CNN senior legal analyst and attorney Elie Honig outlined what he said will be an outcome in the growing scandal over President Donald Trump’s past ties to Jeffrey Epstein on Tuesday — and it could put the president in a very precarious spot.
Trump is under renewed scrutiny for his past ties with Epstein, the late financier and convicted child sex offender, after a House committee published new documents Monday revealing details of the pair's relationship, including a bawdy letter Trump allegedly sent Epstein in 2003.
That letter was first reported in July by the Wall Street Journal, leading Trump to sue the outlet for defamation seeking $10 billion in damages and denying ever having written it — and even denying it existed.
With the letter now published, however, Trump’s case against the outlet “just got a heck of a lot more difficult for him,” Honig said Tuesday.
“Trump's lead claim is that this letter did not exist, he says it was nonexistent; well, now we know it certainly exists,” Honig said.
“And not only do we know it exists, let's remember how we saw this letter. The House subpoenaed it from the Epstein Estate, and that's exactly consistent with the Wall Street Journal's reporting that this letter was sent to Jeffrey Epstein. Turns out it was exactly where one would expect it to be based on the Journal's reporting.”
Following the trove of Epstein files published Monday, Trump’s lawsuit against the Journal has now reached a “crucial moment,” Honig said, and one that, under certain circumstances, could backfire strongly on the president.
“If the motion to dismiss is granted, well then case is over, defendant wins, but if not, then we get into discovery,” Honig said.
“Then the parties have to give each other documents, then we get into under oath depositions, and that could mean – if this survives the motion to dismiss – then we're going to see depositions of Journal personnel, under oath, and certainly we will see depositions of Donald Trump; he's the plaintiff. He absolutely will be put under oath in his own case and examined by lawyers for [the] Journal, if this survives the motion to dismiss. But I think that just got a lot less likely.”
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