REUTERS/Ken Cedeno; REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz
If 94-year-old media mogul Rupert Murdoch has any health problems, President Donald Trump could be among the first to know.
Trump and Murdoch struck a deal to delay any depositions for the president’s lawsuit over a Wall Street Journal article that reported Jeffrey Epstein received a bawdy birthday letter bearing Trump’s name in 2003.
The agreement, details of which were filed in court Monday night, said that neither side would engage in discovery — including depositions — until a judge decides whether to dismiss the case on legal grounds.
In the meantime, Murdoch is supposed to give Trump “a sworn declaration describing his current health condition” within three days and continue to “provide regularly scheduled updates” regarding his health.
The agreement also requires Murdoch to provide a mechanism for alerting Trump “if there is a material change in his health.”
In July, Trump sued Murdoch, Dow Jones, News Corp., News Corp. CEO Robert Thomson, and two journalists over a Wall Street Journal article that reported a letter bearing Trump’s signature was among a book of birthday salutations Epstein received for his 50th birthday.
“Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret,” the letter said, according to the Journal, which also reported it featured an illustration of a nude woman and Trump’s squiggly signature “mimicking pubic hair.”
Trump’s lawsuit says the letter does not exist and accuses Murdoch, Dow Jones, and News Corp., which owns the Journal, of defamation.
A Dow Jones spokesperson previously said it has “full confidence in the rigor and accuracy of our reporting.” Business Insider hasn’t independently verified the existence of the letter.
Epstein’s 50th birthday, in 2003, was long before he pleaded guilty to sex crimes in Florida in 2008 and registered as a sex offender.
Epstein died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial for a separate set of criminal sex-trafficking charges in Manhattan. The Journal article did not accuse Trump of any sexual misconduct related to Epstein.
Trump’s lawyers previously sought to put a deposition of Murdoch on the fast track. On July 28, they asked the judge overseeing the defamation lawsuit, in a Florida federal court, to force Murdoch to sit for a deposition within 15 days because of his age and history of “health scares.”
Monday’s agreement pauses any depositions or any other part of the discovery process until after the judge rules on whether to toss the lawsuit. That includes any potential deposition from Trump himself.
If the judge rules in Trump’s favor and allows the lawsuit to proceed, Murdoch is required to sit for a deposition within 30 days of the decision, according to the terms of the agreement filed in court Monday.
Murdoch and the other defendants haven’t filed a motion to dismiss Trump’s lawsuit. Their first formal answer is due in court by September 22. Representatives for News Corp. didn’t respond to Business Insider’s request for comment Tuesday.
It’s not clear how much detail Murdoch is supposed to supply to Trump about his health issues, nor how often he’s supposed to provide health updates.
Monday’s public filing says the parties signed a separate “Abatement Agreement, which contains additional procedural details,” and which was not made public.
A representative for Trump’s legal team declined to comment for this story, directing Business Insider to the public court filing.
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