President-elect Trump is expected to testify from his New York City office next month in a lawsuit about his new D.C. hotel after the billionaire businessman’s attorneys asked for the deposition to take place in his hometown, according to multiple reports Monday.
The deposition is scheduled for early January, a few weeks before Trump is slated to be sworn into office on Jan. 20.
Trump sued Topo Atrio for $10 million in the District of Columbia last year after the restaurant’s celebrity chef José Andrés said he would not move forward with plans to operate in Trump’s new hotel. Andrés, a Spanish-American businessman and chef, cited Trump’s “anti-Hispanic” comments made during his campaign announcement last June as his reason for pulling out of the deal.
Lawyers from both parties had previously agreed to meet in Washington early next month, but Trump’s representatives reached out to Andrés’ team last week to request the deposition be moved to Trump Tower in Manhattan, citing security concerns and convenience for the president-elect. Trump’s attorneys also protested the seven-hour time slot set for the deposition, which could include him giving comments in a similar lawsuit.
“It seems dubious that the president-elect cannot be afforded adequate security in the capital of the United States, but defendants are willing to accommodate that demand,” Andrés’ attorneys wrote to D.C. Superior Judge Jennifer A. Di Toro. “Defendants cannot, however, accept Trump LLC’s attempt to hamstring defendants’ questioning of the man who directed the bringing of this lawsuit.”
“We think the deposition is completely unnecessary. We don’t think there’s any factual dispute that requires the President-elect’s testimony, so we think it’s unneeded,” Alan Garten, general counsel for Trump and his business interests, told USA Today. “So we asked for there to be some reasonable limits. We don’t think it’s necessary, the issues that concern the President-elect are statements he made at the commencement of the campaign. There’s no dispute about them. So we don’t see what a deposition would accomplish.”
Trump has already settled some of the 75 lawsuits that were pending as of Election Day, including the Trump University suits. The restaurant group has asked a D.C. judge for an expedited decision that would require Trump to follow the deposition rules.
