Donald Trump Could Blow Whole Case With One Answer

Former President Donald Trump could blow the whole case in New York's civil fraud trial, according to the lawyer who came face-to-face with Trump in a key deposition.

Deborah Baum, the global head of litigation at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, who represented celebrity chef Geoffrey Zakarian in his 2015 lawsuit against the then-presidential nominee, said Trump could "certainly" hurt himself on the stand this week.

"You can blow your whole case if you're not careful on the stand in trial. One line can blow your whole case," Baum said in an interview with Politico.

Trump, who has had years of practice testifying in court, is set to appear on the stand before a court on Monday for the first time since he won the 2016 presidential election.

His two eldest sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, already testified in the $250 million civil fraud lawsuit last week. Trump will follow suit this week as he attempts to save his business empire from New York Attorney General Letitia James, who is seeking to permanently bar the Trumps from running businesses in the state over alleged financial fraud.

Baum deposed Trump in June 2016 as part of her client's countersuit against Trump. The suit stemmed from the fallout between Zakarian and Trump, who was a candidate in the Republican primaries at the time. After Trump launched a campaign that described Mexican immigrants as rapists and drug dealers, Zakarian backed out of the deal to lease a restaurant space at a Trump hotel in Washington, D.C.—a move that prompted Trump to sue the chef's company for $10 million for breach-of-contract.

As part of Zakarain's counter lawsuit against Trump, Baum deposed the real estate mogul, despite pushback from Trump's legal team, who moved for a protective order that was thrown out by the judge.

In the interview published Monday, she described having "a very friendly conversation" with Trump during the deposition, chatting about his lawyers and family. She encouraged New York prosecutors to take a similar tone and avoid being confrontational with him in order to secure a successful testimony with Trump.

"It was all done in a very friendly tenor, and I got exactly what I wanted," Baum said. "The man responds really well to flattery. You flatter him, and he's your best friend."

Baum also advised James' team to "just let him talk," saying she got all the necessary testimony from Trump with that tactic and adding that Trump was "totally unprepared" and spoke off-the-cuff when she questioned him.

"When we finished the deposition, [Trump] said, 'We should not be fighting with Debby. Why don't you all stay and try to work it out?'" Baum said.

Newsweek reached out to Baum via email for comment.

James is suing Trump, his sons and the Trump Organization for allegedly inflating their assets and net worths to deceive insurers, banks and others. Trump has denied any wrongdoing and painted the case as a politically motivated stunt to block him from a second White House term.

Although the Republican presidential nominee has not yet been selected, Trump remains far ahead of his competitors as the frontrunner despite the string of legal battles he faces, including four indictments and a lawsuit challenging his 2024 candidacy.

Ahead of his Monday testimony, Trump railed against James and the judge overseeing the case in a Truth Social post.

"Getting ready to head to the Downtown Lower Manhattan Courthouse to testify in one of the many cases that were instigated and brought by my POLITICAL OPPONENT, Crooked Joe Biden, through agencies and surrogates, for purposes of ELECTION INTERFERENCE," Trump said.

"This is the first time this method of cheating in an election has been so blatantly used in the USA as a POLITICAL WEAPON! Mostly done in Third World Countries," he continued. "Got a really Biased, Nasty, Club controlled, but often overturned, Judge, a Racist, Evil, and Corrupt Attorney General, BUT A CASE THAT, ACCORDING TO ALMOST ALL LEGAL SCHOLARS, HAS ZERO MERIT. A dark day for our Country. WITCH HUNT!"