Donald Trump has been ordered by a federal judge to sit for a deposition next week as part of his defamation litigation against ABC.U.S. Magistrate Judge Lisette M. Reid wrote that the deposition should take place some time the week of Dec. 14 and should be limited to four hours. It also should be in person and take place in Miami, where the lawsuit was filed, she wrote.Trump sued the network earlier this year over remarks that This Week anchor George Stephanopoulos made during a contentious interview with Rep. Nancy Mace in March.Reid also ordered that Stephanopoulos’ deposition also should take place next week, but that attorneys will determine whether the session will be remote or in person.During the interview, Stephanopoulos said that “juries have found” Trump “liable for rape.” In a June ruling, a federal judge refused to dismiss the case.Last year, a civil jury found that Trump was liable for sexually abusing and defaming writer E. Jean Carroll. Trump contended that he was defamed as Stephanopoulos did not make the distinction.The judge in Carroll’s case, Lewis Kaplan, wrote in a later ruling. “The finding that Ms. Carroll failed to prove that she was ‘raped’ within the meaning of the New York Penal Law does not mean that she failed to prove that Mr. Trump ‘raped’ her as many people commonly understand the word ‘rape.’ Indeed, as the evidence at trial recounted below makes clear, the jury found that Mr. Trump in fact did exactly that.”Trump is appealing the jury’s verdicts in the Carroll civil case, in which juries have awarded her almost $90 million in damages.Reid also reminded that parties that “with Election Day now behind us, there is no reason for any further delay.”
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