Murdoch calls Trump’s Epstein costume to “affront” to freedom of expression

The story of July 17 on a note bearing the signing of Trump which was sent to Epstein with a sketch of a naked woman in 2003 is true and does not defame the character of the president, the lawyers of the president of News Corp., aged 94, declared Monday in a request for rejection of the prosecution.

“By its very nature, this without merit trial threatens to cool the discourse of those who dare to publish content that the president does not like,” said Murdoch and News Corp. in the file before the Miami Federal Court.

Trump continued on July 18, accusing Murdoch, News Corp. And Wall Street Journal The Dow Jones & Co. publisher of the alignment of his character. The prosecution was filed while the president was fighting against a storm of criticisms on the government processing of deceased and disgraced financial documents. Epstein died in prison in 2019 when he was facing accusations of sex trafficking.

THE Wall Street Journal The story, which provided the details of a “birthday book” of compiled notes for the 50th anniversary of Epstein, raised additional pressure on Trump, which has long denied any awareness of Epstein’s activities. The Democrats of the Chamber investigating the sex traffic operation led by Epstein earlier this month published the alleged birthday note that they declared that Trump had sent to the deceased financial in disgrace.

“Two weeks ago, in response to a summons to the congress, the Epstein domain produced the birthday book, which contains the letter bearing the debauchery and the applicant’s signature, just as reported by the Wall Street Journal,” said Murdoch and News Corp. in the file.

The White House did not immediately respond to a message asking for comments.

Murdoch and News Corp. said in their file that the protections of the first amendment for the truthful speech “are the dorsal thorn of the Constitution”.

Trump “recognized his friendship with Epstein,” said Murdoch and News Corp. in the file. “As the article reports, three months before the birthday book was offered to Epstein, an article in the New York magazine quoted the applicant saying that he had known Epstein for 15 years” and that Epstein was a “ wonderful guy ”, “ a lot of pleasure to be with ” and “ like beautiful women as much as me. ”

In August, Murdoch agreed to provide Trump lawyers with a statement under oath “describing his current state of health” as well as regular updates on his health in the context of an agreement to delay any deposit in the case.

The file comes a few days after a judge launched a defamation action of $ 15 billion in Trump against the New York TimesWho accused him of serving as a “spokesperson” for the Democrats. In this case, the judge said that Trump lawyers “undoubtedly and inexcusably” violated legal rules by presenting allegations and “repetitive”, “superfluous” and “flowery” in the complaint. The judge gave Trump the authorization to put a shorter prosecution in the context of the rules.