Former US President Donald Trump testified under oath on Wednesday in a libel trial related to rape allegations by author E. Jean Carroll. “We are pleased that we were able to take Donald Trump’s affidavit today on behalf of our client E. Jean Carroll. We are unable to make any further comments,” US media quoted the spokesman for the law firm Kaplan Hecker as saying
Among other things, Carroll wrote in a book excerpt published in the summer of 2019 that Trump raped her in a New York department store in the mid-1990s. The Republican had already rejected the allegations in 2019 – among other things with the words: “She’s not my type”. He stated – still as president at the time – that he had never met Carroll. She’s just trying to sell a new book and has accused other men of similar things. Carroll then sued Trump for portraying her as a liar and thus defaming her.
Trump’s lawyer: the case is a political ploy
Trump’s attorney, Alina Habba, said her client was pleased to “make a clean sweep” with his affidavit. This case is nothing more than a political ploy, “like many others in the long list of witch hunts against Donald Trump,” the US media quoted the lawyer as saying. According to media reports, the ex-president was in his Mar-a-Lago estate in the US state of Florida during the interview. It was unclear whether his statements were recorded in person or via video. The lawsuit will be heard in a court in New York City.
Carroll, now 78, was due to be questioned by Trump’s attorneys last Friday. Neither her nor Trump’s lawyers commented on the course of this survey. Trump is 76 years old, he was President of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
A judge last week rejected Trump’s attempt to postpone his testimony in the trial. He could not “delay the plaintiff’s attempt to obtain redress for an allegedly serious injustice,” he said as a reason. Trump then repeated his claim in a post on the social network Truth Social, which he co-founded, that Carroll had invented the whole thing. “I don’t know this woman, I have no idea who she is.”
No criminal proceedings have been initiated to date
So far, no criminal proceedings have been initiated against Trump in connection with Carroll’s allegations. The deadline for filing criminal charges of sexual assault in the 1990s has long since passed. Carroll therefore decided to sue Trump for defamation at least for his statements in 2019. However, the allegation of rape could soon be rolled up: In the US state of New York, victims of sexual violence in earlier cases will be able to sue from November.
Republican Trump has been repeatedly accused of assaulting women. So far, none of these allegations have had any legal consequences for him. The ex-president is also involved in legal disputes on various other fronts.
