Video of Donald Trump’s deposition in his civil rape trial in New York City was released to the public on Friday.
The footage, from last October, included a previously reported but never publicly seen exchange in which the former president mistook a picture of his accuser, the writer E Jean Carroll, for a picture of his second wife, Marla Maples.
“That’s Marla, yeah,” Trump said. “That’s my wife.”
His questioner said: “The person you’ve just pointed to is E Jean Carroll.”
Carroll says Trump raped her in a department store in New York in the mid-1990s. She is suing for battery and for defamation, over comments he made while denying the claim, which she made in a book in 2019.
In one such comment, repeated in his deposition, Trump said Carroll was not his “type”.
On Friday, Renato Mariotti – a former federal prosecutor now a columnist for Politico – pointed to the impact the footage could have in deciding the case.
“Trump claims E Jean Carroll isn’t his type,” Mariotti said, “but he mistook a picture of her for a picture of his ex-wife. You don’t need to be a lawyer to understand why his testimony could [affect] the jury’s verdict.”
In the clip, Trump called Carroll’s claim “the most ridiculous, disgusting story” which he said was “just made up”. An exchange followed about when Trump became aware of a picture showing him with his first wife, Ivana Trump, Carroll and Carroll’s then husband, John Johnson, at a public event in New York.
Shown the picture, Trump said: “I don’t even know who the woman – let’s see, I don’t know who, it’s Marla.”
His questioner asked: “You say Marla’s in this photo?”
Trump said: “That’s Marla, yeah. That’s my wife.”
Asked “which woman are you pointing to”, Trump said: “Here.”
His questioner said: “The person you’ve just pointed to is E Jean Carroll.”
“Oh I see,” Trump said, adding: “Is that Carroll? Because it’s very blurry”.
Trump’s affair with Maples was a tabloid staple in the 1980s, one indelible headline, engineered by Trump, seeing Maples proclaim him the provider of the “Best Sex I’ve Ever Had”.
In his deposition, he was asked if he had seen other women while married to his first wife. He answered: “I don’t know.”
Trump was also shown repeating, “with as much respect as I can”, his contention that Carroll “is not my type. Not my type in any way, shape or form.”
In rally footage shown at his deposition, Trump described Jessica Leeds, who accuses him of sexual assault on a plane in the late 1970s, as “not my first choice, that I can tell you … that would not be my first choice”. This week, Leeds testified for Carroll.
Trump told Carroll’s lawyer she “wouldn’t be a choice of mine either, to be honest with you, I hope you’re not insulted, I would not in any circumstances have any interest in you”. He also called the lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, a “political operative” and a “disgrace”.
Other footage showed Trump discussing the Access Hollywood, hot-mic footage which surfaced in 2016, briefly threatening to derail Trump’s election campaign.
In that tape, Trump said: “I just start kissing them, it’s like a magnet, just kiss, I don’t even wait and when you’re a star they just let you do it. You can do anything. Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything.”
In his deposition, he said: “Well historically, that’s true with stars.”
He was asked: “It’s true you can grab them by the pussy?”
He said: “Well, if you look over the last million years, I guess that’s been largely true. Not always, but largely true. Unfortunately or fortunately.”
“You consider yourself a star?”
“I think you can say that, yeah.”
The jury saw the footage this week. Lawyers for Carroll rested on Thursday. For Trump, the lawyer Joe Tacopina said no witnesses would be called and Trump would not testify himself. Trump nonetheless has until 5pm on Sunday to change his mind.
Trump faces other forms of legal jeopardy, including investigations of his election subversion, retention of classified records and business and tax affairs.
In another New York case, he has pleaded not guilty to 34 criminal counts related to a hush money payment to the porn star Stormy Daniels, who claims an affair Trump denies.
Politically, Trump has capitalised on his predicament, alleging persecution by Democrats, enjoying a flood of donations and surging to commanding leads in Republican primary polling.
