The recent release by New York Attorney General Letitia James of a Donald Trump deposition transcript showed him to not be at the top of his game as he rambled during some of his answers and occasionally went off on unrelated tangents.
That is the opinion of MSNBC's Hayes Brown who compared the former president's demeanor and focus, revealed in official transcripts, in previous cases where he was forced to sit and answer questions under oath.
As Brown wrote for MSNBC, Trump's deposition, which is central to James' $250 million civil lawsuit against the Trump Organization on accusations of fraud, could hardly have gone worse for the former president because he couldn't control himself.
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"Given the stakes, Trump should have been on his best behavior," argued Brown. "But the 479-page document, which was unsealed Thursday, is Trump in rare form. He’s combative. He’s rambling. Gone is the canny, and even shrewd, person we’ve seen at other points," he wrote before adding that the early excerpts "gave a taste of how unhinged the deposition was."
Case in point, he notes, "He [Trump] rails against Forbes, which had recently pegged his net worth at only $2.5 billion, as having an agenda against him because it’s 'owned by China.' When asked whether in 2014 he was the CEO or the president of the company he owns, he says, 'I don’t know exactly.' He accuses the prosecutor questioning him of letting him ramble on in hope of making a mistake, comparing the prosecutor to TV defense lawyer Perry Mason."
"Compared to earlier depositions that have been released, this one’s notably different," Brown reported and then added it likely will come back to hurt him in ways he can't even anticipate.
"The deposition released Thursday features a Trump who appears not to care whether he’s giving opposing counsel more than it wants. Some moments in the transcript read like he was back to his real estate magnate ways, pitching the properties under discussion to the people in the room. At times the prosecutors had to tell him to rein in his answers. That’s not normal in depositions," he wrote before adding, "The transcript paints a picture of a Trump who was, at best, detached from the goings-on at the company that bore his name."
According to the MSNBC analyst, Trump's answers give the appearance of someone who doesn't seem to know he is under oath -- or doesn't care.
"Either way, it seems unlikely Trump’s April deposition will help him in October, when the trial that could put him out of business in New York kicks off, " he concluded.
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