Left: Donald Trump (AP Photo/Mike Stewart, File). Right: ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on “This Week,” March 10, 2024 (ABC News/screengrab).
A federal court on Thursday denied a request by ABC News and George Stephanopoulos to push back some key dates and proceedings in Donald Trump’s defamation case against them.
In a four-page order, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida declined to reschedule several remaining deadlines related to expert witnesses, discovery, mediation, and various pretrial motions.
Rejecting the request, Chief U.S. District Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga said she was not convinced that attorney Nathan Siegel needed to travel to Israel for 18 specific days in April to observe Passover.
Currently, the trial is slated to begin on April 7, and is anticipated to last between three to five days. In the joint request for an extension of time, the parties suggested a new trial date of June 9.
From the shared motion, at length:
The Jewish Passover holiday is April 12-20, 2025. Defendants’ lead counsel, Nathan Siegel, would like to travel to Israel with his family to celebrate the holiday there because his son will be attending a student program in Israel next semester. Mr. Siegel was currently planning to travel April 5-23, and at a minimum would need to travel several days before the holiday begins considering travel time, time zone differences, and the potential for travel disruptions to the Middle East. For that reason alone, Defendants respectfully request that the trial date be continued to a period materially after the Passover holiday. Plaintiff agrees this request is appropriate to accommodate counsels’ ability to observe this religious holiday with this family.
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The judge was not impressed with this excuse for can-kicking.
“Mr. Siegel’s proposed trip would interfere with the April 7 trial schedule,” Altonaga writes.
The court opined that with the trial likely to last a maximum of five days, Siegel would still have the ability to make it in time for the festival commemorating the Jewish people’s exodus from slavery under the Egyptian pharaohs.
“Mr. Siegel can still travel to Israel for Passover, as he wishes; and add additional time after Passover to be in Israel for the requested 18 days,” the judge wrote. “Consequently, Mr. Siegel’s suggested travel dates do not constitute good cause for the requested two-month continuance.”
In the motion, ABC News and Stephanopoulos made the request — buoyed by an affirmation by the attorney in question. Trump and his legal team, for their part, agreed — calling the request “appropriate to accommodate counsels’ ability to observe this religious holiday with [his] family.”
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Notably, the court also rejected overtures for “a multi-month extension of each of the Scheduling Order’s remaining deadlines” based on shared concerns over “challenges presented by conducting discovery during the course of a Presidential campaign.”
Again, the judge was not having it.
“The unique challenges are not so obvious,” the order goes on. “In any event, the Court, has already granted a lengthy discovery period in light of these considerations and, with Election Day now behind us, there is no reason for any further delay.”
The President-elect is suing the defendants because Stephanopoulos said “more than 10 times” on “This Week” in March that Trump had been found “liable for rape” in the E. Jean Carroll civil case.
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