President Trump has compelled The Wall Street Journal’s 94-year-old owner Rupert Murdoch to submit health updates in exchange for dropping the expedited deposition demand in his $10 billion lawsuit against the paper.
Trump and Murdoch’s lawyers told a federal court in Florida on Monday that the president would not force Murdoch to testify expeditiously until a federal judge rules on Murdoch and the Journal‘s motion to dismiss.
A lawyer for Trump did not respond to an immediate request for comment. Representatives for Murdoch and the Journal did not respond to immediate requests for comment.
Trump sued the Journal and Murdoch last month over a Journal report documenting his friendship with the late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, including an alleged letter Trump sent Epstein for the latter’s 50th birthday in 2003.
The 79-year-old president had escalated the case last week, demanding that Murdoch testify in the case within 30 days and warning the court that he “suffered from multiple health issues throughout his life” and “is believed to have suffered recent significant health scares.”
The catch, however: Should the judge grant the joint motion to delay the deposition, Murdoch must provide “a sworn declaration describing his current health condition” within three days. He would then have to submit “regularly scheduled updates… regarding his health, including a mechanism for him to alert [Trump] if there is a material change in his health.”
And if the judge denies Murdoch’s motion to dismiss the case, he must submit to a deposition within 30 days.
The declaration amounts to a temporary truce between the president and his longtime media frenemy, who also owns Trump favorites Fox News and the New York Post.
Trump claimed in his lawsuit that he personally warned Murdoch not to publish the story, but Murdoch ignored his demands. In speaking to reporters last week, Trump questioned whether Murdoch had control over the paper.
“I would have assumed that Rupert Murdoch controls it,” Trump said. “Maybe he does, maybe he doesn’t.”
Trump also claimed Murdoch and the Journal wanted to settle the case, though the paper has remained mum on whether it has engaged in any settlement talks.
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