Former President Donald Trump and his adult children have agreed to sit for depositions in a lawsuit filed by investors who allege the family conned them into making bad investments in businesses the Trumps were promoting.
According to a Friday court filing, the former president is scheduled for a June 16 deposition, preceded by his sons Don Jr. and Eric on May 10 and May 12, respectively.
"Defendants have not yet offered a deposition date for Ivanka Trump," the letter said.
The locations and logistics of the depositions were still being discussed.
CNN reported on the deposition dates earlier Friday.
Trump was accused of violating federal anti-racketeering law and misleading salespeople who lost money in a fraudulent marketing company that the former president threw his support behind in speeches and on “The Celebrity Apprentice,” according to the lawsuit, filed by four investors in 2018.
“From 2005 to at least 2015, defendants received millions of dollars in secret payments to promote and endorse ACN,” the suit alleges, referring to a multilevel marketing company that was among the businesses the Trumps were endorsing. “In return, Donald J. Trump told prospective investors that ‘[y]ou have a great opportunity before you at ACN without any of the risks most entrepreneurs have to take,’ and that ACN’s flagship videophone was doing ‘half-a-billion dollars’ worth of sales a year.’ Trump also told investors that he had ‘experienced the opportunity’ and ‘done a lot of research,’ and that his endorsement was ‘not for any money.’ Not a word of this was true.”
Trump’s attorneys have argued the investors didn’t have a case because none of them paid the Trumps directly, and they contend the family isn’t responsible for any of their losses. They also argued that Trump’s statements were opinion and that they included “puffery” that no “reasonable investor” would have relied upon.
Numerous civil cases are pending against Trump.
In October, he was ordered to answer questions under oath in another lawsuit. That lawsuit involved allegations that Trump's security guards manhandled protesters outside Trump Tower in New York.
The former president, along with Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump, filed a brief this week to appeal a judge's order that they appear for sworn testimony in accord with subpoenas from the New York Attorney General's civil probe into the Trump Organization.
Trump sued state Attorney General Letitia James in December in a bid to halt the investigation.
