Dodgy weather
Court forced to reschedule Trump deposition as he rides out the hurricane at Mar-a-Lago
Lawyers for an ongoing civil suit against Donald Trump told a judge they could not meet a Friday deadline to question the former president under oath because he would not move the meeting from his Florida mansion as a hurricane tears through the state, CNN reports.
The class action lawsuit filed in 2018 accuses Trump, his children, and the Trump organization of committing deception and fraud while promoting scam businesses. Letters filed by lawyers representing the plaintiffs on Wednesday accused Trump of refusing to move the deposition out of Florida, even in light of the dangerous weather.
One of the lawyers, John Quinn, told the presiding judge that his team did not feel safe proceeding with the deposition in Palm Beach, but Trump's team would not move the deposition to Trump's golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey.
Trump's lawyers responded by stating they would have rescheduled the deposition if Quinn and his team had simply asked them to do so. They also implied that opposing counsel was trying to misrepresent Trump as "unreasonable." Clifford Robert, an attorney for the former president, said Quinn had previously approved the deposition location over the phone, and noted he was shocked the plaintiffs were moving to have the deposition canceled.
The Manhattan federal judge presiding over the case extended the Wednesday deadline to Oct. 31 "out of concern for the safety of the parties, court reporter, videographer, and any other required attendees of the deposition," she said, per CNN.