Trump Deposed Under Oath Twice in October as Legal Issues Mount: Report

Before Donald Trump was deposed on Wednesday in a defamation lawsuit from a former magazine columnist, the former president reportedly sat for another deposition in a case brought by investors who allege he defrauded them when marketing a videophone device.

Bloomberg, citing an unnamed person familiar with the matter, reported Thursday that Trump was deposed earlier this month after a New York judge ordered him to sit for questions in the videophone case by the end of October. The exact date of the deposition wasn't made public.

Newsweek was not able to independently verify that Trump was deposed earlier this month.

"As we complete fact discovery in this important fraud case, we could not be more pleased with the substantial body of evidence we have developed that will prove our clients' claims," the plaintiff's attorney Roberta Kaplan said in a statement to Newsweek when asked for confirmation. "We are eager to move this case forward to trial as soon as possible."

Newsweek has also reached out to a Trump lawyer for comment.

If true, it would be one of two instances this month in which the former president had to sit for a deposition. Trump appeared in court Wednesday to answer questions in the lawsuit from E. Jean Carroll, also represented by Kaplan, who alleges that Trump sexually assaulted her decades ago. Carroll accused Trump of raping her in a New York City department store in the 1990s, and her 2019 lawsuit focuses on her allegation that he defamed her character in denying doing so.

The two cases only represent two prongs in the former president's growing legal issues. Trump is also being sued for fraud by New York Attorney General Letitia James, who accuses him and his company of "engaging in years of financial fraud to obtain a host of economic benefits."

Trump's other legal woes include the Manhattan District Attorney's probe into his business dealings, a House committee investigation into the January 6 Capitol riot and a Department of Justice investigation into his handling of sensitive documents.

As for the videophone case, Trump, his company and his three oldest children were sued in 2018 by four plaintiffs accusing him of duping them into paying thousands so that they could be independent sellers for ACN Opportunity LLC, Bloomberg reported. Trump marketed selling the videophones, a venture that ultimately failed, as a way to bring in money "without any of the risks most entrepreneurs have to take."

It was not immediately known what Trump said, or didn't say, during his Wednesday deposition at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. After Carroll revealed the account of the alleged assault in an excerpt of her memoir that was published in New York Magazine in 2019, Trump vehemently denied the accusations, saying that Carroll was lying, he didn't know who she was and that "she's not my type."

When he sat for testimony in September in James' lawsuit, he invoked his Fifth Amendment rights.

Updated 10/20/22, 2:30 p.m. ET: This story has been updated with a statement from the plaintiffs' attorney.