Trump Denies Raping Author E. Jean Carroll In Unsealed Deposition: Report

A deposition transcript related to E. Jean Carroll's lawsuit against former President Donald Trump was unsealed Friday. In the deposition, Trump denied sexually assaulting the former magazine columnist and said that he never pressured a woman to have sex with him.

Talking about Carroll’s allegation that Trump raped her in a New York department store in the mid-1990s, he said that it’s a false accusation, and it "never happened." In his testimony, he went on to call Carroll a “nut job," reported CNN.

On Friday, Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered portions of the former President's deposition in the defamation lawsuit brought by Carroll to be unsealed. He denied Trump’s request to keep it out of the public domain. Carroll first sued the former President in 2019 for defamation after he denied raping her. She went on to file a second lawsuit against him in November 2022 under a new law that allowed her to sue for battery even though the statute of limitations on the crime had passed. She included a October 2022 statement that she said was also defamatory.

Trump said in testimony that he wrote and posted the October 2022 statement on his social media platform Truth Social. In the statement Trump had said that her allegations are a “con job” and “a big fat hoax.” In his deposition, he repeated his previous comments that he didn’t know the rape accuser and that she isn’t his type. Trump said that while it is not “politically correct” to say she isn’t his type, he said he had to defend himself, and that it wasn’t meant to be an insult.

In the deposition, Trump said that in an interview about her claim of being raped by him, she had indicated that “she loved it." Misstating what Carroll had actually said, Trump testified that she said "it was very sexy to be raped,” reported CNBC.

When he was asked if he ever kissed a woman without her consent, Trump testified, that he can’t think of any complaints, but no. Then he said that he didn't "think so.” When Carroll’s lawyer Roberta Kaplan asked Trump if he ever "pressured a woman to engage in sex with you?” The former President said no, and added that the lawyer "may have some people like your client who are willing to lie." According to New York Daily News, Trump also called her “mentally sick."

On Friday, Lewis denied Trump’s motion to dismiss Carroll’s the lawsuit against the former President. Trump had claimed in a motion to dismiss lawsuit filed in December 2022 that the New York law, the Adult Survivors Act, ran afoul of the state constitution’s due process protections. Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba said in a statement that “while they are disappointed with the court’s decision, they intend to appeal the order and continue to advocate for their "client’s constitutionally protected rights."

Roberta said in a statement they were pleased though not surprised that the judge denied "Trump’s motion to dismiss and upheld the constitutionality of New York’s Adult Survivors Act." They are looking "forward to trial in April.”