Trump, amid legal battles, gives deposition against chef
NEW YORK — President-elect Donald Trump gave a videotaped deposition on Thursday for a lawsuit stemming from a clash with a celebrity restaurateur at his new Washington hotel. It was a rare legal proceeding for a president-elect or sitting president that highlights the legal woes that could follow Trump to the Oval Office.
Trump sat for an hour at Trump Tower to give testimony in a lawsuit he filed against Jose Andres after the chef cancelled plans to open a Spanish-themed restaurant at a new Washington hotel. Andres pulled out after Trump, in declaring his candidacy for president, called some Mexican immigrants “rapists” and said some were bringing drugs and crime to the U.S.
Trump sat for the interview between meetings about his Inauguration and search for top officials to fill his administration just two weeks before he takes office.
The president-elect settled on a new director of national intelligence, selecting former Sen. Dan Coats, an Indiana Republican, according to a person briefed on the decision but not authorized to speak publicly about it. If confirmed, Coats will lead an agency the president-elect is eying for possible restructuring. Trump has been critical of the nation’s intelligence agencies and has cast doubt about their conclusion that Russia was behind the hacking of last year’s elections.