Jurors in the trial stemming from writer E. Jean Carroll’s lawsuit against former President Donald Trump watched video Thursday of the moment Trump confused Carroll for his ex-wife, Marla Maples.
During the October deposition, Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan showed Trump a late-1980s photo of him, his then-wife Ivana, Carroll and her ex-husband John Johnson. Referring to Carroll, Trump said, “It’s Marla,” referring to his second wife, Marla Maples.
“That’s Marla, yeah. That’s my wife,” he said, before being corrected, and told it was Carroll. The writer sued Trump for defamation and battery after he said she “made up” allegations that he raped in her a New York City department store in the mid-1990s. Trump has adamantly denied the allegations and claimed Carroll “is not my type.”
Jurors in the federal civil trial watched deposition video Thursday in which he reiterated that claim about Carroll’s appearance.
When Trump was told that Carroll was the person he believed was Maples — to whom he was married for six years, and who is the mother of one of Trump’s daughters — he replied that the photo was “very blurry.”
On Thursday, Carroll’s team also called her friend Carol Martin to the stand.
Martin testified that Carroll had told her about the alleged attack soon after it happened, and she advised her not to report Trump to the police because “he would bury her.”
The plaintiff and defendant have rested their cases, after Carroll’s team called two more witnesses. Trump’s attorney, Joe Tacopina, said he won’t call any witnesses, and he waived Trump’s right to testify in the case. The judge decided that in order to ensure that each party has a “full and fair opportunity” to speak, said he would give the former president until 5 p.m. Sunday to motion to appear, should he have second thoughts. The judge has said the trial may conclude next week and adjourned until Monday.
Tacopina’s representation of Trump Thursday in his civil trial meant he could not be present for a hearing two blocks away in Trump’s state criminal case. Trump entered a not guilty plea to 34 counts of falsification of business records on April 4, when he became the first former president in U.S. history to be charged with crimes.
In that hearing, Trump’s attorneys and prosecutors for the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg argued over a proposed protective order that would bar Trump from publicizing evidence turned over to him as part of discovery.
The judge has not ruled, but he signaled Thursday that he would issue the protective order.
Todd Blanche, an attorney for Trump, said at the end of the hearing that Trump will seek to have the case moved to federal court.
