A New York judge will soon decide whether to make public a tranche of emails between Donald Trump Jr and a friend in which both men use offensive and bigoted language.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the emails in question are part of a legal defence mounted by a New York hedge fund seeking to prevail in a long-running legal dispute with the friend of Mr Trump, an ex-employee called Gentry Beach over tens of millions of dollars in compensation.
The controversial messages were sent from Mr Beach’s work email account over a three-year period between 2005 and 2008, but the hedge fund, Touradji Capital Management, only recently raised them during a re-trial in the 15-year-old litigation.
The parties are currently on opposing sides regarding whether the court should allow unredacted versions of the emails to become part of the case’s public record. For his part, Mr Beach is asking the court to allow for Mr Trump’s name to be redacted.
The judge hearing the case heard arguments over whether to allow the emails to be made public on Thursday and could render a decision any day now.
The Journal reports that Mr Beach and Mr Trump, who have known each other for decades, both used racist rhetoric in the emails at issue.
Mr Beach reportedly wrote messages that contained “references to hunting Jews and shooting Mexicans,” and in one email referred to “having Jews for dinner”.
In a different exchange of messages that was revealed in court transcripts, Mr Trump Jr reportedly responded to a note about Mr Beach’s move to one part of Manhattan by describing the area as “Harlem” and remarking that he could “hear the theme song of the Jeffersons playing in the background”.
Mr Trump Jr also lambasted another recipient in the group email thread for “encourag[ing] the Mexicans to come to the US and giv[ing] them another excuse to not learn English”.
“When I have to speak to my grandchildren in Spanish, at least I know I will have you to thank,” he added.
The Independent has contacted Mr Trump and Mr Beach for comment
