Trump's civil suit deposition on Monday could come back to haunt him: former federal prosecutor
According to a former federal prosecutor, answers that Donald Trump gives in a civil lawsuit deposition on Monday will likely be closely scrutinized by multiple prosecutors investigating the ex-president and could come back to haunt him in court cases yet to be filed.
Trump has been ordered by Justice Doris Gonzalez of the Bronx supreme court to give a videotaped deposition at Trump Tower on Monday that will be used as part of a "lawsuit brought by a group of demonstrators who said his security guard assaulted them during a 2015 demonstration outside Trump Tower," the Guardian has reported.
Speaking with MSNBC host Alex Witt, attorney and legal analyst Tali Farhadian stated that answers Trump gives about how the Trump Organization operates could become fodder for other investigations.
"It looks like this deposition is a go," host Witt began. "What do you think lawyers will ask Donald Trump?"
"Well, the question at the heart of this case is whether Donald Trump directed his security to assault the protesters who have brought this lawsuit," Farhadian replied before noting, "And, you know, it's interesting because it's a low-profile case from the presidential campaign, but it does represent the first time that Donald Trump is going to be asked a question like that under oath and I think that a world of lawyers, prosecutors, investigators, are going to be listening for that answer."
"Okay, so when you say whether the president directed them to rough these people up, how could that be verbally expressed?" host Witt pressed. "Because we've heard Donald Trump saying himself, in rallies over the years, he would like to knock somebody out, or he's going to rough somebody up. Is that the kind of thing that could get him into trouble legally here? Would it have to be 'I want you to beat them up'? How is that going to work, the interpretation of what he said?"
"Well, the protesters who have sued him are going to want to use the kind of evidence that you've just described, Alex, where we can impute to him the direction of his organization based on the stuff that he's said," the attorney explained. "What I think they would get into in the deposition is more trying to understand, how does he run his company, how regularly does he direct his security to do one thing or another? And those questions about how he runs his organization, what kind of manager he is, are really swirling around in a lot of the litigations and lawsuits that involve him."
"So depending on what he says and how he says it, come tomorrow, is there any way he could get into bigger trouble than where it stands right now?" the MSNBC host asked.
"Yes," Farhadian confirmed. "I think that, if he does in fact testify under oath, you know, give the deposition tomorrow, where the judge has said at the extremes he could have until the end of the month, then his next strategy, I anticipate, will be to try to keep whatever he said hidden, to keep it sealed and not disclosed, because as I said earlier, whatever he says there about how he directed his security could be really interesting to the people who want to know how else he runs his affairs."
"You know, Alex, I was just thinking, it would probably take us all afternoon to list all of the litigations and investigations that involve Donald Trump right now, ranging from January 6 to the defamation suits by E. Jean Carroll and Summer Zervos," she added.
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