The judge said Trump must appear in person in the Southern District of Florida for the deposition at some point during the week and that questioning could last up to four hours. The judge also ordered Stephanopoulos to sit for a deposition next week but noted that he could appear remotely.

The order marks the latest development in a lawsuit Trump brought against Stephanopoulos this year over allegations the host defamed Trump by lying on television about the president-elect’s legal battles with former Elle columnist E. Jean Carroll.

At issue are claims Stephanopoulos made in March during an interview with Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC), when he said numerous times that Trump was found “liable for rape.”

The news anchor’s comments came after Carroll successfully brought two separate civil lawsuits against Trump, one for rape and defamation and one for defamation.

In the first case, a jury found in May 2023 that Trump “sexually abused” and defamed Carroll and awarded her $5 million. However, the jury also found that Trump did not rape Carroll, based on how the term is defined in New York penal law.

In the second case, a judge found Trump defamed Carroll and a jury awarded her $83 million in damages for the judge’s finding.

Trump is in the process of appealing both cases.

Meanwhile, Trump has been unsuccessful in all of his lawsuits in recent years against major media outlets, including the New York Times, CNN, and the Washington Post, all of which he has criticized as “fake news.” In his lawsuit against Stephanopoulos and ABC News, Trump’s attorneys must meet the high bar for proving defamation, which has often required proving a defendant acted with “actual malice.”

“Given Stephanopoulos’ knowledge of the actual verdicts in [the two Carroll cases] and given his vast experience as a journalist, his repeated statements that Plaintiff was found liable for rape were false, intentional, malicious and designed to cause harm,” Trump’s attorneys argued in their complaint.

ABC News attorneys have argued that by many standards outside of New York penal law, the findings in the Carroll cases mean Trump did in fact rape her during a brief encounter in a dressing room in the 1990s.

“As Judge [Lewis] Kaplan explained, in both common parlance and many legal codes, digital penetration is ‘rape,’” ABC News attorneys wrote.

They have also cited the “fair report privilege,” which they have said “protects the rights of journalists to describe court proceedings.”

The ABC News attorneys previously attempted to have the case tossed out, but a judge denied their request, meaning the case could be headed for a trial.