Warning: Contains brief reference to sexual assault
Newly released footage from E. Jean Carroll's trial against former President Donald Trump shows the moment he mistook her for his ex-wife.
A trial for Carroll’s civil lawsuit is currently underway in New York after the writer accused Trump of rape and defamation; allegations which Trump has denied.
A number of witnesses took the stand to share testimony in the trial, and jurors were also shown footage from a deposition which took place in October, when Trump was shown a photo taken in the late 1980s.
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The image, shown to Trump by Carroll's attorney Roberta Kaplan, featured himself, his then-wife Ivana, Carroll and her ex-husband John Johnson.
Looking at Carroll, Trump said: "It's Marla," referring to his second wife, Marla Maples.
Trump married Maples in 1993, a few years after the photo was taken. They share one child, Tiffany, together, and divorced in 1999.
The former president continued: "That's Marla, yeah. That's my wife."
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Trump was then corrected and told the image actually showed Carroll, after which he responded to say the image was 'very blurry'.
Carroll has accused Trump of raping her in her a New York City department store in the mid-1990s, but the deposition footage revealed a series of exchanges in which Trump insisted her claims were made up.
"I say with as much respect as I can but she is not my type," Trump said. "Not my type in any way, shape, or form."
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The president later told Kaplan he would not 'have any interest' in Carroll, adding: "You wouldn't be a choice of mine either, to be honest with you, I hope you're not insulted."
The footage from the deposition was released after media organisations asked the judge in the case to make it public.
During the trial, Carroll testified that she had expected Trump to respond to her claims by saying they had a consensual encounter, rather than denying the accusations altogether.
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By denying the alleged assault, Carroll said Trump 'shattered' her reputation.
“It hit me and it laid me low because I lost my reputation," she said. "Nobody looked at me the same. It was gone. Even people who knew me looked at me with pity in their eyes, and the people who had no opinion now thought I was a liar and hated me."
Legal teams for both Trump and Carroll are scheduled to deliver final arguments to the jury in New York on Monday (9 May).
If you have been affected by any of the issues in this article and wish to speak to someone in confidence, contact The Survivor’s Trust for free on 08088 010 818, or through their website thesurvivorstrust.org
Topics: Donald Trump, US News, Politics, Crime
Emily Brown