U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan of the Southern District of New York on Wednesday rejected ex-President Donald Trump’s motion for a stay and substitution in a defamation suit, indicating Trump may have to proceed with his scheduled deposition on Oct. 19.

Kaplan ruled that the premise of Trump’s motion, that the United States should automatically be substituted for Trump as the defendant in the case, was “inconsistent with Mr. Trump’s own actions, the actions of the government, the statute upon which Mr. Trump relies, and the case law.”