Lawyers for investors who claim they were defrauded by Donald Trump more than a decade ago finally got a chance to depose the former president about his marketing of a failed videophone venture on “Celebrity Apprentice,” according to a person familiar with the matter.
Former President Donald Trump pauses while speaking at a rally at the Minden Tahoe Airport in Minden, Nev., on Oct. 8. Trump is scheduled to answer questions under oath, Wednesday, in a lawsuit filed by E. Jean Carroll, a magazine columnist who says the Republican raped her in the mid-1990s in a department store dressing room. José Luis Villegas file
The deposition, which occurred earlier this month, hasn’t been reported. Trump was deposed in a separate case Wednesday for a defamation suit brought by New York author E. Jean Carroll. She alleges he raped her in a department store dressing room two decades ago and defamed her when he denied it.
A New York judge had ordered Trump sit for questions in the videophone case by Oct. 31, after a planned testimony date was derailed by Hurricane Ian and triggered a fierce war of words between lawyers for plaintiffs and Trump. The exact day of the deposition wasn’t made public.
Trump, his company and his three oldest children were sued in 2018 by four investors who claim they were duped by Trump’s promotions into paying thousands of dollars to become independent sellers with ACN Opportunity LLC, which sold a doomed videophone device that the future U.S. president touted as the next big thing. The clunky devices were made obsolete by smartphones.
The investors’ lawyers have said they planned to grill Trump about why he started pitching the company to his viewers around 2008, assuring his fans that they could make easy money selling the videophones “without any of the risks most entrepreneurs have to take.”
According to the suit, the Trumps lied about their faith in the company’s products and also failed to disclose they were being paid to promote the company. Trump himself also starred in promotional videos and appeared in-person at events for the company.
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