Trump testifies under oath about sexual assault claim in defamation suit

By Darren Lyn

HOUSTON, US (AA) - Former President Donald Trump testified under oath on Wednesday in a defamation suit about a rape claim by a former magazine columnist.

“We’re pleased that on behalf of our client, E Jean Carroll, we were able to take Donald Trump’s deposition today,” said the law firm Kaplan Hecker & Fink in a statement. “We are not able to comment further.”

Carroll alleged that Trump sexually assaulted her in a New York department store nearly three decades ago in the mid-1990s.

A federal judge last week said the former president had already taken steps to delay the case and “should not be able to run out the clock.”

Lawyers for Trump have not responded to requests for comments on what he said at his deposition, which was taken at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

Carroll sued Trump in 2019 for defamation after he denied her claim that he raped her, but she's not stopping there.

The former columnist said she intends to sue the former president next month under a new New York State law that allows victims of sexual assault to sue years after the attack regardless of the statute of limitations.

Trump's testimony in the defamation case could be used in the future lawsuit.

In an excerpt from her book published in 2019, Carroll said that Trump raped her in the changing room at the Bergdorf Goodman department store on Fifth Avenue.

Trump denied the accusation, saying Carroll was “not my type” and that she was “totally lying,” which prompted the defamation suit.

The case has dragged on for more than a year with delays and procedural battles, including whether Trump should be represented by the US government since he was president at the time he made the statements.

Trump's attorneys have claimed he was protected by executive immunity.

It is not known how long Trump was questioned by Carroll’s lawyers or whether he invoked his Fifth Amendment constitutional right against self-incrimination.