Trump Has Another Deposition Scheduled the Day He Plans to Return to His New York Fraud Trial

There’s a common theme in Donald Trump’s itinerary when the former president plans to appear in New York State Supreme Court for his civil fraud trial: depositions in other lawsuits. 

When he first stepped foot in court on Oct. 2, 2023, Trump had been scheduled for a deposition in a then-active $500 million civil lawsuit he had filed against his ex-attorney Michael Cohen in the Southern District of Florida. 

According to court documents, Trump’s legal team persuaded a federal judge to postpone that deposition so that he could attend “each day” of the first week of proceedings — and then left early and withdrew the lawsuit before the rescheduled date.

As The Messenger exclusively reported on Thursday, Trump plans to return to the New York City courthouse next Tuesday, Oct. 17. That's also the anticipated date of Cohen’s testimony as one of the attorney general’s star witnesses against the former president in the civil fraud trial. 

That same day, Trump is scheduled to sit for a deposition in a lawsuit brought by ex-FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, whom the former president vilified for their work in connection with the federal investigation into his 2016 campaign’s ties with the Russian government. 

In 2019, Strzok and Page sued the Justice Department for releasing their private emails disparaging Trump, whose rage they say ultimately caused their wrongful termination. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on Sept. 1 rejected the DOJ’s request to block Trump’s deposition, leading to a series of email exchanges scheduling a date for it to take place that have since been entered into the court record.

“We are confirmed for Tuesday, October 17, 2023,” Trump’s attorney, David A. Warrington, wrote in an email on Sept. 28, 2023. “We have set aside the time from 1 to 4pm for the 2 hour deposition.”

Warrington's note also said a room had been reserved — the location isn't publicly mentioned — that can accommodate 20 people. "I will let everyone know what information the Secret Service needs from the people attending as well as directions for [REDACTED] at the given time."

Strzok declined to comment, and his attorney Aitan Goelman — a former federal prosecutor who helped convict Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh — didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. 

The Trump campaign also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.