Trump to testify in lawsuit by protesters who say guard assaulted them in 2015

A New York judge has ordered Donald Trump to give testimony on Monday in a lawsuit brought by a group of demonstrators who said his security guard assaulted them during a 2015 demonstration outside Trump Tower.

Justice Doris Gonzalez of the Bronx supreme court ordered the deposition to be held Monday at Trump Tower, in Manhattan. It will be videotaped and then played when the case goes to trial.

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The lawsuit centers on a dispute between a group of demonstrators and Trump’s security guards during a protest outside Trump Tower in September 2015.

The group was protesting Trump’s anti-Mexican and anti-immigrant rhetoric and said in the lawsuit they were concerned about “the potential for these remarks to incite violence against the Mexican immigrant community”.

During the demonstration, Trump’s then head of security, Keith Schiller, ripped away two of the group’s protest signs which read: “Trump: make America racist again.”

One of the demonstrators, Efrain Galicia, tried to get one of the signs back, then Schiller struck him in the head, video shows.

Lawyers are seeking a deposition from Trump to examine if he is responsible for Schiller’s conduct.

“After defendants spent years unsuccessfully fighting to keep Donald Trump from testifying under oath, we will be taking his testimony in this case on Monday,” said Benjamin N Dictor, a lawyer for the plaintiffs. “We look forward to presenting this case, including Mr Trump’s video testimony, to the jury at his trial.”

The group had protested outside Trump Tower two times before the September demonstration. Both times Trump organization security guards told the group they couldn’t protest on the sidewalk. A New York police department officer corrected the guards and said the group had a right to demonstrate in the public space, according to the lawsuit.

As president, Trump’s lawyers said presidential immunity shielded him from several civil and criminal lawsuits filed against him. Courts rejected that argument but it was successful at delaying litigation, which has become a central part of his post-presidency life.

A different New York judge has ordered Trump to sit for a deposition this year in a defamation lawsuit brought by Summer Zervos, a former contestant on the reality television show The Apprentice. Zervos accused Trump of defaming her by denying her allegations that he sexually assaulted her in 2007.