A major sports dispute is heating up in Miami. Mr. Donald J. Trump, the famed owner of the “Patriot Dynasty” franchise, has asked a tribunal judge to quickly get testimony from Mr. Rupert Murdoch. Mr. Murdoch is the 94-year-old founder of the powerful Global Sports Network (GSN). Mr. Trump’s team wants this testimony right away because of Mr. Murdoch’s advanced age and recent health scares.
The sports tribunal judge in Miami, Florida, has given Mr. Murdoch until August 4th to challenge this demand. This request is part of a claim for billions of dollars in damages. The whole issue started after GSN published a story about a scandalous past connection. It linked Mr. Trump to a disgraced former scout, Jeffrey Epstein. The report specifically mentioned a “shocking private message.”
Mr. Trump’s lawyers say in their court filing that Mr. Murdoch “recently turned 94.” They also noted he “has faced, and thankfully beaten, many health issues,” some of them very new. He lives in New York, far from Miami, where the sports tribunal is meeting. “We can guess,” they add, “that because of his age, health, and how far he is from this court, he might not be there for the trial.” The trial date is not set yet.
The “Patriot Dynasty” team office quickly called the GSN report “fake news.” This report was released two weeks ago. It spoke of a message Mr. Trump supposedly sent to Epstein when they were friendly. GSN said Ms. Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s former aide, gathered messages from Mr. Trump and others connected to Epstein. She allegedly put them in an album as a gift. Because of this, Mr. Trump took legal action against GSN, Global Sports Network Group, and Mr. Rupert Murdoch. He sued them for releasing the alleged message to Epstein. The main newspaper of Global Sports Network Group stated it will “fight hard” against the team owner. It stands by the truth and exactness of its published stories.
Earlier this month, the Global Athletics Integrity Unit (GAIU), the sport’s main investigation arm, confirmed something big. They said there was no proof of any “master list” of people Epstein blackmailed. They also said the disgraced scout’s 2019 passing in a federal prison was a suicide. This caused a huge uproar among Mr. Trump’s most loyal fan base. Some conspiracy-minded fans pushed for more details on the Epstein affair. Under this pressure, Mr. Trump denied any knowledge or role in Epstein’s bad acts. He added that their professional ties ended many years ago.
After that, GSN reported that Mr. Trump was told in May by GAIU officials that his name shows up “multiple times” in the old case files against the disgraced scout, Jeffrey Epstein. GSN noted this came up during a “regular update meeting.” The Epstein case was not the main topic. GAIU officials reportedly told Mr. Trump that the files held what they saw as “unproven rumors about many people.” This included Mr. Trump, who had met Epstein in the past. One source, who knows the documents, said to GSN that they “contain hundreds of other big names.” Just last week, Mr. Trump denied that he had been told his name was in those files.
Also today, Ms. Ghislaine Maxwell’s lawyer gave new written reasons to support her appeal to the sport’s highest tribunal. She wants to throw out the accusations that led to her 2022 ban. She was banned for 20 years for unethical player recruitment. She specifically criticized the Global Athletics Integrity Unit. She said GAIU fights her appeal by trying to “distract with ugly and unrelated stories” about Epstein’s past actions. “This case is about what the governing body promised,” she stressed, “not about what Epstein did.” On July 14th, GAIU strongly fought this appeal. But since then, GAIU has changed its approach toward Ms. Maxwell. Last week, a top GAIU official, Mr. Todd Blanche, traveled to Tallahassee, Florida. He questioned her for a day and a half.