long before Epstein was arrested on sex trafficking charges.
Epstein died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
In addition to the birthday greeting, the Wall Street Journal reported that Trump was told he was among hundreds of people named in Justice Department documents on Epstein.
On Monday, the president told reporters that his name may have been planted in the Epstein files by former Attorney General Merrick Garland or former FBI director James Comey.
Trump did not provide any evidence to support his allegations. Garland and Comey have not immediately responded to his comments.