Around 45 minutes of video deposition given by former President Donald Trump was released to the public Friday as the civil trial brought by writer E. Jean Carroll began winding down in a New York federal court.
Carroll says that Trump trapped her in a dressing room and raped her at the luxury Manhattan department store Bergdorf Goodman in the 1990s after a chance encounter. She was able to sue for battery in addition to defamation under a recent state law that gave sexual assault victims a one-time chance to bring lawsuits in spite of any relevant statutes of limitations.
Although Carroll does not recall the precise date of the alleged assault, not having filed a police report out of concern for the negative attention it would bring, she has been able to narrow the timeframe to late 1995 or early 1996.
Her lawyers rested her case Thursday. Along with the advice columnist herself, they called to the stand friends whom she says she confided in, and other women who say Trump sexually assaulted them.
Trump’s side is not expected to call any witnesses — nor has the former president appeared in court — but U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan is giving him until Sunday in case he changes his mind. Trump has consistently denied the allegations and dismissed Carroll as a political operative.
