Donald Trump testified on Wednesday in a 2019 defamation case launched by a former journalist, E. Jean Carroll, who accuses the former president of the United States of raping her in the 1990s.
A Manhattan federal court judge on October 12 rejected Mr. Trump’s request to further postpone his sworn statement before the American justice, the former head of state systematically contesting this defamation action for three years.
Last Wednesday, New York Judge Lewis Kaplan ruled that the depositions of Ms Carroll, 78, and Donald Trump, 76, were to be held on Friday October 14 and Wednesday October 19 respectively.
“We are satisfied that on behalf of our client E. Jean Carroll we were able to receive today the testimony of Donald Trump”, indicated in an email to AFP the law firm Kaplan Hecker and Fink, which represents E. Jean Carroll, without further comment.
According to the New York Times, the deposition of the former president – which can be done by a video exchange between lawyers and the New York justice – took place from his residence in Mar-a-Lago in Florida.
It is not known, however, if Ms. Carroll testified last Friday.
In these defamation proceedings, E. Jean Carroll, a former columnist for Elle magazine, attacked Donald Trump in civil proceedings in November 2019 in New York.
She accused him of defaming her for calling her accusations of rape in a dressing room of a New York department store in the mid-1990s a “complete lie” in June 2019.
The Republican president, then in office (2017-2021), said he had never met her and that she was “not his kind of woman”.
The defamation suit was delayed by procedural battles, including whether Donald Trump should be represented by the US government, since he was president at the time of the impugned statements.
The former president’s lawyers – who did not respond to AFP’s requests – have always claimed that their client was protected by his immunity, in particular for defamatory remarks he allegedly made during his term of office.
But as the site Vice News noted on Tuesday, the businessman went on a new rant on October 12 on his social network Truth Social, mocking the accusations of rape of E. John Carroll.
Thus, according to lawyers quoted by Vice News, the complainant could argue that Mr. Trump, this time as a private citizen, again defamed her.
And, in his Oct. 12 order, Judge Kaplan indicated that E. Jean Carroll could seek damages from Donald Trump for the alleged rape, once a New York state law takes effect on Nov. 24. allowing you to file a civil complaint without taking into account the limitation periods.