Meghan Markle has filed a lawsuit to prevent Thomas Markle from being deposed in connection with allegations made in the shocking Oprah interview from last year. Samantha Markle filed the defamation lawsuit.
Samantha Markle is suing Meghan for defamation due to her interview with Oprah Winfrey and information that appeared in the biography Finding Freedom. Thomas Markle will reportedly be deposed by Samantha's attorneys between October 5 and October 21 to testify under oath or by affidavit.
Meghan Markle Urges to Use First Amendment Rights
Samantha's legal team is attempting to delay deposing her father until after a decision on whether the case will be dismissed by the Duchess of Sussex, as per Mirror. In the now-famous Oprah interview, Meghan made comments about her connection with Samantha, which the statement said, were non-actionable views that are also substantially true.
The court decided that Samantha Markle shouldn't be able to force Meghan and maybe many non-parties to spend a lot of money on pointless discovery while a valid move to dismiss the case is still pending.
The Duchess was merely exercising core First Amendment rights to free speech, according to Meghan's legal counsel. It is uncertain if Samantha will be successful in all of her requests for depositions, according to Newsweek.
The list of potential witnesses is much broader than it was in Virginia Giuffre's accusation of Prince Andrew of sexual assault. The claims made against the Duke of York by his American accuser have been fiercely and strenuously refuted.
The newspaper cited other filings made by Meghan's legal team regarding the extensive list of people Samantha's legal team is allegedly planning to depose, Express reported. The magazine reported that a deposition of Mr. Markle at this time, together with additional discoveries, would be an unneeded spectacle and waste of the parties time, money, and resources.
Meghan Markle's Sister Seeks Settlement in Defamation Case
The filing argues that discovery, in this case, should be put on hold until the Motion to Dismiss is decided for the following reasons: (1) the Motion is unquestionably meritorious and will put an end to the matter; (2) a brief stay of discovery will not be harmful or prejudicial to [Samantha Markle]; and (3) discovery will be detrimental to Meghan, other third parties, the Court, and First Amendment rights.
According to the statement, in addition to the parties, Samantha identified a whopping 19 non-party witnesses, including Prince Harry, Meghan's mother, Oprah Winfrey, and different British journalists and media leaders, including Scobie and Durand, the writers of Finding Freedom, as per Hello Magazine.
Samantha tried to recover her case, according to Meghan's attorney Michael Kump, by alleging the former Suits actress is to blame for Finding Freedom's remarks. It truly couldn't be any easier than that, he added to state the obvious, because Meghan did not author Finding Freedom, she cannot be accountable for allegations in the book.
Samantha requested that the matter be heard in a speed-chess trial, therefore the judge set the trial date to begin on October 2, 2023, in the United States. Samantha is asking for a $108,000 settlement, according to Now To Love.
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