Accused by a journalist, E. Jean Carroll, of rape in the 1990s, former US President Donald Trump confused her in a photo with his ex-wife Marla Maples, according to a court document from an October deposition in New York.
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Donald Trump is scheduled to appear in New York court on April 10 in a defamation lawsuit brought by E. Jean Carroll, 79, who accuses him of raping her in a fitting room of a New York department store. Yorkers in 1995 or 1996.
“It’s Marla, it’s my wife”
A double civil case for alleged defamation and rape has pitted E. Jean Carroll, former Elle magazine columnist, against Donald Trump, 76, billionaire businessman and Republican president, before federal justice in Manhattan since 2019, then 2022. from 2017 to 2021.
The two produced their sworn depositions last October. During his October 19 testimony by video link, released this week, Donald Trump reaffirmed his line of defense: “I will say this with the greatest respect: first of all, she is not my type; then it never happened”.
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But when shown a photo of himself with E. Jean Carroll at a 1990s party, he replied: “It’s Marla, it’s my wife” before his own attorney Alina Habba corrected him. Donald Trump was married from 1993 to 1999 to actress Marla Maples, 59, and met his current wife Melania in 1998.
Defamation, Assault and Assault
In the defamation suit, E. Jean Carroll sued Trump in November 2019. She accuses him of defaming her for calling in June of that year a “complete lie” her rape allegations.
The tenant of the White House at the time always replied that E. Jean Carroll was not “not his kind of woman” and his lawyers claimed that he was protected, in 2019, by his immunity as head of state.
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As for the accusations of rape, she had not been able to file a complaint in 2019 since the alleged facts were prescribed. However, on November 24, 2022, a New York State law came into force (“Adult Survivors Act”) allowing, for one year, victims of sexual assault to relaunch their civil legal action.
E. Jean Carroll therefore filed a new complaint in November in New York for “defamation” but also ” assault “ and ” assault “ and requested a civil trial for damages, to be held on April 10.
