By KAREN MATTHEWS Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Donald Trump is slated to return to New York City to provide a videotaped deposition in a case about his security team’s crackdown on a protest during the early days of his presidential campaign in 2015.
Trump is expected to record the deposition on Monday in Trump Tower, court papers in Bronx state Supreme Court show.
FILE – This Thursday, Sept. 3, 2015, file photo shows then Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump holding a news conference in Trump Tower in New York. Former President Trump is slated to return to New York City to provide a videotaped deposition in a lawsuit about his security team’s crackdown on a protest outside Trump Tower over negative comments about Mexico and Mexican immigrants, during the early days of his presidential campaign in 2015. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)
Three attorneys who represent Trump didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment on the deposition.
The lawsuit stems from a Sept. 3, 2015, protest outside that same New York City tower over negative comments Trump had made about Mexico and Mexican immigrants.
Six protesters of Mexican origin who said they were assaulted sued Trump, the Trump Organization, his presidential campaign and security personnel.
State Supreme Court Judge Doris Gonzalez of the Bronx denied an effort by Trump to quash a subpoena ordering him to testify.
The judge said Trump’s argument that there must be “exceptional circumstances” to depose a high-ranking government official did not apply because he was being called to answer for conduct outside of office.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs have argued that Trump should have known that the security personnel would act in a “negligent or reckless manner.”
“This is a case about Donald Trump’s security guards assaulting peaceful demonstrators on a public sidewalk,” lawyer Benjamin Dictor said Thursday. “We will be taking the trial testimony of Donald Trump, under oath, on Monday after years of the defendants’ dilatory attempts to shield him from this examination. We look forward to presenting the video of Mr. Trump’s testimony to a jury at his trial.”
Trump’s testimony will be played for a jury if the case proceeds to trial. If an emergency such as illness arises, Trump must testify by the end of the month, Gonzalez wrote in an Oct. 4 filing.
