Trump Tower Protesters Subpoena President in Assault Case
A group of activists who claim they were assaulted by Donald Trump’s security force outside of Trump Tower in 2015 have subpoenaed the President to testify in their case. But in a letter to the protesters’ legal team, Trump’s attorney said the president will “reject” the subpoena and won’t appear at the civil trial scheduled for March.
In court papers filed Wednesday, the activists preemptively asked a Bronx judge to compel Trump’s live courtroom testimony. The president and his fellow defendants, which include the Trump Organization, Trump’s campaign, and longtime bodyguard Keith Schiller, were served on Dec. 28, 2018, according to the court document.
“The jury in this matter deserves to hear the live testimony of Mr. Trump in resolving both the liability and damages phase of the trial,” Nathaniel K. Charny, one of the protesters’ lawyers, told The Daily Beast.
“If we had simply let Mr. Trump disobey the subpoena, we could have gotten certain remedies from the court, however, it would have meant the jury would never get to hear or see his live testimony, which we think is essential.”
Those statutory remedies could include sending the sheriff after Trump, should he flout a court order to testify. “The Bronx County Supreme Court is entitled to send the police to take him from his home and bring him to testify,” Charny quipped. “That federalist struggle, I doubt very much we’ll get to.”
In an email to The Daily Beast, Trump’s attorney Lawrence Rosen confirmed that the president would reject the subpoena: “We are in receipt of the Plaintiffs’ application to the court and legal position concerning the subpoena, with which we disagree, and will address these issues in our formal court filing, should one be necessary.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-tower-protesters-subpoena-president-in-assault-case/ar-BBSYxoa?li=BBnbcA1