Politico on Monday published an interview with Deborah Baum, an attorney who in the past has deposed former President Donald Trump in a civil lawsuit that he had filed against celebrity chef Geoffrey Zakarian back in 2016.
During the interview, Baum gave some tips for how to question Trump during a deposition and the most important one seemed to be letting him run his mouth.
"Just let him talk," she told Politico. "I got exactly what I wanted by letting him talk."
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She also explained how Trump came in "totally unprepared" for her questioning, which made it easier to direct him to say things that she wanted.
"In that particular case, there were some legal issues we were dealing with in terms of the likelihood or the certainty of their losses as a result of the restaurant leaving, and they claimed millions and millions of dollars of lost profits," eh said. "And there’s a legal principle that your damages have to be reasonably certain to recover them. And a lot of their damages were based on how well they expected the restaurant to do. But he testified to exactly what I wanted, which was, 'With a restaurant, you never know what you’re going to get. You never know.'"
Baum also said that being confrontational with Trump would be unwise and that flattering him during small talk ahead of the deposition could really loosen him up and make him less guarded.
"The man responds really well to flattery," she said. "You flatter him and he’s your best friend."
