Crimes

Lawyers to court: Trump mistook rape accuser for ex-wife

Former United States President, Donald Trump, appeared to mistake his rape accuser, E Jean Carroll, for his former wife, Marla Maples, in a deposition played in the court.

In the video played in Carroll’s civil rape suit against Trump, the former President was shown a photo of himself speaking to other people at an event.

“It’s Marla,” he said before his lawyer corrected him.

“No, that’s Carroll,” the lawyer added.

Carroll, 79, had accused Trump, 76, of attacking her in a New York City department store in the mid-1990s, an allegation the former President denied.

E Jean Carroll

Lawyers for Carroll, a former columnist for Elle magazine, have argued that Trump’s confusion over the photo undermines his claim that Carroll is “not my type”, a comment he has repeated since she first came forward with the allegation in 2019.

Trump has not yet attended the civil trial, which is now drawing to a close after two weeks of proceedings in Manhattan.

According to BBC, both sides rested their case on Thursday, May 4, though Trump’s team called no witnesses in his defence.

He had told reporters he might cut his ongoing golf trip to Ireland short to “confront” Carroll in court.

“I’ll be going back early because a woman made a claim that is totally false, it’s fake,” Trump said.

Trump’s suggestion that he would return to New York comes after his lawyer, Joseph Tacopina, told the judge the ex-President would not testify in court.

Referring to Trump’s comments, the judge said he would give him until Sunday afternoon to decide.

After that, the judge said “that ship has irrevocably sailed”.

The nine-member jury was shown the video of a combative deposition between the former President and Roberta Kaplan, one of Carroll’s lawyers, filmed last October.

Trump continued his emphatic denials of Carroll’s accusation that he manoeuvred her into a dressing room at the Bergdorf Goodman store in Manhattan and raped her.

“If it did happen, it would have been reported within minutes,” Trump said in the deposition, suggesting that others at the “very busy store” would have heard an ongoing attack.

Jurors in the nearly two-week trial heard days of graphic testimony.

Carroll told jurors she was left “unable to ever have a romantic life again” after the alleged attack.

Her account was supported in court by her friend, Lisa Birnbach, who testified this week to receiving a call from Carroll minutes after she said she was raped.

Two other women – Jessica Leeds and Natasha Stoynoff – were called by Carroll’s team and described alleged sexual assaults committed by Trump – claims he has denied.

Carroll was able to bring the civil case against Trump after New York passed the Adult Survivors Act in 2022.

The act allowed a one-year period for victims to file sexual assault lawsuits in the state over claims that would have normally exceeded statute limitations.

The Star