the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. In June 2021 (during the Biden administration), the DOJ argued to the Second Circuit appeals court that DOJ lawyers should defend Trump as a federal employee, stating, "Speaking to the public and the press on matters of public concern is undoubtedly part of an elected official's job." On September 27, 2022, the appeals court ruled that "we cannot say what the District would do" in terms of allowing Trump to be shielded by his former office as U.S. president. Habba praised the ruling as a reversal of the District Court's stance (that the comments were not executive business). On October 12, 2022, after Judge Kaplan denied Trump's request to delay his deposition as a witness in the case the following week, Trump made a lengthy post on Truth Social in which he claimed that the case was "a complete con job", asserting that Carroll's only connection to him was that she had a photograph of them in a line at a celebrity event. Trump's deposition (October 2022) Trump was deposed by Roberta Kaplan on October 19, 2022. Trump asserted that he usually had security guards with him but could not name who would have been working in such a capacity at the relevant time. He denied reaching out to Bergdorf Goodman ahead of his statements in 2019, arguing that "if it did happen, it would have been reported within minutes." He accused Carroll and her lawyer of being "aligned with Hillary Clinton" based on "somebody [having] mentioned it", but admitted that he had no knowledge of Carroll's political party or documentary evidence of her pursuing a political agenda, before going on to repeatedly accuse Kaplan of being a political operative of Clinton or the Democratic Party. When asked if anyone had given him information on Carroll conspiring with that party or New York magazine, Trump said, "I'll let you know." He threatened to sue both Carroll and Kaplan after the proceedings were complete, implying that Carroll's suit was an attempt to sabotage his 2024 presidential campaign, stating, "this is the way you defeat [me], to keep [me] busy with litigation." Additionally, Trump called the litigation a "hoax" along the lines of "The Russia Russia Russia hoax [and the] Ukraine Ukraine Ukraine hoax" and reiterated that he did not know Carroll before she sued him (calling her a "nut job", asserting that she "actually indicated