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As we march forward to Inauguration Day, President-elect Donald Trump made headlines on Thursday for taking time out from his busy White House transition schedule to complete a deposition in a lawsuit against celebrity chef José Andrés.
For those who may have forgotten, the pair have been locking horns since July 2015, when Andrés announced plans to abandon a restaurant project in DC’s Trump Hotel after the then-candidate made disparaging comments about Mexican immigrants on the campaign trail. A day later, chef Geoffrey Zakarian followed suit. Later that month, Trump filed a $10 million lawsuit against Andrés for breach of contract; Andrés responded with his own countersuit in October).
Leading up to the deposition, the Spanish-born chef has made several offers to the PEOTUS on Twitter to settle their legal issues by putting the money towards a good cause: a donation to a veteran’s group or another charity.
Again Mr. Peotus @realDonaldTrump if you are awake, let's resolve this in a friendly way. We donate $ to a charity, ..? Is a great deal!
— José Andrés (@chefjoseandres) January 5, 2017
The written olive branches appear to have gone unanswered. Despite Trump’s lawyers attempts to avoid the deposition a judge ordered him to sit for the deposition last week. His videotaped statements took 90-minutes, according to NPR. In an apparent response to the length of the Trump’s deposition (and a possible allusion to past statements made by the PEOTUS about the size of his penis), Andrés tweeted on Friday afternoon about his deposition: “Ok! I finished my deposition! Hey! Mine was longer than his .@realDonaldTrump”
Ok! I finish my deposition! Hey! mine was longer than his .@realDonaldTrump
— José Andrés (@chefjoseandres) January 6, 2017
Meanwhile, the Trump Hotel’s DC bar keeps raising its prices on cocktails — the cheapest drink is now $24. Perhaps the money will go towards Trump’s legal bills. The Washington Post reports that Geoffrey Zakarian’s lawsuit settlement talks with the Trump camp have reached and “impasse.” A pretrial conference hearing in that multimillion-dollar lawsuit is slated to take place in May.
• Trump Deposed For 90 Minutes In Civil Case Involving Chef José Andrés [NPR]
• Trump Deposed in N.Y. in Multimillion-Dollar Lawsuit Against Chef José Andrés [WaPo]
• José Andrés Proposes Trump Lawsuit Settlement and Donation to Veterans Group [E]
• The Many Lawsuits of Donald Trump and D.C. Chefs [E]
• All Donald Trump Coverage [E]
