Donald Trump’s legal troubles never seem to end. Another one of Trump’s legal issues has just come to the surface after the president recently rejected a subpoena requiring his testimony. The incident involves five protesters who had a violent confrontation with the president’s bodyguards right outside of Trump Tower.
The New York Times is revealing court filings that state the attorneys representing the involved activists had sent a subpoena to the White House to get Trump to testify at a March 6 trial about his bodyguards’ behavior. The court filings state that Trump’s bodyguards had assaulted the protesters. And of course, Trump is refusing. The attorneys said:
Instead of seeking relief under CPLR 2304 through a motion to quash, fix conditions or modify the subpoena, Defendant Trump has engaged in self-help, to wit, sending a letter to Plaintiffs’ counsel ‘rejecting’ the subpoena.”
According to the Daily Beast, Trump’s lawyer Lawrence Rosen had responded in a letter on January 11, citing case Clinton V. Jones which he insisted “allowed claims to proceed against a sitting President based on the assumption that the President would never have to actually appear in person at the trial, and that the plaintiff would instead arrange a pre-trial deposition at the White House.” Rosen said:
Having declined to pursue a pre-trial deposition of President Trump … the Plaintiffs are precluded from now commanding his testimony at trial via subpoena at some future date in Bronx County.
We are in receipt of the Plaintiffs’ application to the court and legal position concerning the subpoena, with which we disagree, and will address these issues in our formal court filing, should one be necessary.”
One of the lawyers for the protesters, Nathaniel Charny, stated they are exploring ways to make Trump testify. He said:
If we had simply let Mr. Trump disobey the subpoena, we could have gotten certain remedies from the court, however, it would have meant the jury would never get to hear or see his live testimony, which we think is essential. The Bronx County Supreme Court is entitled to send the police to take him from his home and bring him to testify. That federalist struggle, I doubt very much we’ll get to.”
Featured image via screen capture
