NYC court releases footage of Trump’s hostile deposition with E. Jean Carroll’s lawyers in civil rape case

NEW YORK — Footage of Donald Trump’s combative deposition with lawyers for E. Jean Carroll was publicly released Friday, showing the former president disparaging his rape accuser as a “nut job” and telling her lawyer he didn’t find her sexually attractive.

“She said that I did something to her that never took place. There was no anything. I know nothing about this nut job,” Trump said in the October 2022 deposition with Carroll’s lawyer Roberta Kaplan.

“(It’s) not politically correct to say it, and I know that, but I’ll say it anyway. She’s accusing me of rape, a woman that I have no idea who she is.”

The court allowed the release of the dramatic footage played for jurors at Trump’s federal civil rape trial in Manhattan this week, following requests by media organizations, including the New York Daily News.

Carroll, 79, is suing Trump for sexual battery and defamation claims for the alleged assault she said happened on an unoccupied floor of Bergdorf Goodman on Fifth Avenue in the mid-1990s after they ran into each other, and he invited her shopping.

When Trump sat down with Carroll’s legal team last year, he doubled down on statements that have formed the basis of her defamation claim, calling her a “liar” and “mentally sick.”

“This ridiculous situation that we’re doing right now. It’s a big, fat hoax. She’s a liar and she’s a sick person in my opinion. Really sick. Something wrong with her,” Trump said.

“In addition to the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax, the Ukraine, Ukraine, Ukraine, hoax, the Mueller or Mueller hoax, the lying to FISA hoax, the lying to Congress hoax, and the spying on your campaign hoax, isn’t it true that you also referred to the use of mail-in ballots as a hoax?” Kaplan then asked.

“Yeah, I do. Sure,” Trump replied.

During the deposition, Kaplan asked Trump about his statements in the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape. Trump said his comment about famous people having license to molest women was “historically” true, based on a trend “over the last million years.”

“I guess that’s been largely true. Not always, but largely true. Unfortunately or fortunately,” Trump said in the deposition.

“And you consider yourself to be a star?” Carroll’s lawyer asked.

“I think you can say that, yeah,” Trump said.

When Kaplan asked Trump about saying Carroll and other women who have accused him of sexual assault weren’t his “type,” the former president disparaged the attorney.

“You wouldn’t be a choice of mine either, to be honest,” Trump said in the video, defending his comments in the “Access Hollywood” tape as locker room talk.

Trump’s rape trial is one of three major cases he faces in his hometown, along with probes in Washington, D.C., and Georgia into his possession of classified documents and efforts to subvert the 2020 election. He denies all wrongdoing.

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