Summary

Donald Trump has been ordered to sit for a deposition the week of Dec. 16 in his defamation lawsuit against ABC News and George Stephanopoulos.

The lawsuit stems from Stephanopoulos’ March statement that Trump had been “found liable for rape,” which Trump claims is defamatory.

While a jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing E. Jean Carroll but not for rape, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan later stated Trump did “‘rape’ Ms. Carroll as that term commonly is used.”

Both Trump and Stephanopoulos will be deposed, with sessions limited to four hours.

  • frunch@lemmy.world
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    13 days ago

    Prediction: he doesn’t show up and nothing happens in response.

    I’ll gladly be proven wrong though ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

    • octopus_ink@lemmy.ml
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      13 days ago

      I mean, as an ex-president he received nothing more than a stern look for anything. Now he’s president-elect. You will not be proven wrong, I’m sorry to say.

    • thekidxp@sh.itjust.works
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      13 days ago

      Pretty sure legally he can not show up and just say it’s because he has president things to do and he would have immunity

      • Stovetop@lemmy.world
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        12 days ago

        I mean he’s not president yet, but I doubt that would stop him anyways. Hell, he’ll give himself retroactive presidential immunity for the last four years by continuing to insist he rightfully won the 2020 election, too. And then have anyone citing the 22nd amendment sent to the gulags as an unimpeachable “official act”.

      • frunch@lemmy.world
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        13 days ago

        It really is just like children playing make-believe, making up rules as they go along 🤸‍♂️

  • dhork@lemmy.world
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    13 days ago

    Hey, there’s a key difference with this case vs. all the other cases. It’s a civil lawsuit that Trump instigated. So he is the plaintiff here, he is on the offense in the lawsuit. Shouldn’t he want to give his side of the story? And if he delays this one, wouldn’t the judge be well within their rights to say “If you can’t tell us what he did that warrants a penalty, shouldn’t we just drop all this”?

    And actually, I think this is the outcome Trump wants. He doesn’t want to actually win this. He wants the judge to throw it out for entirely sane reasons, because it’s one more thing to complain about and he knows his followers won’t look into the key differences between this and other cases.

    If your only platform is grievance, you need new grievances to keep things fresh, even if you manufacture them yourself.

  • Skullgrid@lemmy.world
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    13 days ago

    nothing will happen, doesn’t matter.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosecution_of_Donald_Trump_in_New_York#Delayed_sentencing_hearing

    On September 6, Merchan postponed the sentencing hearing to November 26.[550][551] At the presidential immunity hearing on November 19, the Manhattan DA’s office said it would consent to postpone sentencing until Trump leaves office.[552] Three days later, Merchan canceled the sentencing date without setting a new one.[553]

    This is the one where he got found guilty on 34 felonies. Juan Merchan is a coward.

    • AmidFuror@fedia.io
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      12 days ago

      10 upvotes for bemoaning that Trump won’t be punished if he loses a lawsuit he instigated.

      • Skullgrid@lemmy.world
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        12 days ago

        well, the asshole has been on the recieving end on so many fucking lawsuits, it gets hard to interpret news about “TRUMP TOLD TO DO SOMETHING IN LEGAL CONTEXT” without thinking his ass is being told off, but won’t suffer any consequences.

    • Skullgrid@lemmy.world
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      12 days ago

      well, the asshole has been on the recieving end on so many fucking lawsuits, it gets hard to interpret news about “TRUMP TOLD TO DO SOMETHING IN LEGAL CONTEXT” without thinking his ass is being told off, but won’t suffer any consequences.

    • AmidFuror@fedia.io
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      12 days ago

      Are you suggesting that ABC News should do something about this case outside of the law? Maybe they should send a large guy to tell Trump he needs to keep quiet about this defamation business.

      • Sterile_Technique@lemmy.world
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        12 days ago

        Anyone can decide to become a vigilante. Saying anyone should is against the TOS, so no.

        I’m suggesting that legal justice WILL NOT happen as indicated by the plethora of times Trump has broken the law and faced minimal or no consequences. He is above the law. That leaves us with two remaining options.

        • AmidFuror@fedia.io
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          12 days ago

          Someone could become a vigilante because they were frivolously sued for defamation. I guess we’ll see what Stephanopoulos’ next move is.