'No reason for any further delay': Judge orders Trump to to be deposed in ABC lawsuit

President-elect Donald Trump will have to interrupt his own presidential transition process next week in order to comply with a federal judge's order.

Politico reported Friday that U.S. Magistrate Judge Lisette Reid (of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida) is ordering 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. In her order Reid specifically noted that Trump being president-elect of the United States won't let him off the hook in complying with the court's orders.

"The parties are reminded that the Court ‘has already granted a lengthy discovery period... and, with Election Day now behind us, there is no reason for any further delay," Reid wrote, adding that the deposition would be in-person.

The lawsuit stems from a claim Stephanopoulos made on-air that Trump raped writer E. Jean Carroll, even though the actual civil verdict the jury handed down in 2023 was for "sexual abuse." Stephanopoulos made the comment while interviewing Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) in March of 2023.

“You endorsed Donald Trump for president. Judges and two separate juries have found him liable for rape and for defaming the victim of that rape," he said. "How do you square your endorsement of Donald Trump with the testimony that we just saw?”

But last year, Judge Lewis F. Kaplan issued a ruling clarifying that while Trump's $5 million verdict was technically for sexual abuse according to the letter of the law, it was effectively no different than rape as most Americans would use the word.

"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,’" Kaplan said in July of 2023. 

Story by Carl Gibson: Alternet