Donald Trump is indeed being forced to testify
Donald Trump’s days of sitting for depositions is making a triumphant return. For four long years, Trump preferred to play with toys in “Executive Time” or devise new ways to tear the country apartment. When it came to accountability, Trump channel-surfed while his attorneys successfully argued that the time demands of the presidency prevent Trump from being deposed for lawsuits.
Trump has been out of office for ten glorious months and still hasn’t sat for a deposition. However, that’s about to change bigly. In a case involving the assault of protestors outside Trump Tower in 2015, a New York judge ruled that Trump must offer a videotaped deposition by the end of October—and it has been scheduled for this Monday.
The case involves plaintiffs who allege that Trump’s security team assaulted them while they protested Trump’s bigoted statements against Mexican immigrants on the public sidewalk near Trump Tower. Video evidence appears to corroborate the protesters’ story, who suffered injuries after Trump’s goons inaccurately accused them of protesting on private property.
Trump wasn’t personally involved in the controversy, but the renewed focus on this case puts Trumpian thuggery and racism under the spotlight. The fact it is now proceeding to the deposition stage shows that even a case stemming from an event six years ago doesn’t somehow fade away. It is now clear that Trump’s colicky claims that he was too busy to be deposed was merely a delay tactic and not a winning strategy.
This Monday’s deposition isn’t the only one Trump needs to worry about. Earlier this month, a judge ruled that Trump must sit for a deposition in Summer Zervos’ lawsuit by December 23. This lawsuit, in which Zervos claims Trump defamed her by accusing her of inventing the idea that he sexually assaulted her at the Beverly Hills Hotel in 2007, shines the spotlight on Trump’s rich history of credible sexual assault allegations and his special form of breathing known as lying. This means that the next Trump deposition following Monday’s proceeding is only weeks away.
There are about a dozen pending civil lawsuits against Trump, and as each one proceeds, Americans will be informed or reminded of the many ways in which Trump is an amoral and vile human being. Trump’s repulsive and erratic behavior at these depositions might also make headlines. While giving a deposition in a lawsuit involving a failed real estate project in 2015, for example, Trump told a lawyer her questions were “very stupid” and then said, “You’re disgusting!” when she asked for a break to pump breast milk for her baby.
Trump never had a magic wand, but he exploited the presidency to suppress legal threats and escape liability. Thankfully, those days are over, and beginning Monday, Trump will be forced to put his golf clubs down and respond to questions under oath from aggrieved people who deserve answers. It’s another win for truth, justice, and accountability.
Ron Leshnower is a lawyer and the author of several books, including President Trump’s Month