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Speaker 1: Dozens of pending lawsuits around the country involve Donald Trump.

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Speaker 1: There are cases involving all alleged fraud by Trump University.

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Speaker 1: There are suits by members of his Florida golf course

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Speaker 1: demanding refunds. There is a fight with two celebrity chefs

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Speaker 1: who pulled out of one of his hotel projects. And

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Speaker 1: then there are the potential legal fights possibly involving the

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Speaker 1: multiple women who have accused him of sexual misconduct. Yesterday,

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Speaker 1: his lawyers in one of the Trump University cases asked

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Speaker 1: a federal judge to delay the trial until next year,

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Speaker 1: while attorneys for the plaintiffs urged that the case go forward.

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Speaker 1: The last thing we need right now is to have

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Speaker 1: a trial about events that occurred six years ago or

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Speaker 1: seven years ago um in which Mr Trump President led

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Speaker 1: Trump is a personal defendant, and here are the plaintiffs lawyers.

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Speaker 1: Now is the time to do this trial. Our clients

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Speaker 1: have been waiting, you know, for six and a half years,

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Speaker 1: many of them are senior CITI since so, how that

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Speaker 1: litigation affect the Trump presidency? Can it be managed with

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Speaker 1: us to discuss that? Are Robert Bennett a partner at

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Speaker 1: Hogan Levels. He was President Clinton's lawyer in the Paul

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Speaker 1: Jones sexual harassment lawsuit that went all the way to

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Speaker 1: the Supreme Court and triggered a chain of events that

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Speaker 1: led to Clinton's impeachment. And Michael Gerhardt, a professor at

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Speaker 1: the University of North Carolina School of Law, Bob Bennett,

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Speaker 1: There's so much I want to ask you about all

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Speaker 1: of this, but let's start briefly with the bottom kind

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Speaker 1: of the bottom line, and then try to drill into

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Speaker 1: the specifics. Is all this private litigation manageable or will

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Speaker 1: inevitably be a major demand on the new president's time

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Speaker 1: and or and or a major distraction for him. Well,

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Speaker 1: I think the answer to that is yes. The litigation

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Speaker 1: is quite burden some civil litigation, and I was unable

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Speaker 1: to convince the Supreme Court in the Clinton case. Uh

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Speaker 1: So the answer clearly is yes, unless as the courts

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Speaker 1: who are handling the particular litigation are very deferential to

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Speaker 1: his schedule, which I think they really have to be. Michael.

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Speaker 1: One question that's going to come up, if in fact

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Speaker 1: he has to litigate these things and they're not too

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Speaker 1: deferential to him, is is it better to do that

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Speaker 1: get these a lot of the way early, get them

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Speaker 1: as many out of the way as possible before he

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Speaker 1: becomes president, or should these be postponed awhile to let

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Speaker 1: him get his feet what is president at least before

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Speaker 1: he has to deal with the litigation. I'm not sure

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Speaker 1: either of those is going to turn out to be

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Speaker 1: u as critical a question as simply trying to follow

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Speaker 1: the schedule that the court has already set up, um,

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Speaker 1: and then trying to manage process or procedure and discovery

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Speaker 1: and everything else, um. And as Mr Bennett just pointed out, uh,

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Speaker 1: and as Clinton versus Jones, the Springboard itself said, UM,

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Speaker 1: this is all going to come down to sort of

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Speaker 1: the trial judges ability and really authority need to be

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Speaker 1: able to manage the procedure and of the particular cases

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Speaker 1: um that we're talking about. So it's gonna come down

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Speaker 1: to probably individual cases and how the judges in those cases,

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Speaker 1: UM think they can proceed. And it may well be that,

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Speaker 1: given the complexities of a president, lex time and and

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Speaker 1: everything else, that they'll get slowed down because of that.

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Speaker 1: But I don't know that they'll come to a standstill.

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Speaker 1: Apart from whatever the merits and issues are with respect

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Speaker 1: arising in Niche and every one of those cases. Bob,

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Speaker 1: What what is good management by a trial judge mean?

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Speaker 1: Does it mean that Donald Trump doesn't have to testify,

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Speaker 1: that the cases is drawn out? What's your perspective? So,

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Speaker 1: I think it would start with the president's schedule, and

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Speaker 1: I think great difference will be given to his schedule. Ly,

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Speaker 1: you know, he says I can't be deposed on such

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Speaker 1: and such a date because I have to travel to

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Speaker 1: Aja or or you know, a major bill is on

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Speaker 1: my desk. A court is going to give a great

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Speaker 1: deal of deference to that. Also, I think, and I

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Speaker 1: would be very interested in the professors and put on this.

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Speaker 1: The court could look at other ways to get the

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Speaker 1: new president's testimony. He might say, well, uh, interrogatories or

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Speaker 1: written questions and answers might be an alternative. Uh. I

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Speaker 1: also understand, and I might be wrong on this because

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Speaker 1: I haven't been following those cases that he's already been

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Speaker 1: deposed toward questions and at least one of them. And

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Speaker 1: I could see a chord saying, well, you know, you

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Speaker 1: don't get two bites at this apple, especially under the circumstances.

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Speaker 1: So I think case management might mean looking for alternatives

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Speaker 1: to requiring the president to show at a certain place,

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Speaker 1: even affects that the house to be deposed. Michael. One

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Speaker 1: of the things that I find sort of odd about

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Speaker 1: this is that these are all his private businesses, and

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Speaker 1: he has now said that he wants to come with

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Speaker 1: some kind of blind trust for his businesses that his

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Speaker 1: children would run, and putting that, putting aside whether that's

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Speaker 1: a blind trust or not, how much can he actually

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Speaker 1: be involved as president in these cases if they involve

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Speaker 1: the finances of his private companies, whether there are some

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Speaker 1: overlapping issues here, I mean, um uh, he's gonna need

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Speaker 1: to put some arms length distance between himself and in

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Speaker 1: his businesses of however we define them, and and and

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Speaker 1: that's that is the way we've That's what the law

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Speaker 1: and the practice that's pertaining this sort of presidential conduct

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Speaker 1: has been And he'll have to huge hue according to

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Speaker 1: that line. But the lawsuits may be a little different,

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Speaker 1: um in that they are being run by and managed

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Speaker 1: by these different judges and have been filed um to

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Speaker 1: his election and will presumably continue um uh along as

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Speaker 1: his presidency unfolds. Um And so I think the extent

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Speaker 1: of which he becomes involved takes us back to that question, Um,

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Speaker 1: where the case is procedurally, has he been deposed already

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Speaker 1: or what other alternatives might exist at that time? Sure,

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Speaker 1: all those alternatives and written and derogatories and other things

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Speaker 1: are always available in any given case. And there are

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Speaker 1: busy people involved in a lot of different cases. There's

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Speaker 1: probably nobody busier than the President of the United States.

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Speaker 1: So as a result, Um, I think the Court's going

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Speaker 1: to have to look at what the you know, why

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Speaker 1: people are asking for his time and um, and even

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Speaker 1: the extent of which perhaps people are beginning to use

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Speaker 1: his new position as a way to try to harass him.

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Speaker 1: If that arises, Uh, any good judge would stop it.

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Speaker 1: Bob briefly, what about the prospect of settlement? Is it

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Speaker 1: you had trouble settling the Paula Jones case? Um? Is

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Speaker 1: it realistic to think that these cases might be settled?

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Speaker 1: Who has the leverage and we only have about thirty

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Speaker 1: can spec Perhaps we can continue the discussion in a moment. Well,

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Speaker 1: this will all depend on Mr Trump president to be Trump,

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Speaker 1: whether he wants to settle or not. I am sure

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Speaker 1: without knowing that advisers to him would say, look, you

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Speaker 1: want to get this stuff behind you. You don't want

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Speaker 1: to be burdened with this when you've just taken over

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Speaker 1: the reins of the country. Back up that, Bob. We're

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Speaker 1: gonna need to pick up that thought in just a moment, Bob, Bob.

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Speaker 1: A couple of minutes ago, we were talking about the

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Speaker 1: prospect of settlement. UM, I want to give you a

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Speaker 1: chance to finish your answer and also ask who has

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Speaker 1: the leverage here? Is it? If I recall correctly when

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Speaker 1: you were involved with with the Paula Jones lawsuit, she

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Speaker 1: made some some pretty significant demands of involving an apology

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Speaker 1: and money. And I'm wondering whether in a case like

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Speaker 1: this where a president needs a lawsuit to go away, Uh,

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Speaker 1: does the plaintiff inherently have a lot of leverage? But

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Speaker 1: none necessarily Because one of the concerns is if if

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Speaker 1: if the president elect Trump settled cases because he wants

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Speaker 1: to get them behind him and not interfere with his presidency,

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Speaker 1: it's an invitation for lots of people to file suits,

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Speaker 1: so those advising him would would not want that. On

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Speaker 1: the other hand, if you can reach a reasonable settlement

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Speaker 1: on something, you know, they might consider it. Wow, we

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Speaker 1: ultimately settled the Clinton case. We were very careful as

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Speaker 1: to when we settled and and and the amount we

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Speaker 1: settled for, and the terms of the settlement were much

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Speaker 1: more favorable than what we could have gotten earlier. On Michael,

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Speaker 1: you have lawsuits here involving fraud, involving lie Bowle, involving

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Speaker 1: not paying fees to people who then couldn't get admitted

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Speaker 1: to his club, and all sorts of other allegations, at

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Speaker 1: least in the ones that seem more viable. But some

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Speaker 1: of this is pretty serious stuff in terms of what's

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Speaker 1: being alleged that Donald Trump and his companies did. If

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Speaker 1: he's found liabel, say for fraud or something serious, what

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Speaker 1: do Congress in the American people do with that? Well,

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Speaker 1: that's a really good question. Um so. UM, I think

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Speaker 1: the part one thing they'll have to do, of course,

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Speaker 1: is everybody's gonna have to take a deep breath, um

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Speaker 1: and just try and we'll have to deal with sort

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Speaker 1: of the facts as they occur in the in the

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Speaker 1: particular issues that you're talking about, sort of a rise

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Speaker 1: if there is but given all but given all that, um,

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Speaker 1: as findings are made in the case, they will have

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Speaker 1: a political impact. Um. That's one thing that will probably be.

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Speaker 1: It will happen, and so all the different parties, including president,

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Speaker 1: will have to deal with that political impact. A second thing,

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Speaker 1: then would be depending upon what it is, how serious

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Speaker 1: it is, UM may or may not raise issues for

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Speaker 1: the president's sort of stature. UM. This is obviously gonna

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Speaker 1: lead us inevitably to the question about impeachment. UM. And

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Speaker 1: I think the impeachment depends on a lot of things,

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Speaker 1: one of which has to do with what's the misconduct, UM,

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Speaker 1: or what's the allegation or charges that's been made, what

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Speaker 1: is its relevance for the office? How much do the

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Speaker 1: American people know about it ahead of time? UM? Many

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Speaker 1: of these things will cut against any movement towards impeachment. UM.

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Speaker 1: You have to show a pretty clear link between serious

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Speaker 1: misconduct and the president's current UM performance or current conduct

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Speaker 1: in office. And that's actually a fairly hard showing. Uh So, UM,

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Speaker 1: I think it would be very We're gonna begin with

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Speaker 1: the unlikelihood that this would actually necessarily result in any

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Speaker 1: movement within Congress unless you could somehow show and it's

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Speaker 1: a hard showing that there was some kind of misconduct

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Speaker 1: on the part of the president that UM, people didn't

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Speaker 1: know about it and now seems to really impact on

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Speaker 1: his current duties. Bob. Over the course of the campaign,

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Speaker 1: Donald Trump threatened to sue a lot of people, including

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Speaker 1: news organizations and women, who accused him of sexual misconduct.

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Speaker 1: Is it's uh fair to imagine that his advisers are

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Speaker 1: going to be encouraging him not to take those steps. Yes,

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Speaker 1: I would think so, and I would think that he

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Speaker 1: himself would not want to proceed along those those tracks.

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Speaker 1: But you know, I know him, I know Donald Trump.

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Speaker 1: I don't know him. I've never discussed these kinds of

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Speaker 1: issues with him, but I would be surprised if he

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Speaker 1: would initiate litigation at this at this point in time, Okay,

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Speaker 1: I want to thank our guests, Robert Bennett, partner at

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Speaker 1: Hogan Levels and Michael Gerhard, law professor at the University

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Speaker 1: of North Carolina.