Donald Trump, the former president, reiterated his infamous “Access Hollywood” statement that “when you’re a star, you can do anything” to women in his recently-released deposition in the defamation and battery case involving E. Jean Carroll.
A day after both sides rested their cases following a week of testimony, the trial’s evidence, including Trump’s October 2022 deposition, was made public on Friday.
Carroll, who filed the lawsuit in November, claims that Trump defamed her in his Truth Social post by calling Carroll’s allegations “a hoax and a lie” and saying “This woman is not my type!” when he denied that Trump had sexually assaulted Carroll in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the 1990s. Carroll also claims that Trump called Carroll’s lawsuit “false and defamatory.”
The former Elle magazine columnist added a charge of battery under a recently adopted New York law that allows adult survivors of sexual abuse to sue their alleged attacker regardless of the statute of limitations. Trump has denied all allegations that he raped Carroll or defamed her.
In the 2005 “Access Hollywood” video, which surfaced during the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump is overheard boasting to then-host Billy Bush about grabbing and kissing women without consent.
“You know, I’m automatically attracted to beautiful — I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait,” Trump says on the tape, which was played for the jury. “And when you’re a star they let you do it … You can do anything.”
