Trump ordered to appear for deposition next week in his defamation case against ABC News

President-elect Donald Trump has been ordered to spend part of the week before Christmas being questioned by lawyers in his defamation lawsuit against ABC News.

Lawyers representing the broadcast network and This Week anchor George Stephanopoulos argued Friday morning during a virtual hearing that Trump must make himself available for a deposition next week, before a Dec. 24 deadline for the defendants file a motion for summary judgment to avoid a trial.

So far, Trump has not made himself available for a recorded deposition, much to the chagrin of the defense team.

I can understand your frustration, U.S. District Judge Lisette M. Reid told Nathan Siegel, the lawyer representing ABC News. She noted that while the president-elect previously had a good case for not being available for a deposition during a busy election campaign, his posture is now completely different and he should be able to make himself available.

Siegel offered to make the deposition as convenient as possible for the president-elect, telling the judge he would travel to Florida to interview Trump near his Mar-a-Lago home and limit the proceedings to four hours. He also suggested the possibility of a meeting on Saturday, if that would be easier on Trump's schedule.

I will do everything in my power to make the president available, replied Trump's lawyer, Alejandro Brito. But my ability to do this is limited. I have to factor the Secret Service into the equation. He assured the court that he would immediately work with Trump's staff to determine his availability next week.

Hours after the hearing, Reid ordered that Trump sit for an in-person deposition the week of Dec. 16 and that it be limited to four hours. Additionally, the judge ordered that Stephanopoulos also be deposed next week and that his appearance also be limited to four hours.

Representatives for Trump and ABC News did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

George Stephanopoulos on “Good Morning America” ​​in April. Paula Lobo / ABC

Trump filed a lawsuit this year against ABC News and Stephanopoulos, who participated in Friday's hearing via Zoom seated in front of a high-backed blue couch, after the anchor claimed on air that Trump had been recognized guilty of rape by a federal jury in Manhattan. .

The case was filed in the Southern District of Florida, Trump's home court, and argued that Stephanopoulos and the network defamed him when the star anchor made the claim during a combative March 10 interview with the Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C.

While the jury found that Trump sexually abused writer E. Jean Carroll during a mid-1990s encounter at a department store and held him responsible for the battery, they did not find that she had proven that he had raped her. However, a few months later, while launching a countersuit against Carroll, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan wrote that Mr. Trump had in fact raped Ms. Carroll, as that term is commonly used and understood.

In July, a federal judge refused to dismiss the lawsuit against ABC News, a major victory for Trump, allowing it to proceed.

Trump's lawyer argued Friday that a deposition was not necessary for the defense to file a motion for summary judgment, which would resolve the case without a jury trial. Brito claimed Siegel was seeking to ask what happened between the president-elect and Carroll when all that matters for summary judgment is whether or not the statements made by the defendants are defamatory.

We have no intention of revisiting the underlying question of what did or did not happen between President Trump and E. Jean Carroll, Siegel responded. He said his team was entitled to ask Trump questions about past statements that might contradict his claim that ABC defamed him and that would speak to his credibility as a plaintiff.

Although he rebuffed the deposition request, Brito agreed to get a quick answer from Trump's team on when he could sit down.

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