Former US president Donald Trump called a writer’s claims that he raped her at a Manhattan department store “the most ridiculous, disgusting story,” testifying in a deposition shown in court Wednesday that the allegations were “made up” and that the assault never happened.
Lawyers for accuser E. Jean Carroll played about 30 minutes of excerpts from the former president’s deposition, including his emphatic denial of the longtime advice columnist’s accusation that he attacked her in the mid-1990s in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room.
“If it did happen, it would have been reported within minutes,” Trump said.
“It’s the most ridiculous, disgusting story. It’s just made up,” Trump said in the video deposition taken in October.
Trump has denied ever knowing Carroll, saying once that “she’s not my type” and arguing that her claims are politically motivated attempts to smear his reputation and deny him the White House.His deposition denials punctuated an emotional day in court that saw more allegations of inappropriate behaviour with women and the playing of the infamous “Access Hollywood” video in which Trump bragged about grabbing women’s genitals without asking permission.
Natasha Stoynoff, a former writer for People magazine, testified through tears that Trump forcibly kissed her against her will while showing her around his Mar-a-Lago estate just after Christmas in 2005 for an article about his first wedding anniversary with his third wife, Melania.
“The horrifying part to me was that I worried, because I didn’t say anything at the time, other women were hurt by him so I had to regret,” Stoynoff said.
Stoynoff started to cry when asked about her trip to interview the Trumps in Palm Beach, Florida, reaching for tissues and pausing between questions to pat her eyes. Stoynoff testified that Trump drew her away from staff and a photography crew with a ruse of wanting to show her a “really great room” at the estate, before cornering her and kissing her.
“I tried to push him away,” Stoynoff said, explaining how Trump came at her again and how she again tried shoving him away. She was “so shocked and flustered” she was unable to speak and didn’t scream, she said.
“No words came out of me,” Stoynoff told jurors.
Trump showed no signs of stopping, but suddenly pulled away when a butler came into the room to report that Melania was ready for the next phase of the interview, Stoynoff said.
As they walked to a patio area, Stoynoff said, Trump told her “you know we’re going to have an affair,” and reminded her that his second wife, Marla Maples, had once bragged to a tabloid that sex with Trump was the best she ever had.
