Reggae singer to do what US could not: drag Trump into court

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Washington DC and the state of New York have tried to put former US President Donald Trump before a court of law and a jury for the longest time now, but it seems that an artist, reggae singer Eddy Grant may succeed in bringing the billionaire before justice and make him answer to the judiciary under oath.

The lawsuit raised against Trump is due to his usage of one of Grant's songs, Electric Avenue, in an ad in 2020 during the presidential election campaign that failed to land the 45th president a second term in office.

Grant is seeking $300,000 in damages, citing copyright infringement. He said as of September 1, 2020, a month after the posting of the video, it "had been viewed more than 13.7 million times; the tweet containing the video had been 'liked' more than 350,000 times, re-tweeted more than 139,000 times, and had received nearly 50,000 comments."

Trump tried to get the suit dismissed before a judge, but his bids failed, and it seems that the suit will make it to court.

Trump's lawyers tried to argue that the ad was satire and fell under fair use, rendering it exempt from copyright law, though their attempts failed. Next was claiming that the footage's source was not known before it was reposted, and when all else failed, the defendants resorted to the claim that Trump was protected by "presidential absolute immunity," meaning he could not be sued.

However, Judge John Koeltl said in September that the defendants had not offered any justification for their "extensive borrowing."

The parties to the case have completed the exchange of documents, and if they do not reach a settlement, they will depose each other by June 21.

Trump is also in legal hot water over his business practices, with New York state attorney general Letitia James trying to depose the former president in her civil investigation, but he refused. She asked an appeals court to uphold a ruling requiring Trump to answer questions under oath.

James does not only have the former president in her iron sights, as she has his son and daughter Ivanka as well because she says she found evidence showing that the Trump Organization might have misstated the value of assets on financial statements for more than a decade.