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A 48-minute clip of former US president Donald Trump’s videotaped deposition in writer E Jean Carroll’s lawsuit accusing him of raping her in the 1990s was made public on Friday.
The excerpt of the deposition, which took place in October, was released by US district judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan at the request of media organisations. The video was previously played in court for the jury of six men and three women on Thursday, the last day of testimony in the trial of Carroll’s suit.
In the video, Mr Trump strenuously denies Carroll’s claim that he ran into her in the Bergdorf Goodman department store in the spring of 1996, asked her to help him pick out a gift for an unspecified woman, led her to the sixth-floor lingerie department and allegedly raped her in a dressingroom.
The jury watched the video in lieu of live testimony by Mr Trump, who declined to take the witness box in the trial that started April 25th. The judge has given Mr Trump until Sunday at 5pm New York time to change his mind. Closing statement are set for Monday, with deliberations expected Tuesday.
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Ms Carroll’s lawyers used the video to illustrate for jurors what they say is a pattern of misconduct. Mr Trump was asked under oath to discuss claims of sexual assault by two other women who went to testify at the trial. He denied assaulting the women and said all the claims are politically motivated.
The video also shows Mr Trump being asked to explain the so-called Access Hollywood tape, a 2005 hot-mic recording of the real estate mogul boasting about aggressively trying to have sex with women and kissing them without warning. He can also be heard saying that “stars” can get do “whatever they want” and get away with it – including grabbing women by the genitals.
The deposition, which took place at Mr Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, was overseen by Ms Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan and took up most of a day. The only portion that can be made public, however, are the parts used by Ms Carroll in her case, meaning the bulk of it will never be seen.
Other portions of the deposition transcript were previously made public in the case through court filings. – Bloomberg