Trump to Rupert: If You Show Me Yours, I Won’t Show You Mine
Donald Trump’s lawyer just filed a clown motion to depose Rupert Murdoch in his WSJ lawsuit immediately (the court already approved Dow Jones’ uncontested request to extend the response date to September 22).
As justification, Trump’s lawyer argues, in part, that Rupert is old and might kick off before things slowly get around to discovery in a year’s time or so, if they even get that far.
Murdoch’s age and health warrant conducting his deposition on an expedited basis. Murdoch recently turned 94 years old and has suffered, but thankfully overcome, multiple health issues throughout his life. Moreover, upon information and belief, Murdoch resides in New York, New York, which is well over 100 miles from this District. Thus, it is presumable, both because of his age and health and/or his distance from this Court, that Murdoch will be unavailable for trial. See Supra Glass, 2024 WL 1558712, at *3 (granting motion for deposition de bene esse and finding that witnesses were unavailable for trial under 32(a)(4)(B)).
Among the things Trump is subpoenaing is any digital communication about the July 17 article reporting that a letter from Donald Trump was included in a 2003 birthday book for Jeffrey Epstein. Another is phone records about whom he spoke with on it.
7. Any text messages, iMessages, WhatsApp messages, Slack messages, Signal messages, WeChat messages, or any other form of digital communication on any mobile device related to the Article that You have sent or received.
8. Documents sufficient to show a log of the calls You made and received, on any landline or mobile phone number, from July 10, 2025 through July 25, 2025 related to the Article.
But the only proof that Trump presents that he did speak with Murdoch is an unvalidated screen cap of Trump’s Truth Social post posted after the fact to that effect (when Hunter Biden tried to submit such things in a court filing, DOJ successfully rejected it).
Worse still, the post falsely claims that WSJ “printed” “the supposed letter.”
That’s not even what the lawsuit alleges, which claims that WSJ stated that Trump authored, drew, and signed the letter in question.
17. Therein, Defendants falsely and maliciously stated that President Trump supposedly authored, drew, and signed a letter wishing Epstein a happy fiftieth birthday.
While the WSJ did say that Trump’s signature appeared where pubic hair might go, it specifically said that it did not know how the letter was produced.
It described that Ghislaine Maxwell collected letters from friends, including Trump.
She turned to Epstein’s family and friends. One of them was Donald Trump.
Maxwell collected letters from Trump and dozens of Epstein’s other associates for a 2003 birthday album, according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
It described that the letter bore his name, and that his signature appeared.
The letter bearing Trump’s name, which was reviewed by the Journal, is bawdy—like others in the album. It contains several lines of typewritten text framed by the outline of a naked woman, which appears to be hand-drawn with a heavy marker. A pair of small arcs denotes the woman’s breasts, and the future president’s signature is a squiggly “Donald” below her waist, mimicking pubic hair.
And it specifically said it did not know how the letter was prepared — disavowing knowledge of whether Trump “authored, drew, [or] signed” the letter himself.
It isn’t clear how the letter with Trump’s signature was prepared.
Trump provides no proof the emails or calls he describes actually occurred. He doesn’t provide his own phone records (or even, proof that he’s the one who posted the Truth Social post, something that took Jack Smith quite a bit of work regarding Trump’s January 6 tweets).
And curiously, Trump wants to know to whom Rupert was talking about all this starting on July 10, five days before the alleged phone call to Rupert (and wants to know to whom Rupert spoke for a full week after Trump filed the lawsuit, going through the second story on the Epstein book).
It’s a stunt. Among other things, it reveals that Trump doesn’t think Rupert plotted all this on Truth Social!
Update: Judge Darrin Gayles has given Rupert until August 4 to respond to the request.
At best he is just trying to give Murdoch a reason to make a large extortion payment ala ABC and CBS.
Given Donald Trump’s tendency to project, does this mean he’s thinking about his own mortality?
The swelling ankles? The wrist bruises? The increasing tendency to claim he doesn’t know anything? His desperation to get a Nobel?
He’s got plenty of reasons to think about that. I thought a brush with mortality might humanise Boris but I was wrong. Still, Trump’s older and does seem to be genuinely disturbed by pictures of starving children (if only because it makes him look bad).
By the way, I used to have to analyse stool samples when I worked in a lab, so your ‘clown motion’ comment made me smile bigly.
Heh :-)
LOL about Trump’s argument that he depose Rupert Murdoch immediately, because he’s old and might kick the bucket. He should be concerned that Murdoch publicly accepts the deal, if and only if his lawyers can depose Trump on the same expedited schedule. When Trump has to answer questions under oath, is when he usually folds his tent and goes home.
I like the way you’re thinking here. I’d add one more tweak to Murdoch’s deal: as Trump is the one who filed the lawsuit, Trump’s deposition should go first. “After you, Mr. President.”
Indeed, TACO is a fundamental premise for court cases as well. I agree with Peterr on the timing of dueling depositions. I also wonder what Ghislaine Maxwell told Todd Blanche in order to trigger this motion now. I don’t think it’s coincidental and I suspect Maxwell didn’t give Blanche what he wanted, a list that only fingers Democrats and other DFHs on the enemies list to wave around on the RWNM. So, Convict-1 is trying the other end of the channel, so to speak.
He’s certainly making an assumption about who’s making decisions at all those businesses that Rupert put Lachlan in charge of.
My suggestion assumes that Murdoch doesn’t have Trump’s suit dismissed on the pleadings. That it might be would be one reason it’s such a clown car tactic to push a deposition ahead of the normal pleading phase. It’s also stupid because it opens Trump up to the kind of quid pro quo he would normally despise: mutual early depositions, with Trump, as plaintiff, going first, as Peterr suggests.
How much of this is racing ahead of the Nevada trust dispute? Rupert kicks now and four children now share editorial control over FOX News. Now, it’s Rupert alone with Lachlan as the right-hand man, easier to pressure them to settle if those two don’t want to undo their creation.
Interesting question.
There’s also the possibility (or should I say “likelihood”?) that Trump believes negotiating with Rupert alone would be easier than trying to herd the kids into agreement if Rupert is gone.
His son James is far to the left of Rupert and Lachlan, donated to Biden in 2020 and endorsed Harris in 2024. If James had a say he might fight this. I don’t know about the two older sisters.
Well Rupert isn’t the only one getting the heave ho. One of the authors of Project 2025 is primarying Lindsey Graham. Gee, that sycophancy didn’t get him very much.
Trump better see this for what it is, the real power behind the GOP is going to clean house and install their own everywhere they can. Tick Tock Donald.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/maga-civil-war-breaks-out-as-project-2025-creator-takes-on-lindsey-graham/
I wouldn’t be too sure about Trump giving Murdoch “the heave-ho.” Even his accusatory Truth Social post has a plaintive undertone, as he asserts that he and Rupert had some kind of understanding–just like the old days, when Murdoch took a three-quarters-of-a-billion dollar bullet for Trump over the 2020 election Big Lie. I don’t get the sense that Trump wants to sever his connection to Murdoch, but rather that this lawsuit is an old man’s dominance feint–Trump taking his dick out one last time and demanding that the world acknowledge it’s bigger than Rupert’s.
I wouldn’t worry much about Lindsey Graham. Paul Dans has all the charisma of an empty Dumpster. But let them fight. As with Ken Paxton assailing John Cornyn in Texas, they can do some of the Dems’ work for them.