A transcript from a deposition taken of Donald Trump in a lawsuit writer E. Jean Carroll brought against him in connection to an incident of sexual assault she says he perpetrated against her was made available this week. In contrast to his approach during a sit-down in the civil investigation into his business by New York state Attorney General Letitia James, Trump was relatively open — and lashing out.
Trump sat for the deposition before Carroll filed follow-up claims directly covering the initial incident she says took place. Her additional claims were made possible by a New York state law reopening opportunities for legal action by victims of sexual misconduct who would otherwise be limited by statutes of limitations. Carroll’s later case included claims of defamation over an October 2022 post Trump made on Truth Social responding to her, in which the now former president once again maligned her appearance and tied her revelations to ostensible ambitions to boost her book sales. During the deposition, Carroll’s lawyer Roberta Kaplan asked Trump about that post, which he confirmed he personally wrote and posted to the platform.
Kaplan also asked Trump why he decided to make that October post, and the ex-president provided a rambling, antagonistic reply. “Because I was offended at this woman’s lie,” he said. “Because I was offended that she could just make up a story out of cold air, refuted by her testimony on CNN, but that she could make up a story just out of nowhere and that I get a phone call asking me about this ridiculous situation. The woman — there’s something wrong with her in my opinion. Okay. But it’s a false accusation. Never happened, never would happen. And I posted and I will continue to post until such time as — and then I will sue her after this is over, and that’s the thing I really look forward to doing. And I’ll sue you too because this is — how many cases do you have? Many, many cases, and I know the statements that were made — that you made.”
He kept going from there. When he eventually stopped babbling about how “very strongly” he would sue, Kaplan pointedly asked: “Are you done?” During the deposition, Trump also shared a profoundly inaccurate recollection of an interview Carroll did on CNN in which he contended, per what he remembered, that Carroll said she liked the encounter she said took place. That’s not what she relayed. She was discussing differences in perceptions of sexual violence.
Recently, federal Judge Lewis Kaplan — who isn’t related to Carroll’s lawyer — rejected a request from the former president for the dismissal of Carroll’s follow-up claims covering the assault and additional defamation. Her initial claims were over defamation she contended Trump committed when initially responding to her while still in office.
