President-elect Donald Trump has been ordered to spend part of the week before Christmas being harassed by lawyers in his libel case against ABC News.

Lawyers for the broadcaster and “This Week” host George Stephanopoulos argued in a virtual court hearing Friday morning that Trump must make himself available to testify next week before a Dec. 24 deadline for the defendants to file a motion for summary judgment to avoid a lawsuit.

Trump has not yet made himself available for recorded testimony, to the apparent chagrin of the defense team.

“I understand your frustration,” U.S. Magistrate Judge Lisette M. Reid told ABC News attorney Nathan Siegel. She pointed out that while the president-elect previously had “pretty good arguments” for not being available to testify during a busy campaign, “now he’s taking a completely different stance and should be able to make himself available.” to ask.”

Siegel offered to make the testimony as comfortable as possible for the president-elect, telling the judge he would fly to Florida to question Trump near his Mar-a-Lago home and extending the hearing to four hours restrict. He also suggested the possibility of a sit-down session on Saturday if that would be easier for Trump’s schedule.

“I will do everything in my power to make the president available,” Trump lawyer Alejandro Brito responded. “But there are limitations to my ability to do this. I have to bring the Secret Service into the equation.” He assured the court that he would immediately work with Trump’s staff to find out if he would be available next week.

Hours after the hearing, Reid ordered Trump to sit for in-person testimony the week of Dec. 16, limiting it to four hours. In addition, the judge ordered that Stephanopoulos must also be deposed next week and that his prison sentence also be limited to four hours.

Representatives for Trump and ABC News did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Trump filed the lawsuit this year against ABC News and Stephanopoulos, who attended Friday’s hearing via Zoom in front of a blue high-back sofa, after the anchor claimed on the show that Trump had been “held liable for rape” by a federal jury in Manhattan.

The case was filed in the Southern District of Florida, Trump’s home court, and argued that Stephanopoulos and the network defamed him when the star host made that claim during an argument March 10 interview with Rep. Nancy Mace, R.S.C.

While the jury found that Trump sexually assaulted writer E. Jean Carroll during a mid-1990s encounter at a department store and found him liable for assault, they did not conclude that she had proven that he raped her had. However, months later, in dismissing Trump’s countersuit against Carroll, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan wrote: “Mr. In fact, Trump ‘raped’ Ms. Carroll, as that term is commonly used and understood.”

In July, a federal judge declined to dismiss the lawsuit against ABC News, a major victory for Trump, allowing the lawsuit to proceed.

Trump’s lawyer argued Friday that a deposition was not required for the defense to file a motion for summary judgment, which would resolve the case without a jury trial. Brito claimed that Siegel wanted to ask what happened between the president-elect and Carroll, even though all that matters for summary judgment is “whether or not the defendants’ statements are defamatory.”

“We have no intention of revisiting the fundamental question of what did and did not happen between President Trump and E. Jean Carroll,” Siegel responded. He said his team was “entitled” to ask Trump questions about past statements that could contradict his claim that ABC defamed him and call into question his “credibility” as a plaintiff.

Although he rejected the request to testify, Brito agreed to receive an “immediate” response from Trump’s team about when he could sit down.