In a saga that reads more like a soap opera than the official dealings of the highest government officials in the land, former President Donald Trump’s lawyers have requested a judge reprimand unscrupulous opposition lawyers for leaking parts of a deposition related to a trial scheduled to start next week.
At the heart of the matter is the disclosure of Trump’s concerns that he might be hit with “dangerous” fruit by protestors.
The controversy prompted CNN to run the following unflattering headline: “Donald Trump lived in fear of being hit by, um, ‘dangerous’ fruit.” Further, the disclosure reveals that Trump urges his security team to take a heavy-handed approach to address the issue.
An excerpt from the deposition notes that “Trump said he worried about being hit by a tomato or pineapple at rallies, claiming it could be lethal” and, according to the New York Post, “instructed his team to knock the crap out of any fruit-slinger.”
The deposition notes that Trump said, “Yeah, I think they have to be aggressive in stopping that from happening, because if that happens, you can be killed if that happens.”
Opponents argue that those orders led to the “assault” of several demonstrators outside of Trump Tower in 2015 by Trump’s security team.
Trump’s lead counsel, Alina Habba, filed a motion requesting lawyers be sanctioned over the release of deposition transcripts, saying opposition lawyers acted in “bad faith conduct.”
Habba argued that the release of more than 60 pages of deposition transcript was “a blatant attempt to garner unwarranted media attention and to irreparably taint the potential jury pool.”
The motion concludes: “In short, plaintiffs’ counsel has improperly sought to weaponize the media against the defendants in this matter.”
Trump’s attorneys filed the motion in the Bronx Supreme Court late Friday.
Habba notes that Trump’s legal team gave opposition lawyers “prior warning” not to disclose deposition documents before the trial.
Habba also notes that the release of the documents favors one of their key witnesses former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen who can now read Trump’s testimony and “tailor his responses in his upcoming deposition, which would be prejudicial to her client.”
Habba adds: “Mr. Cohen, a convicted perjurer, is an outspoken critic of [Trump] with a well-documented vendetta against him.”
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