Newly unsealed transcripts from Donald Trump’s deposition in the E. Jean Carroll case show that the former president mistook Carroll for his ex-wife Marla Maples in a photo.
The transcripts show that during his October 2022 deposition, Trump was shown a black and white photo where he is interacting with several people, including with his then-wife Ivana, Carroll and her then-husband.
“I don’t know who – it’s Marla,” Trump said when shown the photo. “That’s Marla, yeah. That’s my wife,” he says when asked to clarify.
Trump’s lawyer, Alina Habba, then interjected and said “no, that’s Carroll,” according to the transcript.
Carroll first sued Trump in 2019 for defamation after he denied her rape allegation. She filed a second lawsuit against Trump in November under a new law that allowed her to sue for battery even though the statute of limitations on the crime had passed.
Trump has denied sexually assaulting the former magazine columnist and said he never pressured a woman to have sex with him, according to a deposition transcript that was unsealed last week.
In his deposition transcript, Trump reiterated previous comments that he didn’t know Carroll and that she isn’t his type, a claim that could be called into question after his response to being shown the photograph.
Trump said that while it is not “politically correct” to say she isn’t his type, he said he had to defend himself. He added that it wasn’t meant to be an insult.
When asked if he ever kissed a woman without her consent, Trump testified, “Well, I don’t … I can’t think of any complaints. But no. I mean, I don’t think so.” He also denied ever touching a woman’s breasts or buttocks.
Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan asked Trump, “Have you ever pressured a woman to engage in sex with you?”
“The answer is no. But you may have some people, like your client, who are willing to lie,” Trump testified.
Donald Trump, E. Jean Carroll, John Johnson and Ivana Trump at an NBC party, late 1980s.
U.S. District Court in Manhattan
Former President Donald Trump recently mistook his rape accuser E. Jean Carroll for his ex-wife Marla Maples when being questioned about a decades-old photo of him and Carroll by her attorney for a defamation lawsuit, a newly public court filing shows.
Trump’s belief that the writer Carroll was actually his second wife Maples sharply undercuts the New York real estate mogul’s repeated claims that he would not have even had sex with Carroll because she is “not my type.”
Carroll, 79, first alleged in a 2019 magazine article that Trump, who was president at the time, had raped her in a dressing room in the Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan in 1995 or 1996 after a chance encounter in the store.
Trump, 76, denied her claims, accusing Carroll of lying. He also said Carroll was motivated by a desire to generate sales of a book and political animus in making the allegations.
“She’s not my type,” Trump told The Hill news site in 2019.
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Carroll is suing Trump, who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, in two cases in federal court in Manhattan for allegedly defaming her by his characterization of her claims and her purported motivation. One case was filed in 2019, after Trump first denied her allegations, and the second was filed this fall, after he repeated his claims about her motivation.
In the most recent case, she is also suing him for battery, for the alleged rape itself, under a new New York state law that opens a one-year window for adults to lodge claims of sexual abuse that otherwise would be too old to pursue because of the statute of limitations.
During an Oct. 19 deposition at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, which was made public Wednesday, Trump was shown a photo from an NBC event around 1987.
The image shows him from behind, facing Carroll and her then-husband, television journalist John Johnson, with Trump’s then-wife, the late Ivana Trump standing to his right.
“It’s Marla,” said Trump about the photo.
Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, said, “You’re saying Marla is in this photo?”
Trump replied: “That’s Marla, yeah. That’s my wife.”
Real estate mogul, reality television star and former potential presidential candidate Donald Trump was first married to Czech former athlete Ivana Trump. After 15 years of marriage, the pair had a very public and very messy divorce in 1992, which cost him . This might have discouraged a lesser man from ever dating again, but “The Donald” is no shrinking violet. One year later he had a new bride on his arm in the person of actress and socialite Marla Maples, 17 years his junior.In 1997, the coup
Ron Galella | WireImage | Getty Images
His lawyer Alina Habba then interjected, “No, that’s Carroll.”
Trump said, “Oh, I see.”
Kaplan then said, “The person you just pointed to was E. Jean Carroll.”
When Habba repeated to Trump, “That’s Carroll,” he replied, “That’s Carroll?”
Elsewhere in the deposition, Trump said of Carroll, “She’s not my type.”
“She is not a woman I would ever be attracted to,” he added later.
The deposition was attached to a court filing last week by Carroll’s lawyers, but became public Wednesday after Trump’s lawyers dropped their opposition to it being made public.
Last week, Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered other portions of the deposition unsealed, ruling that Trump did not have a legitimate reason to keep them out of the public record in the case.
Trump married Maples in 1993, several months after the birth of their daughter, Tiffany. The couple, who began their romantic relationship while Trump was still married to Ivana, divorced six years later.
Trump married his current wife, Melania Trump, in 2005.
Kaplan has set trial in Carroll’s lawsuits to begin in April.
