NEW YORK – Footage of Donald Trump’s combative deposition, with lawyers for E. Jean Carroll, was released publicly on Friday. The footage shows the former president calling his rape accused a “nutjob” and telling her attorney he did not find her sexually appealing.
“She said I did something to me that never happened. There was nothing. “I know nothing about this nutjob,” Trump said during the October 2022 deposition, with Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan.
“I know it’s not politically correct, but I will say it anyway.” She accuses me of rape. I don’t know who she is.
The court granted the release of dramatic footage played to jurors during Trump’s federal civil trial in Manhattan, following requests from media organizations, including New York Daily News.
Carroll, 79 years old, is suing Trump over sexual battery and defamation for an alleged assault that she claims happened in mid-1990s on a floor unoccupied at Bergdorf Goodman Fifth Avenue after they had run into each other and he invited Carroll shopping.
When Trump met with Carroll’s lawyers last year, he reaffirmed the statements that formed the basis for her defamation suit, calling her “mentally sick” and a “liar.”
“This ridiculous situation we’re in right now. It’s all a big fat hoax. I think she’s a liar, and a sick person. Really sick. Trump said, “Something is wrong with her.”
Kaplan asked, “In addition, to the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax; the Ukraine, Ukraine, Ukraine hoax; the Mueller or Mueller, hoax, the lying FISA hoax, the lying Congress hoax, and the spying your campaign hoax, isn’t true that you referred to the mail-in voting as a prank?”
“Yes, I do.” “Sure,” Trump replied.
Kaplan questioned Trump during the deposition about his statements on the infamous “Access Hollywood tape”. Trump said that his comment about celebrities having the right to molest woman was “historically” correct, based on an “over the past million years” trend.
“I suppose that’s largely been true. Not always, but mostly true. “Unfortunately or fortunately,” Trump said during the deposition.
Carroll’s attorney asked: “Do you consider yourself a star?”
“I think you’re right,” Trump replied.
When Kaplan asked Trump if he meant that Carroll and other women accusing him of sexual assault were not his “type”, the former president disparaged Carroll.
Trump said, “You wouldn’t have been a choice for me either, to tell the truth,” in the video. He defended his comments on the “Access Hollywood tape” as locker room chat.
Trump’s rape case is one of three major cases that he faces in his hometown. The other two are investigations in Washington, D.C. and Georgia into his possession and use of classified documents, and his efforts to subvert 2020 elections. He denies any wrongdoing.
