Donald Trump has asked a US court to order a swift deposition for billionaire Rupert Murdoch in the US president’s defamation lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal over an article about Mr Trump’s links to Jeffrey Epstein. 

The case relates to a July 17 article in the Journal asserting Mr Trump’s name was on a 2003 birthday greeting for the late financier and sex offender.

The day after it appeared, the US president sued the Journal, its owners, including Mr Murdoch, and the reporters who wrote the story, which said Mr Trump’s letter included a sexually suggestive drawing and a reference to secrets they shared.

Mr Trump’s lawsuit called the alleged birthday greeting “fake” and said the Journal published its article to harm the president’s reputation. 

In a court filing on Monday, Mr Trump’s lawyers said the president told Mr Murdoch before the article was published that the letter referenced in the story was fake, and Mr Murdoch told Mr Trump he would “take care of it”.

“Murdoch’s direct involvement further underscores defendants’ actual malice,” Mr Trump’s lawyers wrote, referring to the legal standard the president must clear to prevail in his lawsuit.

A middle-aged man with grey-white hair wearing a grey T-shirt looks serious in front of a plain background.

The Wall Street Journal article alleged Donald Trump sent Jeffrey Epstein a sexually suggestive birthday card. (AP: New York State Sex Offender Registry)

His lawyers asked US District Judge Darrin Gayles in Miami to compel Mr Murdoch, 94, to testify within 15 days. Judge Gayles ordered Mr Murdoch to respond by August 4.

Dow Jones, the Journal’s publisher, declined to comment. Dow Jones has said the Journal stands by its reporting and will vigorously fight the lawsuit.

Neither Dow Jones owner News Corp nor a spokesperson for Mr Murdoch immediately responded to requests for comment.

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The article was published amid growing criticism from Mr Trump’s conservative supporters and congressional Democrats over the administration’s decision not to release additional documents from the Justice Department’s investigation into Epstein, who died by suicide in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

Mr Trump and Epstein had been friends for years before what Mr Trump has called a falling out.

Legal experts say Mr Trump faces a high bar in proving the Journal defamed him, let alone collecting the $US10 billion ($15.3 billion) in damages he is seeking. 

The “actual malice” standard means Mr Trump must prove not only that the article is false, but also that the Journal had known or should have known it was false.

Reuters