Former US President Donald Trump, who was accused of rape in the 1990s by a journalist, E. Jean Carroll, mistook her for his ex-wife Marla Maples in a photo, according to a court document from an October testimony in New York emerges.
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Mr. Trump, 76, is scheduled to appear in a New York court on April 10, 2023 in a defamation lawsuit brought by E. Jean Carroll, 79, alleging that he raped her in a dressing room at a New York department store in 1995 or 1996 .
A double civil trial for alleged defamation and rape has led Ms. Carroll, a former Elle magazine columnist, against Donald Trump, 76, billionaire businessman and Republican president in 2017, in federal courts in Manhattan since 2019, then 2022 to 2021.
The two submitted their affidavits last October.
During his Oct. 19 testimony via video link — released this week — Donald Trump reiterated his line of defense: “I will say this with the utmost respect: First, she’s not my type; then it never happened.”
But when shown a photo of himself with wife Carroll at a reception in the 1990s, he replied, “This is Marla, this is my wife,” before his own lawyer, Alina Habba, corrected him.
Donald Trump was married to actress Marla Maples, 59, from 1993 to 1999 and met his current wife, Melania, in 1998.
In the defamation lawsuit, E. Jean Carroll sued Trump in November 2019. She alleges that he defamed her because he called her rape allegations an “outright lie” in June of that year.
The then White House tenant always responded that Ms. Carroll was “not his kind of woman,” and his attorneys claimed he was protected by his immunity as head of state in 2019.
Regarding the rape allegations, Ms Carroll was unable to file a complaint in 2019 because the alleged facts were prescribed.
However, on November 24, 2022, a New York state law (“Adult Survivors Act”) went into effect that allows victims of sexual assault to resume their civil suit for one year.
Ms. Carroll therefore filed a new lawsuit in New York in November alleging “defamation”, but also “assault” and “terrorism” and requested a civil trial for damages, which is scheduled to take place on April 10.