Trump deposed in lawsuit filed by writer E. Jean Carroll

By David B. Caruso and Jennifer Peltz | Affiliated Press

NEW YORK — Former President Donald Trump answered concerns under oath Wednesday in a lawsuit submitted by E. Jean Carroll, a magazine columnist who says he raped her in the mid-1990s in a division retail outlet dressing home.

The deposition gave Carroll’s lawyers a chance to interrogate Trump about the assault allegations, as perfectly as statements he manufactured in 2019 when she explained to her story publicly for the very first time.

Particulars on how the deposition went weren’t quickly disclosed.

“We’re delighted that on behalf of our client, E. Jean Carroll, we had been capable to choose Donald Trump’s deposition now. We are not capable to remark further,” the regulation business representing her, Kaplan Hecker & Fink, said in a assertion.

Trump has mentioned Carroll’s rape allegation is “a hoax and a lie.”

His lawful team worked for several years to delay his deposition in the lawsuit, which was filed when the Republican was nevertheless president. A federal decide past 7 days rejected Trump’s ask for for an additional delay, saying he could not “run the clock out on plaintiff’s try to get a treatment for what allegedly was a critical erroneous.”

Trump’s attorneys did not instantly react Wednesday to a request for remark about the deposition.

Carroll was to have been questioned by Trump’s attorneys final Friday. Neither her lawyers nor Trump’s have responded to thoughts about how that deposition went.

The attorneys also haven’t disclosed regardless of whether Trump’s deposition was performed in person or remotely, around video clip. Trump was in Florida on Wednesday. The lawsuit is staying handled in a court in New York City.

Just about anything Trump stated through his deposition could perhaps be made use of as evidence in an impending civil trial. He has not faced any prison fees similar to Carroll’s allegations, and any prosecution is unlikely. The deadline for legal rates over alleged sexual assaults that transpired in the 1990s has long expired.

Similar authorized deadlines also utilized to civil lawsuits professing sexual assault. As a end result, Carroll chose to sue Trump for defamation above remarks he designed in 2019 when he denied any wrongdoing. She maintains that her reputation was broken by his denials and assaults on her believability and character.

Nonetheless, New York lawmakers not too long ago gave persons a one particular-year window to choose aged sexual assault statements to civil courts. Carroll’s attorney has explained to the courtroom she intends to file these kinds of a go well with from Trump right after that window opens in late November.

In accordance to Carroll’s account, she bumped into Trump as the two were searching at the Bergdorf Goodman keep across Fifth Avenue from Trump Tower. At the time, Carroll was on television as the host of an suggestions system, “Ask E. Jean.”

She stated the two engaged in friendly banter as she tried out to enable him decide on out a gift. But when they were being briefly on your own in a dressing place, she mentioned he pulled down her tights and raped her.

In a recent statement, Trump called that tale “a comprehensive con position.”

“I really don't know this lady, have no thought who she is, other than it seems she obtained a picture of me quite a few a long time back, with her partner, shaking my hand on a reception line at a celeb charity function,” Trump said.

Related Push writers Jill Colvin and Michael R. Sisak contributed.