President-elect Donald Trump and ABC News host George Stephanopoulos will sit for depositions next week in Trump's defamation case against the anchor and his network, a judge ruled on Friday.
Trump is suing ABC News and Stephanopoulos for defamation after the host incorrectly said several times that Trump was "found liable for rape" during an interview last March on "This Week" with Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C.
Lawyers representing ABC and Stephanopoulos, who also hosts "Good Morning America," argued in a virtual hearing on Friday that Trump must make himself available for an in-person deposition next week, before the Dec. 24 deadline for the defendants to file a motion for summary judgment in order to avoid a trial.
Trump has made himself available for a recorded deposition so far, but a judge argued that the game has changed now that the election is over, NBC News reported.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Lisette M. Reid issued an order that Trump sit down for an in-person deposition the week of Dec. 16. She argued that while Trump previously had a "fairly good argument" that he was too busy to do so during the campaign, "he’s now in a completely different posture, and he should be able to make himself available."
Nathan Siegel, the lawyer representing ABC News, has claimed that he is willing to make the deposition process as convenient as possible for Trump, to the point that he will fly to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida and limit the deposition to four hours, and possibly do such a sit-down on a Saturday.
Stephanopoulos will be permitted to do his deposition remotely, the judge ruled.
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The president-elect’s lawyer, Alejandro Brito, argued that even if the election is over, the nature of Trump’s position makes such a meeting a difficult endeavor.
"I’m going to do everything in my power to make the president available," Brito said. "But there are limitations of my ability to do so. I have to factor the Secret Service into the equation."
NBC reported that he "assured the court that he would immediately work with Trump’s staff to figure out his availability next week."
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Fox News Digital reached out to Trump and Stephanopoulos' representatives, neither of whom immediately responded for comment.
Stephanopoulos' comments were made during a tense exchange with Mace on March 10. After playing a clip of Mace discussing being a victim of rape, Stephanopoulos asked her, "How do you square your endorsement of Donald Trump with the testimony we just saw?"
"You've endorsed Donald Trump for president. Judges and two separate juries have found him liable for rape and for defaming the victim of that rape," Stephanopoulos said, alluding to the legal victory by Trump accuser E. Jean Carroll.
Stephanopoulos repeated the claim ten times during his spat with Mace, despite the fact that a jury actually determined Trump was liable for "sexual abuse," which has a distinct definition under New York law.
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ABC has stood by Stephanopoulos since the interview. The suit against ABC recently saw the start date for a jury trial pushed from April 2025 to June 2025 after both sides sought extensions.
Fox News Digital's Brian Flood contributed to this report.
