January 5, 2017
From Politico:
Donald Trump was forced to take a time-out Thursday from his frenzied planning for the White House, sitting for a sworn, videotaped deposition in Trump Tower.
It’s an extraordinary circumstance for any president or president-elect. The last president to be deposed was Bill Clinton in 1998, in the Paula Jones sexual harassment suit. Ulysses Grant, Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter are the only other sitting presidents to face a deposition.
Trump and his companies face scores of pending lawsuits, including cases claiming skimming of tips at his New York SoHo hotel, seeking refunds of millions in membership fees charged by his country club in Jupiter, Florida, and alleging that his security personnel assaulted protesters outside Trump Tower.
Trump’s Thursday morning deposition stemmed from a suit he filed after prominent Washington chef Jose Andres backed out of plans to open a Spanish-themed restaurant at Trump’s new luxury hotel in Washington.
Trump’s attorney asked a judge to cancel the session or cap it at two hours, but a judge declined, giving Andres’ legal team up to seven hours to question the man who’s still trying to finalize his Cabinet and prepare to be sworn in as president.
On a conference call with reporters Thursday, Trump transition spokesman Sean Spicer gave no details about the president-elect’s schedule for the day, except to say he planned to hold meetings with members of his staff. Asked whether Trump was sitting for a deposition, Spicer said: “Let me take a look at his schedule today and I’ll get back to you on that.”
On Thursday morning, President-to-Be Trump was compelled to endure a sworn deposition in a legal proceeding.
For the first time in 20 years (and only the 5th time in U.S. history). So, Trump has again cheapened the dignity and tarnished the reputation of the office he will shortly assume. As a result of a trivial business dispute-related lawsuit Trump himself initiated.
In line with their usual stall and delay tactics (the S&D crew), this time Trump’s lawyers begged for special privileges from the Judge in charge: cancel the deposition altogether or, in the alternative, limit the sworn questioning to a maximum of two hours. For a legal dispute Trump started.
The Judge said, most reasonably, no dice. He did give Trump a break by limiting potential questions to no more than 7 hours.
When Trump’s Press Secretary was asked about Trump’s schedule for the day and whether he was going to be deposed, loyal functionary Sean Spicer ducked and claimed either temporary amnesia or a lack of basic information on the day’s events for PEOTUS Trump.
The legal argument to halt or limit the deposition seems to center on the incredible and nearly unbearable pressure that Trump is facing every day now in dealing with a veritable mountain of serious matters facing our nation. There are woes aplenty facing the indomitable Trump as only he can rescue the country from the disasters of the last eight years.
In point of fact, Trump has had time today to make fun of Chuck Schumer and call the Senate minority leader a clown; announce that Trump was the driving force behind a vast increase in album sales for a 16-year old B-list singer who will perform at his inauguration; and claim with a apparently straight Trump face that he didn’t support Julian Assange over the unanimous opinion of U.S. intelligence officials in the Russian hacking controversy, despite Trump’s all too visible public Twit trail, during the last 48 hours.
My oh my, is that Trump fella too busy on the nation’s critical business affairs or what?
For the good of the country, we could increase Trump’s Presidential work productivity by a factor of at two or three-fold by the simple, cost-free expedient of asking his main minder Kellyanne Conway to just turn off Trump’s smartphone(s) during regular business hours.
A plain suggestion that bears thinking about.
The first Twit-based President is also working overtime to become the least productive President in at least 100 years by engaging in constant distractions from the nation’s interest.
Not exactly what DWA had in mind on November 8th.