Federal Judge Lewis Kaplan is allowing the infamous Access Hollywood tape featuring Donald Trump seeming to brag about committing sexual assault to be used at an upcoming trial on claims from writer E. Jean Carroll. Carroll says Trump sexually assaulted her in the 1990s, and Kaplan concluded the disputed recording was reasonably connected to the claims Carroll has laid out.
“In this case, a jury reasonably could find, even from the ‘Access Hollywood’ tape alone, that Mr. Trump admitted in the Access Hollywood tape that he in fact has had contact with women’s genitalia in the past without their consent, or that he has attempted to do so,” Kaplan said in a portion of his ruling highlighted last week by Law & Crime. Kaplan was also dismissive of the idea of blocking testimony at the imminent trial from two other women among those who have alleged Trump perpetrated sexual misconduct against them, finding that the circumstances of the claimed incidents were reasonably similar.
If the jury trial set to start next month ends in Carroll’s favor, Trump could end up responsible for financial penalties rather than facing criminal consequences because of the nature of the case. Trump himself ensured at least some of the defamation claims Carroll has outlined could continue, because amid disputes about whether protections associated with his role as president could shield him from much further scrutiny over antagonistic claims he made about Carroll while still in office, he made additional, similar comments on his knock-off social media site Truth Social. Trump already went under oath for a deposition in the lead-up to this trial, with Carroll’s lawyer Roberta Kaplan zeroing in upon, among other things, the lack of apparent evidence Donald had for some of the statements he made about the writer, including claims of her allegiance to Democratic causes.
Trump recently attempted what could’ve amounted to a ploy to delay the trial, offering a sample of his DNA for comparison against biological remnants on a garment Carroll has and says she wore during the initial incident. The problem was that restarting the generally concluded process of sharing evidence could’ve forced things even further into the future. Trump had resisted the prospect of providing a sample throughout lengthy past proceedings, and Carroll and her legal representation were already focusing on other arguments. Among the issues to resolve before trial was a potential psychological evaluation of the writer, something which her lawyer indicated would be fine enough but about which she said that she didn’t have comprehensive details.
