A court in New York has made public a 48-minute video featuring the former U.S. president, Donald Trump, testifying in his civil trial concerning allegations of sexual assault. Throughout the video, Trump mistakenly refers to his accuser, E. Jean Carroll, as his former spouse, Marla Maples, and denies the allegations, claiming that Ms. Carroll is “not my type.”
In the video, Trump appears uneasy when confronted with the leaked Access Hollywood footage that the Washington Post revealed during the 2016 election campaign. The recording features Trump telling women that he can do whatever he wants as a celebrity.
Though Trump’s legal team rested their case without presenting any witnesses, and the former president is not attending the trial in New York, he gave sworn testimony on camera in October 2017 by a judge’s order. This testimony addressed Ms. Carroll’s accusation of being assaulted by Trump in a New York City department store in the mid-90s.
The video deposition was shown to the jury on Thursday and made available to the public on Friday following requests from media outlets.
E. Jean Carroll, a writer and advice columnist, is suing Trump for assault and defamation due to his persistent denials of the incident. During the deposition, Trump reiterated his statement since 2019 when Ms. Carroll initially came forward: “With all due respect, she is not my type.”
Trump’s legal representatives have indicated that he will not testify in person. However, he told reporters he might shorten a trip to Ireland and the United Kingdom to “confront” Ms. Carroll in court. Consequently, the judge provided Trump until Sunday afternoon to decide whether to testify. Both sides’ attorneys concluded their cases on Thursday.
The video footage could significantly influence the trial’s outcome. Renato Mariotti, a former federal prosecutor and current Politico columnist, highlighted the potential impact of the video on the case. In the recording, Trump dismissed Carroll’s accusation as “the most ridiculous, disgusting story” and claimed it was fabricated.
Trump mistakenly identified Carroll as his ex-wife, Marla Maples, when shown a photo of him with his first wife, Ivana Trump, Carroll, and Carroll’s then-husband, John Johnson, at a New York public event. According to his deposition, Trump could not remember the date he married Ms. Maples, his second wife and mother of his daughter Tiffany. Throughout the deposition, he referred to Ms. Kaplan, Carroll’s attorney, as a “political operative” and a “disgrace.”
In the video, Trump was handed the photo. Looking at it, he said: “I don’t even know who the woman – let’s see, I don’t know who; it’s Marla.”
His questioner asked: “You say Marla’s in this photo?”
Trump said: “That’s Marla, yeah. That’s my wife.”
Asked, “Which woman are you pointing to,” Trump said: “Here.”
His questioner said: “The person you’ve just pointed to is E Jean Carroll.”
“Oh, I see,” Trump said, adding: “Is that Carroll? Because it’s very blurry”.
Another footage revealed Trump discussing the Access Hollywood hot-mic recording in 2016, which posed a brief threat to his election campaign.
Trump is heard saying: “I just start kissing them, it’s like a magnet, just kiss, I don’t even wait, and when you’re a star, they just let you do it. You can do anything. Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything.”
In his deposition, he said: “Well, historically, that’s true with stars.”
He was asked: “It’s true you can grab them by the pussy?”
He said: “Well, if you look over the last million years, I guess that’s been largely true. That is not always, but largely true. Unfortunately or fortunately.”
“You consider yourself a star?”
“I think you can say that, yeah.
