Former President Donald Trump deposed in E. Jean Carroll rape defamation suit
Donald Trump was questioned under oath on Wednesday in the defamation suit filed by E. Jean Carroll, a magazine columnist who claims he raped her about 25 years ago.
At Trump’s Florida resort home of Mar-a-Lago, the deposition gave Carroll’s lawyers a chance to question him about the allegations of assault. This is in addition to his 2019 statements following Carroll’s story.
Donald Trump says Carroll’s rape allegation is “a hoax and a lie.”
After his legal team’s efforts over the years to delay his deposition, U.S. District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan rejected last week Donald Trump’s request for another delay.
“[I can’t] run the clock out on plaintiff’s attempt to gain a remedy for what allegedly was a serious wrong,” said Judge Kaplan.
Anything Donald Trump says during his deposition could be used as evidence in an upcoming civil trial.
No criminal charges related to Carroll’s allegations has been brought before him. Also, any prosecution is unlikely.
For criminal charges over sexual assaults which occured in the 1990s, the deadline has long expired, although, New York lawmakers recently gave survivors of sexual violence a one-year window to sue their attackers over old assaults.