Former President Donald Trump repeatedly lobbed insults at columnist E. Jean Carroll while being deposed as part of her defamation lawsuit last year.
Carroll, who alleges that Trump raped her in a New York City department store during the 1990s, sued the former president for defamation after he called her a “liar” for accusing him of rape. New York District Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered Trump to answer questions under oath in October.
On Friday, Kaplan denied a last-minute request by Trump’s lawyers to keep his testimony sealed. A partial transcript from the deposition, which was taken at Trump’s residence in Florida within weeks of Kaplan’s order, was released later in the day.
While being questioned by Carroll attorney Roberta Kaplan, who is not related to the judge, Trump doubled down on a statement concerning the case, which he had shared to Truth Social shortly after the judge refused to delay his deposition in October.
Jeff Swensen; Noam Galai/Getty Images
Trump said that the rape allegation was a “hoax and a lie” in the statement, while claiming that he did not know Carroll and asserting that she was not his “type.”
He said during the deposition that he had written the statement “all [by] myself,” while specifying that he had not consulted with anyone prior to posting it because he is “not [President] Joe Biden” and “didn’t need to.”
The former president said that Carroll was not his “type” again during the deposition, with acknowledging that it was not “politically correct.” At one point, Carroll’s attorney asked Trump whether he had meant to say that her client was not attractive enough to be raped by him.
“When I say she’s not my type, I say she is not a woman I would ever be attracted to,” Trump responded, according to a copy of the transcript obtained by Law & Crime. “There is no reason for me to be attracted to her … There’s no way I would ever be attracted to her.”
Trump also lashed out at Carroll as a “nut job,” “a sick person” and “mentally sick” during the deposition. In addition, he accused her attorney of being a “political operative” and a “disgrace.”
The former president went on to argue that Carroll had said that it was “very sexy to be raped” during a CNN interview with Anderson Cooper, claiming that she had “indicated that she loved it.”
In a 2019 interview with Cooper, Carroll said that she preferred to describe her alleged assault by Trump as a “fight” rather than a “rape,” explaining that the word rape has “so many sexual connotations” and can be a “fantasy” for some.
Although she did say that she thought “most people think of rape as being sexy” during the interview, the context of her comments made it clear that she was not personally declaring a sexual interest in rape. She also said that she considered the alleged assault by Trump to be “not sexual.”
When asked whether he had ever “kissed a woman without her consent” during the deposition, Trump answered that he could not “think of any complaints,” before adding that he did not “think so” and admonishing the attorney for asking him “an inappropriate question.”
In addition to declining to keep the deposition sealed, the judge on Friday also denied motions by Trump’s attorneys to dismiss Carroll’s defamation suit, as well as a second lawsuit accusing Trump of battery related to the rape allegation and an additional count of defamation.
“While we are disappointed with the Court’s decision, we intend to immediately appeal the order and continue to advocate for our client’s constitutionally protected rights,” Trump’s attorney Alina Habba said in a statement obtained by Newsweek.
Carroll’s attorney declined comment when contacted by Newsweek.
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