2023-05-04 19:28:05
“She’s a liar!”: Donald Trump did not appear at the civil trial in New York where an author accuses him of rape in the 1990s, but the jury was able to view his testimony on Thursday during the procedure, a video where he strongly denies the alleged facts.
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“She’s a liar and she’s really sick (…) I think she’s sick, she has mental disorders”, repeats the former president, blue jacket and blue tie on a white shirt, filmed during his testimony in October 2022.
In her absence and given the impossibility of questioning her, the lawyers for the accuser, E. Jean Carroll, had requested that large extracts be broadcast at the trial.
In this civil case, a jury of nine citizens will decide whether the former president should pay damages to E. Jean Carroll, who has accused him since 2019 of having raped her in the spring of 1996 in the dressing room of a New York department store, then defaming her by claiming she was lying.
During his deposition, Donald Trump reiterates that he does not know E. Jean Carroll, at the time a columnist in Elle magazine, and he reaffirms several times that she is “not (his) type”, which he had already said.
He is then confronted with a photo during a social evening where he is in front of E. Jean Carroll, years before their alleged 1996 encounter.
While claiming that he does not remember the scene, the former president confuses the complainant with his ex-wife, Marla: “it’s my wife … it’s Marla”, he says, immediately corrected by his lawyer, who told him that “it’s (E. Jean) Carroll”.
The jury was also able to watch Thursday an excerpt from a video that became famous, where we hear Donald Trump in 2005 make degrading remarks against women.
He brags about kissing them and touching them as he pleases, then adds: “When you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Catch them by the pussy”.
“It’s really old news,” he reacts during his testimony, before reiterating that it is “locker room discussions”, or that “it’s the way people talk”.
According to a report by the American media, Donald Trump has been accused in the past by more than 20 women of having sexually assaulted them or of having made inappropriate gestures against them. He has always denied these accusations and has never been prosecuted.
E. Jean Carroll, 79, was able to sue under a New York state law allowing victims of sexual assault to relaunch their civil lawsuit, even if the criminal statute of limitations has expired.
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