Former US President’s Testimony on Rape Accusations: Jury Listens to Excerpts from Recorded Hearing Last October

While a former columnist for “Elle” magazine E. Jean Carroll accuses him of rape, the former US president did not testify on Thursday. The jurors contented themselves with excerpts from his testimony during the proceedings, via a recorded hearing last October.

“She’s a liar!”: Donald Trump did not appear at the civil trial in New York where a former columnist for the magazine Elle accused him of rape in the 1990s, but the jury was able to watch his deposition during the proceedings on Thursday, a video in which he firmly denies the alleged facts.

At the end of the hearing, Judge Lewis Kaplan, who presides over the proceedings, had the lawyer for the former American president confirm that he waived the right to testify before the nine citizen jurors.

Then, “in the interests of justice”, he still left the door open for a very last minute appearance by the Republican billionaire, “if he changes his mind”.

An audition recorded in October 2022

From one of his golf courses in Ireland, Donald Trump assured reporters on Thursday that he intended to “go back and confront” his accuser, but his lawyer, Joe Tacopina, gave no indication to that effect. The trial is due to resume on Monday with closing arguments from attorneys for both sides.

Then the jury will retire to 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 fitting room of a New York luxury department storeBergdorf Goodman, and defaming her when she came out of silence.

In the absence of Donald Trump, who intends to regain the White House in 2024, the jurors contented themselves with excerpts from his testimony during the procedure, via a recorded hearing last October.

“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.

Many charges

He reiterates that he does not know E. Jean Carroll, at the time a columnist in the magazine Elle, and reaffirms several times that she is “not (her) type”. He is then confronted with a photo at a social event where he is in front of the journalist, years before their alleged meeting in 1996.

While claiming he doesn’t remember the scene, the former president confuses the complainant with his ex-wife, Marla: “She’s my wife… she’s Marla”, he says, immediately corrected by his lawyer, who told him that “it’s (E. Jean) Carroll”.

The jury was also able to view an excerpt from a video that has become famous, where we hear Donald Trump in 2005 make degrading remarks about 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, referring to “locker room discussions”.

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. A civil conviction would add to these legal troubles, when he intends to appear against Joe Biden in 2024.