E Jean Carroll can use the Access Hollywood tape of former President Donald Trump as evidence in her defamation lawsuit, a judge has ruled.
Federal Judge Lewis Kaplan also ruled that the testimony of two other women alleging that Mr Trump has sexually assaulted them may be entered into evidence at the civil trial.
Judge Kaplan wrote in his ruling that “in this case, a jury reasonably could find, even from the Access Hollywood tape alone, that Mr. Trump admitted in the Access Hollywood tape that he in fact has had contact with women’s genitalia in the past without their consent, or that he has attempted to do so. And that conclusion is supported by the other evidence discussed below”.
In the tape from 2005, the then-future president bragged about groping women without consent.
Ms Carroll, a 79-year-old writer, has accused Mr Trump, 76, of raping her in a department store changing room in the 1990s. Mr Trump has rejected the allegations. Ms Carroll’s defamation lawsuit came after he claimed in 2019 that she was lying and was motivated to go public with her story by politics and money.
Ms Carroll alleges that the assault took place in 1995 or 1996 at the Bergdorf Goodman department store.
“Donald J. Trump is accused in this and a second very closely related civil case of having raped E. Jean Carroll in the mid 1990s,” the judge adds in his 23-page ruling. “Ms. Carroll claims, in this action, that Mr. Trump defamed her in 2019 in a series of public responses to the first public appearance of her accusation. Her claim in the second case is for damages for the alleged rape as well as for a different allegedly defamatory statement.”
“Most of the evidence that Mr. Trump seeks to keep from the trial jury is to the effect that Mr. Trump allegedly has abused or attempted to abuse women other than Ms. Carroll in ways that are comparable to what he allegedly did to Ms. Carroll,” the judge notes.
“In other words, Ms. Carroll offers the evidence to show that Mr. Trump has a propensity for such behavior,” he adds.
The Access Hollywood tape was recorded 18 years ago and reached the public during the 2016 presidential campaign.
“I’m automatically attracted to beautiful women, I just start kissing them, it’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait,” Mr Trump said at the time. “And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab ’em by the p****.”
The former president has argued that his comments didn’t correspond with his actual behaviour, arguing that it was simply “locker room talk”.
Jessica Leeds and Natasha Stoynoff have also accused Mr Trump of sexual assault. They have given depositions in the lawsuit and Judge Kaplan ruled that jurors would be allowed to hear their testimony.
Ms Leeds said in her deposition that Mr Trump attempted to kiss her in 1979, grabbing her breasts and that he put his hand up her skirt on a flight after an attendant had invited her to sit next to him in the first class cabin, according to CNBC.
Ms Stoynoff has alleged that in 2005 she was writing a People magazine article about Mr Trump’s one-year wedding anniversary with former First Lady Melania Trump. She has said that Mr Trump grabbed her and pushed her against a wall. He then started kissing her in a room at his private Florida club, Mar-a-Lago, she claimed.
When reached by The Independent, Mr Trump’s lawyer Joseph Tacopina declined to comment.
