Former US President Donald Trump made an embarrassing mistake when asked about the rape allegations by columnist E. Jean Carroll. When Trump saw a photo from the 1990s, he mistook the photo of Carroll for his ex-wife Marla Maples, a court document shows. In Trump’s own words, Carroll is not “type” of him.
“That’s Marla, yes. That’s my wife,” Trump said, according to a released transcript of an interview with Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan last October. Trump’s lawyer, Alina Habba, immediately intervened: “No, it’s Carroll.”
Trump was married to actress Maples from 1993 to 1999. Trump’s daughter Tiffany is from this marriage.
“She’s not my type”
Carroll, now 79, publicly accused then-President Trump in 2019 of raping her in a dressing room at upscale department store Bergdorf Goodman in New York in the 1990s. columnist for Elle magazine was “a total lie”. He added, “She’s not my type.”
Carroll sued Trump for defamation. In connection with that lawsuit, Trump was questioned under oath by attorney Kaplan last October at his luxury home in Mar-a-Lago, Florida. The interrogation transcript has now been made public by the competent New York court.
alleged rape
In November, Carroll also sued Trump for the alleged rape itself, which was actually time-barred. This was made possible by a new law in the state of New York, under which alleged rape victims can sue the alleged perpetrators for damages, regardless of the statute of limitations.
Questioned by Carroll’s lawyer last October, Trump repeated several times that the columnist was not his “type”. But the fact that he confused her with his ex-wife Maples could be used by Carroll’s lawyer to question this defense strategy.