Trump dined with Rupert Murdoch despite Epstein letter lawsuit
Why let a $10 billion lawsuit get in the way of old friends having some chicken and gravy for dinner?
President Donald Trump dined at the White House last week with Rupert Murdoch and the media baron’s key aides. defamation case on Murdoch Wall Street Magazine She reportedly sent an “obscene” 50th birthday letter to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. new report.
Crusher Media Tuesday night reported that Trump hosted fellow billionaire Murdoch and his company at the White House last Thursday.
Among the guests was Murdoch’s wife, Elena Zhukova. New York Post editor Keith Poole and Post columnists Miranda Devine and Douglas Murray, News UK CEO Rebekah Brooks, Sun According to Breaker’s report, editor-in-chief Harry Cole, as well as Vice President JD Vance and White House Susie Wiles, also attended. Murdoch’s News Company Along with the Journal, it owns The Post, The Sun and News UK.
The outlet said the group ate chicken and gravy.
Three months before the dinner, Trump wrote in a social media post: “I look forward to Rupert Murdoch testifying in my lawsuit against him and his ‘garbage pile’ newspaper, the WSJ.”
“This will be an interesting experience!!!” the president wrote.
CNBC requested comment on the report from News Corp and the White House. A spokesman for Trump’s legal team declined to comment.
The reported dinner came five days before Trump’s legal team issued a scathing response to Murdoch’s lawyers’ request that a federal judge in Miami dismiss his defamation lawsuit against the president.
This case is a glaring exception to Trump’s often cozy relationship with Murdoch’s conservative media empire. Fox News. The Post and Fox have acted as cheerleaders for Trump and his policies for years, and Trump has been an avid reader and fixture of The Post’s tabloid pages for decades.
The current dispute stems from a July 17 Journal report; This report states that an obscene letter signed by Trump was included in an album of letters given to Epstein for his 50th birthday party in 2003.
Trump was a friend of Epstein’s at the time of the party. The two later had a falling out; Epstein died by suicide in prison in August 2019, weeks after he was arrested on federal child sex trafficking charges.
The Journal noted that the letter’s typewritten text was “framed by an outline of a nude woman that appears to have been hand-drawn with a heavy pencil.”
“A pair of small bows signify the woman’s breasts, and the future president’s signature is a wavy ‘Donald’ below her waist that mimics pubic hair,” the newspaper reported. he said.
Trump angrily denied writing the letter the night the Journal story was published.
“This is not me. This is a fake thing. This is a fake Wall Street Journal story,” Trump said in his Truth Social post. “I have never written a picture in my life. I do not draw women,” he said. “That’s not my language. It’s not my words.”
Trump also said he personally warned Murdoch that Trump would sue him if the Journal published the story.
“Mr. Murdoch stated that he would look into this issue, but frankly he did not have the power to do so,” Trump said. Real Social.
On July 18, Trump sued Murdoch, the Journal, News Corp CEO Robert Thomson and the two reporters who wrote the article.
The lawsuit rejected the claim that Trump wrote the letter and said, “Despite apparent failures in journalistic ethics and standards of accurate reporting, Defendants Dow Jones and News Corp – at the direction of Defendants Murdoch and Thomson – released to the world false, defamatory and malicious statements written by Defendants.”
Trump continued to deny writing the letter even after House Democrats in early September released a screenshot of the letter, which the Journal reported. The letter was obtained from Epstein’s estate by the House Oversight Committee pursuant to a subpoena.
Murdoch’s lawyers sent this letter to the judge presiding over Trump’s case.
their request for dismissal of this caseMurdoch’s lawyers said the article was accurate and that the letter released by the House panel contained “the same letter as described in the article.”
The lawyers also argued that the article was not defamatory.
The motion stated that Trump acknowledged that he was a long-time friend of Epstein and was quoted by New York magazine three months before his birthday party, describing Epstein as “a great guy.”
“who loves beautiful women as much as I do.”
“President Trump has also publicly admitted to ‘locker room’ talk and made numerous salacious public statements,” Murdoch’s lawyers wrote. he wrote.
“Therefore, the article is consistent with President Trump’s self-described characterization.”
In their response to this motion, Trump’s lawyers called Murdoch’s lawyers’ claims “crossover” and false.
“The article was entirely driven by Defendants’ salacious and scandal-driven narratives that prioritize gossip, clicks, and profit over the truth,” Trump’s lawyers said.
