Trump Walks Right into Deposition Trap as Lawyers make Huge Blunder

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3:24Michael Popok:Donald Trump will soon be sitting for a deposition, sworn statement under oath, in a case that he brought against the British Broadcasting Corporation about their coverage of his speech on the Ellipse on Jan 6th. And he has no one to blame but his own lawyers. Forget talking truth to power. Are the lawyers for Donald Trump speaking to him at all? because they decided to go to federal court and oppose British Broadcasting Corporation's motion to stop all discovery, all depositions, until the BBC's motion to dismiss the case for lack of personal jurisdiction and other reasons is decided by the court.

4:07Michael Popok:It's exactly what they agreed to do in another frivolous case brought by Donald Trump against Rupert Murdoch and his Dow Jones in the same courthouse down the hall in front of Judge Gales. But now they're in front of Judge Altman, a Trump appointee, maybe that's the reason, from 2019, and they decided, no, we want to be deposed. We want Donald Trump to have to sit in a chair and potentially have to take the Fifth Amendment in response to questions about what happened on Jan 6th. It's mind-boggling. I'm Michael Popok. You're on Midas Touch Network and Legal AF. F, so several months ago, Donald Trump sued a bunch of people.

4:48Michael Popok:One of them, or entities, one of them was the British Broadcasting Corporation, because he didn't like the fact that they edited the first part of his ellipse speech with the second part of his ellipse speech and made it look like, I don't know, it's his own words, that he was actually going to go down to the Capitol with the insurrectionists. I mean, that's what he said. In any event, he didn't like it, because he sues everybody that he doesn't like, like like Wall Street Journal and BBC and the Pulitzer Prize Board and the New York Times and Michael Cohen, etc., etc. So just to contrast these two cases, they're about six months apart, he files against the Dow Jones Wall Street Journal and Rupert Murdoch.

5:30Michael Popok:And there, same lawyers, different judge, Judge Gales, Democrat appointee, they decide, well, why don't we let Dow Jones do their motion to dismiss and we'll have a hearing on it and then we'll do discovery later. In other words, we won't subject Trump to a deposition. Okay. They filed their motion to dismiss. The judge heard it. We're waiting for a ruling. My gut is he's going to dismiss the case. A month or two ago, Donald Trump, same lawyers, Alejandro Brito, this guy in Coral Gables, Florida, files in same courthouse, Southern District of Florida, in Miami, right down the hall, Judge Altman.

6:10Michael Popok:Only difference is the random wheel assignment lands on a Trump-appointed judge from 2019. Okay, I wouldn't call him MAGA, but a Trump-appointed judge nonetheless. British Broadcasting Corporation, represented by different people, different lawyers, they file a motion to stop the discovery until they get a chance to file their motion to dismiss. Now, let me give it to you from a practitioner standpoint and knowing federal court practice. Federal judges automatically don't like to stop discovery. State court, you got a better shot. If you're in state court, you can try to convince a state court judge, depending upon your state, to stop all discovery while a motion to dismiss the case is pending.

6:51Michael Popok:Federal court doesn't like to stop cases. And they certainly don't like to do it when you haven't yet filed your motion to dismiss. And this was the problem for the BBC. They didn't file their motion to dismiss. They talked about it. It's coming, Judge. We think it's going to say this. You'll be interested in it, and it'll be dispositive, meaning it'll get rid of the whole case. And that's not quite how you handle it, especially in the Southern District of Florida and in front of Judge Altman. But this will backfire for Donald Trump. This is yet another case where he's decided for political gain, political purposes, for PR.

7:27Michael Popok:He's going to sue all of his enemies. And he has Melania do it as well. Melania going after Michael Wolff, the journalist, in a lawsuit. All this does is expose them since he's doing something unheard of and that has never been done in the history of our presidency, which is a sitting president decides to grind his axe against his enemies and go after his enemies list by civil or criminal cases We've never had that before. But it opens the Pandora box, Pandora's box, because now he, what's good for the goose is good for the gander, mixing my metaphors and sayings. If you're going to sue and you're the plaintiff, which he is, President Donald Trump as plaintiff, then you sit for deposition.

8:16Michael Popok:If I'm the BBC, I would hurry up, get your associates working round the clock, put them on that habit trail, put them on that wheel, and get that effing motion to dismiss filed ASAP. Like, by the time I'm done with this video, you should be filing that motion to dismiss. And along with it, ask for a renewed hearing on the motion to stay discovery. Failing that, that's not your strategy. Then take the cards you've been dealt and set Donald Trump for deposition. And anybody else you can think of that's relevant. This episode is brought to you by IQ Bar, our exclusive snack, hydration, and coffee sponsor.

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9:38Michael Popok:Their ultimate sampler pack includes all three. I keep an IQ Bar in my bag for a clean, no sugar snack, start my morning with IQ Joe, and use IQ Mix to stay sharp and hydrated after a long day. And right now, IQ Bar is offering our special podcast listeners 20 % off all IQ Bar products, including the ultimate sampler pack plus free shipping. To get your 20 % off, text LEGALAF to 64000. Text LEGALAF to 64000. That's LEGALAF to 64000. Message and data rates may apply. See terms for details. Now, right on top of this order by Judge Altman denying stopping the discovery, which I see as a silver lining, that's a gift to the BBC.

10:22Michael Popok:Go set Trump for deposition. The judge also issued his standard order setting the case for trial. This case is going to go, unless it's dismissed earlier, and it could be.

10:34Michael Popok:I mean, defamation cases are difficult to dismiss early because there's so many facts in dispute that it undermines the ability to obtain a summary judgment in advance of trial because that has to be decided by the trier of fact. The trier of fact, usually a jury has to sort out these types of disputed facts or not. But assuming the summary judgments don't work, This case is going to trial a year from now, February 15, 2027. They're going to have to go to mediation. And generally, unless excused, Trump's going to have to go to mediation. Now, he can file a motion and say, I'm too busy. I'm the president of the United States.

11:10Michael Popok:I'm too busy crushing the hopes and dreams of Americans and people around the world to show up for mediation. But there has to be somebody with authority. And he's suing in his own name. I think this is a mediation that Donald Trump's going to have to go to. I think it's very hard for him to be let out of this responsibility. So they're going to have to pick a mediator within the next three days. Then they've got all sorts of deadlines to do experts, to do their expert discovery, to do the discovery about the jurisdiction of the court. And then by November, right before Thanksgiving, they're going to have to start filing their motions for summary judgment.

11:48Michael Popok:And then they're sending it over to magistrate judge Lett to handle a lot of issues. But if I'm the BBC, stop struggling procedurally. I would not file, in retrospect, another motion to stop discovery. Get your motion to dismiss done, get it on file, and set Trump for deposition. What documents do you need? They're all in the public record. His role in Jan 6th. What did he do to interfere with the election? Why what he said can never be defamatory because he doesn't have character that can be defamed? Go pull the Jan 6th committee's special report. You know, 900 pages. Go pull Jack Smith's volume one of his election interference case in front of Judge Chutkin.

12:41Michael Popok:I mean, what else do you need? You have what you need. My audience, everybody in this audience in Midas Touch and Legal AF land could do the deposition of Donald Trump. Right now, if I told you, write 20 questions right now that you think are appropriate to ask Donald Trump in a case in which he alleges that he was defamed by showing his own words on a video from the BBC about his ellipse speech, go. Write like an exam. Write 20 questions. You do great. I'd love to see those. In fact, you can put them in comments down in this video. Thanks for being here. Till my next report on Michael Popak. Slide over to Legal AF YouTube channel.

13:20Michael Popok:Support our dozen videos, new videos every day, and our Legal AF Substack as well. Till my next report, I'm Michael Popak. Can't get your fill of Legal AF? Me neither. That's why we formed the Legal AF Substack. Every time we mention something in a hot take, whether it's a court filing or a oral argument, come over to the Substack. You'll find the court filing and the oral argument there, including a daily roundup that I do call, wait for it, Morning AF. What else? All the other contributors from Legal AF are there as well. We got some new reporting. We got interviews. We got ad-free versions of the podcast and hot takes.

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