Thursday, 14 October 2021

Judge orders Trump to sit for a videotaped deposition in case involving protesters who say they were assaulted at a MAGA rally

A New York judge ordered Trump to sit for a videotape deposition in a civil case.
The case was filed by a group of protesters who said they were assaulted at a 2015 Trump rally.
State Supreme Court Justice Doris Gonzalez ordered Trump to sit for the deposition next week.

A judge in New York ordered former President Donald Trump to sit for a videotaped deposition on Monday as part of a civil case filed by protesters who say Trump's security guards assaulted them at a September 2015 rally.

On October 4, State Supreme Court Justice Doris Gonzalez ordered Trump to sit for a deposition, which is scheduled for October 18 at 10 a.m. at Manhattan's Trump Tower. Trump's attorneys agreed to the date in a stipulation, court records show.

The lawsuit was filed in 2015 by a group of Mexican protesters who say they were attacked outside Trump Tower at the rally, three months after Trump announced his bid for the presidency. It was gummed up in courts during Trump's presidency, as Trump argued he should receive immunity from testifying, but is now headed to a trial, according to Benjamin Dictor, an attorney representing the protestors.

"After defendants spent years unsuccessfully fighting to keep Donald Trump from testifying under oath, we will be taking his testimony in this case on Monday," Dictor, an attorney at Eisner, Dictor & Lamadrid, told Insider. "We look forward to presenting this case, including Mr. Trump's video testimony, to a jury."

The suit named Trump, the Trump Organization, the Trump campaign, Trump's former head of security Keith Schiller, security guards Gary Uher and Edward Jon Deck Jr., and two others who were identified as John Doe 3 and 4 as defendants.

Attorneys for the protestors subpoenaed Trump in the case, arguing in court filings that the guards attacked the protestors as part of their official duties, citing Trump's comments at election rallies where he has encouraged violence against hecklers. The deposition could be shown to jurors at a trial, according to Dictor, who is also an attorney for the NewsGuild of New York, which represents Insider Union members.

Trump's attorneys asked judges to quash the subpoena, and the case moved slowly through the appeals process. But after Trump left office earlier this year, a New York state judge dismissed the arguments as moot and moved the case forward.

Trump faces numerous civil lawsuits, many of which are moving forward now that he is no longer president. Earlier in October, another New York state judge ordered Trump to sit for a deposition before the end of the year in a lawsuit Summer Zervos brought against him over sexual misconduct claims.

Read the original article on Business Insider