President Donald Trump, 79, wants The Wall Street Journal‘s 94-year-old billionaire owner and frenemy Rupert Murdoch deposed immediately—for fear Murdoch may die.
In a motion filed on Monday in Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against Murdoch and the Journal, Trump’s lawyer, Alejandro Brito, urged the court to depose Murdoch within the next two weeks, noting the Australian media tycoon has suffered a bevy of health issues in recent years.
“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,” Brito wrote in the filing. “Taken together, these factors weigh heavily in determining that Murdoch would be unavailable for in-person testimony at trial.”
Trump sued Murdoch, the Journal, and a number of staffers at the paper in a federal court in Florida earlier this month after the Journal reported that Trump sent sex offender Jeffrey Epstein a “bawdy” letter for Epstein’s 50th birthday in 2003.
The alleged letter included an imaginary conversation between the two New Yorkers inside the Trump-illustrated outline of a naked woman. Trump has denied writing the letter, calling it “fake.”
A spokesperson for the Journal had no comment. A spokesperson for Murdoch did not respond to immediate requests for comment.
The White House did not respond to an immediate request for comment. Brito did not respond to an immediate request to elaborate on the filing.
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