Donald Trump to be deposed over use of Eddy Grant hit 'Electric Avenue' in Biden-bashing tweet.
"Electric Avenue" singer Eddy Grant and Donald Trump will both tape depositions in an ongoing copyright case.
Grant is suing over the song's use in a Biden-bashing video posted to Trump's Twitter in 2020.
The disco-reggae star and former president must walk down to separate microphones by June 21.
Donald Trump and "Electric Avenue" singer Eddy Grant are about to collaborate on some recordings — their sworn depositions in an ongoing copyright case.
Both Trump and Grant must be deposed by June 21 in the singer's 2020 lawsuit, which seeks $300,000 in damages from the hit song's use in a Biden-bashing tweet from the last presidential election, court filings revealed Wednesday.
Grant is suing both the former president and his campaign over the use of the ear-wormy 1983 single, which plays in the background of an animation that was posted to the Trump Twitter site on Aug. 12, 2020.
Forty seconds of the song was used in the animation, which made fun of then-candidate Joe Biden, showing him puttering along on a slow-moving hand-car as the Trump campaign barrels by in a high-speed train.
The animation was viewed more than 13 million times before it was taken down a month later.
Grant's side is suing for copyright infringement over the song he wrote and recorded. Trump's side has said the animation was political satire and so is exempt from copyright law; his lawyers say the campaign just reposted the animation with no idea where it came from.
Lawyers for the two sides had tried to work out their disagreement over the dance floor staple on March 2, during a closed-door settlement conference before a magistrate judge, according to court records.
But on Wednesday, a new filing by Grant's lawyer revealed that a settlement was not reached; the Manhattan-based federal lawsuit will instead be moving forward with the taping of depositions by all parties.
"We write with consent from defendants Donald J. Trump and Donald J. Trump For President, Inc. ... to request a 60 day extension for the parties to complete discovery," Grant lawyer Brett Van Benthysen said in a letter to the judge dated Wednesday, referring to the process of sharing evidence.
"Both parties have issued written discovery and an exchange of documents has taken place," Van Benthysen wrote. "However, additional time is needed to schedule and take the depositions of both parties."
Trump is notoriously deposition averse.
Only one lawyer has managed to get him to sit for a deposition in the five years since the 2020 presidential election; the former president will sit for his next deposition, in a civil lawsuit alleging he promoted a scam multi-level marketing scheme, on June 16, just five days before the Grant deposition deadline.
New York Attorney General Letitia James has meanwhile tried since December to compel Trump to sit for a deposition in her three-year civil probe of the Trump Organization.
The judge presiding over the "Electric Avenue" lawsuit, US District Judge John G. Koeltl, signed off on the parties' scheduling agreement on Thursday.
The Guyanese-British singer could not be reached for comment; he has toured on and off over the years, performing at Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday party in 2008 and on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" in 2019.
He told the Financial Times in July that he has lived in Barbados since 1982, turning a cane-field surrounded estate called "Bayley's Plantation" into the home and studio where "Electric Avenue" was written and recorded.
Lawyers for both sides have agreed to a strict gag order in the case and have repeatedly declined to comment on the lawsuit.
Read the original article on Business Insider
