Stephanie Grisham's Deposition: Trump’s Lawyer's Asked To 'Stop Wasting Time'

A federal judge told lawyers of former President Donald Trump to “stop wasting time" after they tried to halt the deposition of former White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham minutes after it began.

Grisham was deposed Thursday in Kansas by attorneys for New York columnist E. Jean Carroll in a defamation lawsuit, reported Bloomberg. According to a transcript, during a brief hearing held over the phone during a break in the deposition, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan said to Trump’s lawyers, “Stop wasting time. It goes forward.”

The testimony was briefly delayed after Trump lawyer Michael Madaio tried to halt the deposition when Grisham confirmed she had taken her prescribed painkillers. Grisham, who resigned her subsequent post as chief of staff to the then First Lady Melania Trump after the Jan. 6 riot, had taken less than a quarter of her normal dose.

Trump is scheduled to be deposed in the case on Oct. 19. Carroll accused the former President of raping her 20 years ago and then defaming her by calling her a liar while he was serving as the U.S. President. He has denied the rape allegation, and his personal attorney Alina Habba said in a phone call that the effort to delay the deposition was related to Grisham’s competency, reported Yahoo! News. Habba said in the call from Florida that they had "proceeded with other depositions in the case this week." She added that the only reason for their "concern with this deposition is what the transcript indicates."

Habba’s partner Madaio advised the judge that Grisham had cited her medication as a reason to not sit for a deposition in an unrelated lawsuit on Sept. 23, a transcript of the brief hearing said. Madaio told the judge that the issue was that the witness advised early in the deposition that "she is currently on painkillers." The lawyer said that they were aware that in a "related case she recently filed a notice of unavailability for deposition based on the fact that she was on the same painkillers, and that she would not be able to competently testify based on the fact that she was on painkillers."

He added, “She remains on the painkillers today." Carroll’s lawyer Roberta Kaplan said that there had been "extensive testimony about this already, and it’s really somewhat of a waste of time." He added that the injury had healed, which is exactly "why, your honor, we are here in Kansas.” The lawyer shared that Grisham was on 20 milligrams of the painkiller. Her normal dosage is 100 milligrams.