Former President Donald Trump was questioned Monday in a deposition for a lawsuit filed by protesters who accused the mogul’s security team of beating them during a protest in the early days of his presidential campaign in 2015.
Trump testified under oath during a several-hour private questioning at the Trump Tower in New York City, said a lawyer for the five plaintiffs, New Yorkers of Mexican origin. If the case goes to trial, the video of the deposition will be shown to the jury.
The plaintiffs’ attorney, Benjamin Dictor, said Trump was questioned on a variety of topics, including statements he made at campaign rallies in which he appeared to encourage security personnel to mistreat protesters.
Trump’s behavior in answering the questions was similar to what he displayed in public as president, and the session continued like most depositions, Dictor added. The attorney declined to go into detail about how Trump handled the questioning and declined to describe his testimony before presenting the case to a jury.
An attorney representing Trump in the lawsuit did not immediately respond to a message requesting comment.
The lawsuit claims that Trump’s bodyguards violently attacked the plaintiffs in front of the Trump Tower in Manhattan on September 3, 2015, while protesting the then-candidate’s negative comments about Mexico and Mexican immigrants.
Trump is one of the defendants in the lawsuit, along with his company, the Trump Organization, his presidential campaign and his security personnel.
Among other things, the plaintiffs want the real estate mogul and ex-president to pay damages, arguing that he must have known that the security personnel would act “negligently or recklessly.”
Trump’s lawyers were opposed to his testifying. While he was in office, they argued that “ exceptional circumstances ” are required to summon a senior government official.
However, the Bronx judge presiding over the case, Doris Gonzalez, rejected that argument, noting that it was not applicable because Trump was being summoned to answer for his behavior before taking office.
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