Associated Press
Attorneys for the Walt Disney World governing district taken over last year by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ allies don’t want the Governor’s appointees answering questions under oath as part of its state lawsuit against Disney.
District attorneys on Monday filed a motion for a protective order that would stop the DeSantis-appointed board members of the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District from having to give videotaped depositions to Disney attorneys.
Disney and the DeSantis appointees are fighting in state court over who controls the governing district for Disney World. The district had been controlled by Disney supporters before last year’s takeover — which was sparked by the company’s opposition to Florida’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law. It provides municipal services such as firefighting, planning and mosquito control, among other things, and was controlled by Disney supporters for most of its five decades.
District attorneys cite the “apex doctrine,” which generally provides that high-level government officers shouldn’t be subject to depositions unless opposing parties have exhausted all other means of obtaining information. The doctrine is used in just a handful of U.S. states, including Florida.
“Disney cannot demonstrate that the individual board members have unique, personal knowledge that would be relevant to any of the claims, counterclaims or defenses in this action to overcome the apex doctrine,” district attorneys said in their motion. “Disney’s assault-style effort to depose all the board members is simply an improper form of harassment of these high-level government officials.”
Earlier this month, Disney gave notice of its intention to question under oath six current and past DeSantis-appointed board members for the purpose of “discovery,” or the process of gathering information for the case. The entertainment giant has said previously that the district has stymied its efforts to get documents and other information, and Disney filed a public records lawsuit against the district earlier this year, claiming the district’s response to its requests were “unreasonably delayed” and “woefully inadequate.”
Since the takeover last year, the district has faced an exodus of experienced staffers, with many in exit surveys complaining that the governing body has been politicized since the changeover. Just this month, the district’s Administrator left to become a county Elections Supervisor at half the $400,000 salary he was earning at the district, and the district’s DeSantis-appointed board Chair departed the following week.
A fight between DeSantis and Disney began in 2022 after the company, facing significant internal and external pressure, publicly opposed a state law that critics have called “Don’t Say Gay.” The 2022 law bans classroom lessons on sexual orientation and gender identity in early grades and was championed by DeSantis, who used Disney as a punching bag in speeches until he suspended his presidential campaign this year.
As punishment, DeSantis took over the district through legislation passed by the Republican-controlled Florida Legislature and appointed a new board of supervisors.
Disney sued DeSantis and his appointees, claiming the company’s free speech rights were violated for speaking out against the legislation. A federal Judge dismissed that lawsuit in January. Disney has appealed.
Before control of the district changed hands from Disney allies to DeSantis appointees early last year, the Disney supporters on its board signed agreements with Disney shifting control over design and construction at Disney World to the company. The new DeSantis appointees claimed the “eleventh-hour deals” neutered their powers, and the district sued the company in state court in Orlando to have the contracts voided.
Disney has filed counterclaims that include asking the state court to declare the agreements valid and enforceable.
___
Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
8 comments
Earl Pitts "The Big Voice On The Right" American
March 21, 2024 at 7:11 pm
Good evening America,
Just wait until July when I, Earl Pitts American, release Epstein’s client list of Pervey Perves …. all the “D” executives will suddenly become “Former” “D” executives “Lining Up and Puckering Up” to kiss Earl’s Big ‘Ole 8utt.
Thank you America,
Earl Pitts American
Beggars Of Church
March 22, 2024 at 1:52 am
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John Eastman is strapped for cash and begging right-wing Christians for money
The Trump campaign lawyer is feeling a little light in the pockets as he tries to defend himself in court. So he’s trying to grift from evangelicals.
March 21, 2024, 2:39 PM EDT
By Ja’han Jones
Donald Trump’s coup-plotting associates are going through some things, as he might say.
Several of the people who were tapped to carry out Trump’s plan to overturn the 2020 election and stay in power have run into financial and/or legal trouble ever since.
That includes Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who’s facing criminal charges and civil litigation for his role in the scheme; Trump campaign lawyer Kenneth Chesebro, who pleaded guilty to a felony in Georgia’s 2020 election interference case and may have withheld information from other investigators; and Peter Navarro, who went to prison this week over contempt charges relating to the federal Jan. 6 probe.
And then there’s former Trump campaign lawyer John Eastman, who’s defending himself against criminal charges in Georgia and potential disbarment in California for his alleged role in devising and executing the coup plot. He’s also an unindicted co-conspirator in the federal Jan. 6 case against Trump, and special counsel Jack Smith’s office was reportedly still focused on Eastman as of late last year. Oh, and he already abruptly retired from his job as a law professor at a California university amid the controversy.
(In an August statement, Eastman’s legal team called Smith’s indictment a “misleading presentation of the record” that was intended “to cast ominous aspersions” on Trump’s “close advisors.”)
Given all that, Eastman appears to be in dire financial straits, and according to Right Wing Watch, has been portraying himself as a Christian nationalist hero to grift off of the MAGA movement’s most religious supporters.
The outlet reports that Eastman appeared virtually Monday at an event held by the Salt and Light Council, a Christian nationalist organization that promotes “biblical citizenship.” At the event, Eastman made several self-aggrandizing remarks portraying himself as a Christian holy warrior who’d been “cast in the forefront of this battle” against “tyranny.”
And then, of course, there was his pitch:
During his Salt and Light presentation, Eastman promoted his page on the Christian crowdfunding site GiveSendGo, where people have contributed more than $630,000 to his legal defense fund so far. He said he’s “about a million in the hole beyond that right now,” adding that he thinks his total legal costs will run between $3 million and $3.5 million.
Dont Say FLA
March 21, 2024 at 7:20 pm
Like Trump, these folks should be very eager to clear their names in court.
Also like Trump, eager they are not.
KathrynA
March 22, 2024 at 10:02 am
Isn’t this the truth? Republicans think they should never be subject to laws of the land or under the authority of courts.Tthey are supposedly privileged!
Hidey Ho
March 21, 2024 at 7:35 pm
What do these DeSantis appointees fear? What are they hiding that makes testifying under oath so dang scary for them? If they don’t have anything to hide, they shouldn’t mind giving depositions explaining how everything was totally on the up and up, just like with the DeSantis campaign’s exemption from Florida’s Sunshine Law. Totally legit. Nothing to see there. /s
Ron Incompetence
March 22, 2024 at 3:21 am
He is a poor excuse for an attorney.
Harvard, Yale, Naval ‘ofFiCer’.
Michael K
March 21, 2024 at 9:09 pm
What are they hiding?
Down-Ballot Cuckolds Had Their Cash Stolen
March 22, 2024 at 3:20 am
Despite earlier denials by Republican National Committee Chair Michael Whatley and co-chair Lara Trump, the organization will foot some of Donald Trump’s legal bills, according to an Associated Press report on Thursday.
The campaign of the former president, who is the father-in-law of Lara Trump, struck an agreement with the RNC that will direct donations to his campaign and his Save America political action committee that has been paying Trump’s legal bills. Last year, his campaign reportedly spent $50 million of donor money on his legal expenses alone.
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