As Trump comes for Murdoch media, Fox News faces a bind

[Zorro]

The network has sparingly covered the defamation lawsuit the president filed against its corporate sibling News Corp. and the Wall Street Journal.

On Fox News, the network’s pro-Trump opinion hosts often trumpet the president’s latest attack on the mainstream media. That got a bit more complicated on Friday, when the president sued the Wall Street Journal, another part of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire.

President Donald Trump filed suit in federal court in Florida, arguing that he was defamed by a July 17 story in the Wall Street Journal reporting that he sent a “bawdy” letter to the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein in 2003 to mark his 50th birthday. In the lawsuit, which also named the two reporters on the story as well as other corporate entities and leaders, Trump’s lawyers alleged the letter was fake. “Defendants concocted this story to malign President Trump’s character and integrity and deceptively portray him in a false light,” they wrote.

So far, the lawsuit has only been mentioned twice on Fox, most thoroughly in a segment on the media-focused Sunday show hosted by Howard Kurtz. “By accusing the newspaper of libel in a filing in Miami, the president has drawn extra attention to the Journal’s story,” the host said. “Whether the accusations in the Wall Street Journal are defamatory will be determined in court.”

On Friday, Fox News anchor Bret Baier broke the news to the network’s audience that Trump is “taking his own legal action, according to court records, filing a libel lawsuit pushing back against the Wall Street Journal’s story that came out today.” Rich Edson, Fox’s senior national correspondent, laid out the allegations in the story and said the network had not confirmed the Journal’s reporting. He also noted that the Journal “shares ownership with Fox News.”

https://wapo.st/40t67lz

[ProudMNDemocrat]

1. Am I correct when a plaintiff(Trump) flies a lawsuit, the plaintiff cannot invoke the 5th ?

When under oath in a deposition when questioned by attorneys for the defendant, in this case, Rupert Murdoch and News Corp who owns FOX News and the WSJ?

The discovery phase has to be eating at TACO Don due to the fact that the WSJ has the receipts on Trump. As Lawrence O'Donnell said in his opening segment last night, "The lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal is going to go nowhere." because the facts are out there and the cross questioning will be brutal. Lying even in a deposition under oath, is a crime.

Any DUer Legal Eagles can correct me?