Overview

• President Trump has moved to compel Rupert Murdoch’s testimony within 15 days in his $10 billion defamation suit over a Wall Street Journal report on a purported Jeffrey Epstein birthday letter.
• Trump’s legal team cited Murdoch’s age and health as well as the absence of a scheduled discovery timeline to argue for expedited questioning.
• Judge Darrin P. Gayles set an August 4 deadline for Murdoch’s lawyers to file a response, advancing the case into its discovery phase.
• The motion demands Murdoch produce communications—texts, emails and call logs—and testify about his role in the editorial decision to publish the July 17 article.
• News Corp and Dow Jones have pledged to vigorously defend the Journal’s reporting as Trump must prove actual malice to prevail.