Mary Trump Criticizes Absence of Donald Trump’s Deposition

Mary Trump’s legal team stated that despite at least five efforts to arrange for President Donald Trump to be deposed in his own lawsuit, both parties have reached a “deadlock” as the discovery period approaches its conclusion.

Discovery in the case is scheduled to conclude in October, and the president’s deposition — pending for up to 10 weeks — should occur between Aug. 11-22 or Sept. 7-19, according to the letter.

“The parties are at an impasse regarding the scheduling of President Trump’s deposition before the discovery deadline,” the letter indicated. “Despite being obliged to sit for a deposition, as acknowledged by the Court, Defendant has been unable to get President Trump to commit—despite at least five requests in the past 10 weeks—to a deposition on any specific date before the end of discovery.”

Mary Trump’s team offered for her to sit “for a deposition close to President Trump’s,” while Trump attorney Michael Madaio challenged the defendant’s claim of “stalemated” deposition talks.

Trump, the president, is just busy, Madaio said.

“President Trump has not declined to attend a deposition, and efforts are ongoing to find mutually convenient dates with President Trump,” the letter mentioned. “As the current President of the United States, President Trump has exceptional and urgent responsibilities that necessitate careful planning of his schedule.”

“While President Trump has not yet provided specific dates of availability, discussions remain ongoing. Defendant, for her part, has not provided her availability to date despite request, but President Trump will continue to work with Defendant to identify an agreeable date,” the plaintiff’s attorney continued. “President Trump also intends to serve a deposition notice for Defendant shortly.”

The joint submission to New York Supreme Court Justice Robert R. Reed further noted that the parties are waiting on the court’s decision as to Mary Trump’s last-ditch bid to compel the discovery of documents on the “valuation” of her grandfather Fred Trump Sr.’s estate.

“On June 20, 2025, Defendant filed a Motion for Leave to Reargue its Rule 14 submission seeking to compel President Trump to produce documents relevant to Defendant’s fraudulent inducement affirmative defense,” the parties summarized. “That motion was fully briefed as of July 25, 2025, and is awaiting the Court’s decision.”

The defense has called the “Estate Valuation Materials” crucial to Mary Trump’s ability to prove that she was fraudulently induced into a 2001 Trump family settlement, making a “confidentiality provision” she signed void and exposing her uncle’s breach of contract case as nothing but a castle built on sand.

To date, Reed multiple times denied the defendant the discovery she seeks, even though she claims it is “relevant, indeed central, to a live affirmative defense in this case.”

“Defendant seeks the ‘Estate Valuation Materials’ because they are necessary to demonstrate that she was deliberately misled into entering into the settlement agreement by Plaintiff’s misrepresentations about the value of assets at issue in the underlying estate litigation,” Mary Trump’s most recent filing said. “Those materials are plainly relevant and discoverable under the CPLR.”

The president has claimed that his niece, the New York Times, and Times reporters Susanne Craig, David Barstow, and Russell Buettner “maliciously conspir[ed] against him” in an “insidious plot” to expose his confidential tax records and accusing him of “outright fraud” in the Pulitzer Prize-winning story headlined, “Trump Engaged in Suspect Tax Schemes as He Reaped Riches From His Father.”

Madaio weeks ago asked Reed to reject Mary Trump’s motion to reargue her discovery position just as the judge has done “two other times already.”

While Mary Trump has claimed the judge “overlooked or misapprehended material facts regarding the state of the pleadings, as well as governing law,” when he refused to allow discovery two months ago and hamstrung her “fraud defense,” the Trump team answered that Reed should simply stick with his prior reasoning and put a definitive end to the defendant’s fishing expedition.

Years earlier, Reed decided that Mary Trump “clearly and unambiguously released [Trump family] defendants from unknown claims, including fraud claims” when she signed the 2001 agreement, meaning her then-lawsuit should fail along with her discovery quest.