By Jan Wolfe
(Reuters) – Former President Donald Trump testified under oath on Monday as part of a civil lawsuit brought by protesters who allege they were assaulted by his security guards in 2015, a lawyer for the protesters told a news conference.
Trump sat for a videotaped deposition on Monday morning at Trump Tower in midtown Manhattan, said Benjamin Dictor, a lawyer who sought Trump’s testimony in the long-running dispute
New York Supreme Court Justice Doris Gonzalez last week ordered Trump to sit for the videotaped deposition.
A group of protesters brought the lawsuit in 2015, alleging that Trump’s security guards attacked them while they were demonstrating outside Trump Tower in September 2015 over the then-presidential candidate’s comments that Mexican immigrants were criminals and rapists.
“They’re bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime, they’re rapists,” he said during the June 16 speech announcing his candidacy.
Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
(Reporting by Jan Wolfe in Washington; Editing by Peter Cooney)