Jurors hearing E. Jean Carroll’s civil suit against Donald Trump on Thursday were shown a deposition video of the former president confusing the accuserwith his ex-wife Marla Maples.
“It’s Marla,” Trump said during a deposition for the case when shown a picture of him, Carroll and Carroll’s ex-husband in the 1980s. “That’s Marla, yeah. That’s my wife,” Trump continued before being corrected by his lawyer, Alina Habba. “No, that’s Carroll,” Habba said.
Trump then responded the photo was “very blurry.”
The video is likely all that jurors will see of the former president — Trump’s lawyers said Wednesday that he will not testify in the case.
Trump, however, told reporters on a golf course in Ireland on Thursday that he was “going back to New York” because of the case. Asked if he was going to the trial, he said, “I’ll probably attend,” according to a Sky News video of his remarks. “She’s a fake,” he said of Carroll. “It’s a disgrace,” he added.
Carroll is suing Trump for battery and defamation, charging he raped her in the dressing room of a Manhattan department store in the 1990s and then falsely accused her of concocting a “hoax” after she went public with her claim in 2019.
In the excerpts played for the jury in Manhattan federal court, Trump maintained that despite the Maples mixup, Carroll was “not my type.” Later he was asked if the three women he’d married were his type. “Yeah,” he answered.
Trump also acknowledged that when Carroll went public with her claims in a book she’d written, the then-president accused her of trying to boost her sales with a made-up story for financial and political reasons, even though at that point he didn’t know her political affiliation, her financial situation or her publisher.
Asked what the basis for his allegations were, Trump answered, “I don’t know.”
At other times in the video he was more combative, and he repeatedly insulted Carroll throughout the deposition, calling her a “whack job” and “sick,” among other insults.
He repeatedly denied her rape allegation, and said he’d been outspoken while defending himself publicly because “I was offended at this woman’s lie.”
“She is a sick person, in my opinion. Really sick. There is something wrong with her,” Trump said.
In the deposition, Trump also mocked two other women who’ve accused him of sexual misconduct, Jessica Leeds and Natasha Stoynoff.
Both testified on Carroll’s behalf during the trial. Leeds claims Trump groped her on a plane flight to New York in the late 1970s while Stoynoff says Trump accosted her when she went to interview him and his wife Melania Trump in 2005.
Trump called Leeds’ allegations “ridiculous” and called Stoynoff’s claims “a phony charge.”
Testifying live Thursday was Carol Martin, a longtime friend of Carroll’s who is one of two people Carroll said she told about the attack shortly after it happened.
Martin said she advised Carroll not to report the incident the police. “He has lots of attorneys,” Martin said she told Carroll. “He would bury her.” She said she now regrets giving Carroll that advice. “I am not proud of that,” Martin said.
As for the claim itself, Martin said, “I believed it then, and I believe it today.”
Carroll is expected to finish presenting her case later Thursday. Trump lawyer Joe Tacopina said this week his client is not testifying and he is not putting on any witnesses. Closing arguments are scheduled to take place Monday.
Carroll is seeking unspecified money damages.
Vaughn Hillyard and Jonathan Allen contributed.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
