Trump is set to testify in his own defense against E. Jean Carroll in a defamation trial related to a rape claim

Donald Trump will testify in his own defense in a defamation lawsuit brought by author E. Jean Carroll after she accused him of rape – and the former president also plans to call CNN host Anderson Cooper as a witness.

In a memoir written after Trump became president, Carroll alleges he raped her in the dressing room of the Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan in the mid-1990s during a chance encounter.

She sued Trump for defamation in 2019 after he accused her of lying to sell her book. Carroll is also suing Trump for sexual violence.

New court filings list both Carroll and Trump as the first potential witnesses for the trial, which begins April 25. Trump’s attorney also plans to call Cooper and the New York Magazine editor. David Haskell. Cooper interviewed Carroll shortly after she went public with the allegations against Trump.

Judge Lewis Kaplan of Manhattan Federal Court said Tuesday that the trial could begin in the spring, denying Trump’s legal team’s request to push the trial back to the summer.

Trump says meeting with Carroll in the mid-1990s at a high-end department store in Manhattan never happened

Trump has denied the rape allegation and described Carroll in an affidavit as ‘mentally ill’ and ‘mad profession’.

Trump swore: ‘She said I did something to her that never happened. There isn’t anything. I don’t know anything about this lousy business.’

The removal took place in October 2022. In another paragraph, the 2024 presidential candidate said: ‘I know nothing about her. I think she’s sick, mentally ill.’ Trump reiterated his claim that Carroll was ‘not his type’.

The release of excerpts from the testimony came the same day that Judge Kaplan also denied requests by Trump’s lawyers to drop two of Carroll’s lawsuits.

In releasing the recording, Kaplan called Trump’s legal team’s arguments to keep it secret ‘totally baseless’.

Trump said the meeting with Carroll in the upscale Manhattan department store never happened. She says the couple’s interaction started when she helped him choose underwear for a friend.

During his day-long testimony, he repeatedly attacked Carroll’s portrayal of him as a rapist.

In his testimony, Trump said of Carroll: ‘She’s not a woman I’ve ever been attracted to. There’s no reason for me to be attracted to her’

Donald Trump is said to have shown this photo with his first wife, Ivana, rape accuser E. Jean Carroll and Carroll’s then-husband, when he mistook Carroll for Marla Maples

Trump shares a daughter, Tiffany, with actress Marla Maples (pictured, left, 1996). Writer E. Jean Carroll (pictured, right, in 2020) accused him of sexual assault

Trump said he knew it was “politically incorrect” to say “she’s not my type” as he responded to the claims shortly after Carroll’s 2019 book was published.

During his time as president, Trump has repeatedly attacked Carroll and alleges that her statements were made as a means to sell a book.

He has denied knowing Carroll, calling former columnist Elle’s rape allegations ‘a complete hoax’.

Upon his removal, Trump repeated his previous statements in which he said Carroll was not attractive enough to be sexually assaulted by him.

Trump has denied knowing Carroll, although a 1987 photo shows them with Carroll’s then-husband and former president’s first wife Ivana Trump, who died last year.

The potential 2024 candidate said: ‘She’s not the woman I’ve been attracted to. There’s no reason for me to be attracted to her. It’s not even meant to be an insult. There’s no way I would be attracted to her. Now, maybe some people will be attracted to her. I will never be attracted to her.’

In Carroll’s testimony, published in December, she said “the music stopped” in her love life after she was raped by Donald Trump.

In the videotaped interview, Carroll said she did not develop any new romantic relationships following her meeting with Trump at Bergdorf Goodman. She said she hadn’t had sex since 1994 or 1995.

“In retrospect, that might be what happened at Bergdorf’s,” she said.

Trump also mistook Carroll for his ex-wife Marla Maples during a hearing last year.

‘That’s Marla, that’s right,’ Trump, 76, said when shown a photo of Carroll according to the transcript. ‘That’s my wife’.

But his attorney Alina Habba intervened and corrected him.

The blunder is likely to undermine Trump’s denial in future court proceedings after the former president announced he would not assault Carroll because ‘she’s not my type’ .

Maples, a former actress, is the mother of Trump’s daughter Tiffany.

Trump has denied knowing Carroll, although a 1987 photo shows them with Carroll’s then-husband and former president’s first wife Ivana Trump, who passed away last year.

It was the photo he was apparently shown in October 2022 when he mistook her for his second ex-wife.

Source: | This article originally belonged to Dailymail.co.uk