A video has been released of Donald Trump saying that “stars” have “unfortunately or fortunately” sexually assaulted women “for a million years”
The recording, of Donald Trump being questioned about rape allegations, shows the former US president admitting that he is “a star” but branding claims he raped a woman in a department store as “a false, disgusting lie”.
The video was made public to news organisations covering the lawsuit filed against him by advice columnist E Jean Carroll. It provides a glimpse of the Republican’s emphatic denials and his claim that the case was “a disgrace”.
Jurors had seen the video of Mr Trump’s October 2022 deposition over the past few days. But while written transcripts of Mr Trump’s evidence had previously been made public, the recording itself had not.
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The video shows Mr Trump answering questions in his trademark navy suit and a bright blue tie. He called Ms Carroll’s claim that he raped her in a luxury Manhattan department store “a false, disgusting lie”.
“It’s a disgrace. Frankly it’s a disgrace that something like this can be brought,” Mr Trump said.
Mr Trump reiterated his assertion that Ms Carroll is “not my type”, but also mistook her for his second wife, Marla Maples, when shown a photo of him meeting Ms Carroll and her then-husband at an event in the 1980s.
Mr Trump was also asked about the infamous “Access Hollywood” video in which he bragged about grabbing women’s genitals.
Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, asked Trump: “And you say…in this video, ‘I just start kissing them, it’s like a magnet, just kiss, I don’t even wait, and when you’re a star they let you do it, you can do anything, grab ’em by the p****, you can do anything.’ That’s what you said, correct?”
“Well, historically that’s true with stars,” Trump replied.
When challenged by Kaplan, Trump added: “If you look over the last million years, I guess that’s been largely true, not always, but largely true, unfortunately or fortunately.”
He said, as he has previously claimed, that he was engaging in “locker room talk”. When Kaplan asked Trump if he considered himself a star, Trump said: “I think you can say that, yeah.”
All planned testimony in the trial has concluded, clearing the way for closing arguments by the lawyers on Monday barring a last-minute decision by Mr Trump to give evidence.
