President-elect Donald Trump will need to pause his presidential transition next week to comply with a federal judge’s order.
According to reports, U.S. Magistrate Judge Lisette Reid from the Southern District of Florida has ordered both Trump and ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos to sit for depositions lasting four hours as part of Trump’s ongoing libel lawsuit against the network.
Despite Trump’s status as president-elect, Judge Reid emphasized that his position does not exempt him from following court orders, stating, “With Election Day now behind us, there is no reason for any further delay.” The depositions will be held in person.
The lawsuit stems from a comment Stephanopoulos made during a March 2023 interview with Rep. Nancy Mace, in which he referred to Trump as having been found liable for rape, based on the jury’s 2023 civil verdict for “sexual abuse.” The remark was made despite the distinction that the legal verdict did not explicitly find Trump guilty of rape but instead sexual abuse.
In a related 2023 ruling, Judge Lewis F. Kaplan clarified that while the civil verdict technically found Trump liable for sexual abuse, it was equivalent to rape in the way most people commonly understand the term. He explained, “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.’”
