Former President Donald Trump has opted to wait out Hurricane Ian from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, which will now affect his deposition scheduled for Friday in a class-action lawsuit.
Trump was scheduled to be questioned in a case accusing him, his children, and the Trump Organization of fraud and deception at his Mar-a-Lago estate on Friday, Insider reported.
However, according to letters filed in court Wednesday by the lawyers suing Trump, the former president refused to move his deposition elsewhere even with Hurricane Ian approaching the peninsula, CNN reported.
John Quinn is one of the lawyers pursuing Trump, and he shared in the letter that his team did not want to fly into the state with the severity of the storm earlier this week. Even still, they said that Trump and his team would not budge on doing the deposition in another state, CNN reported.
Friday was the initial deadline set by the court for lawyers to question Trump and others in the case under oath.
Trump's team flew to Palm Beach earlier in the week. They responded to the court saying so, adding that they would have rescheduled the deposition if Quinn's team had asked.
Clifford Robert, one of Trump's lawyers, called Quinn on Tuesday, according to Quinn's letter to the court. In it, Quinn said that Robert called him to "tell me that he and his colleague were boarding a flight to Palm Beach. I expressed some surprise—I believe I used the word 'walloped'—but Mr. Robert indicated they were flying down anyway."
On Wednesday, Quinn said that his team reached out to Trump's team again by phone and email, but they were unable to contact them, the letter said, Bloomberg reported.
"Accordingly, the last we heard is that Defendants insist the deposition go forward at Mar-a-Lago and on Friday," Quinn wrote. "With all respect, we do not believe that is prudent or safe."
Trump's team responded Wednesday night, saying that Quinn was misrepresenting what happened, saying that he had asked Quinn if Friday in Palm Beach still worked, to which the opposing lawyer said yes.
"President Trump stands ready, willing, and able to proceed with his deposition on Friday," Trump's attorney told the judge in their letter, according to CNN.
"Now that we have all traveled to West Palm Beach and are currently sitting in the middle of a hurricane while Plaintiffs' counsel enjoys the comforts of home, Plaintiffs have the gall to request that the deposition for which Defendants spent considerable time and resources preparing be canceled less than 48 hours prior to its scheduled date and time."
Robert accused Quinn and his team of trying to make Trump seem unreasonable, saying that he has made efforts to be accommodating.
The deadline for Trump to be deposed has now been moved a month to October 31, following Magistrate Judge Sarah Cave of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York's decision.
Cave said that "out of concern for the safety of the parties, court reporter, videographer, and any other required attendees of the Deposition," the deadline had to be moved.
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