Former President Donald Trump said the infamous 2005 audio recording in which he brags about groping women without consent should be barred from an upcoming trial over claims by a former Elle magazine advice columnist who says he raped her in the 1990s.
(Bloomberg) — Former President Donald Trump said the infamous 2005 audio recording in which he brags about groping women without consent should be barred from an upcoming trial over claims by a former Elle magazine advice columnist who says he raped her in the 1990s.
The “hot mic” tape of Trump chatting with “Access Hollywood” TV host Billy Bush — and Trump’s comments about the incident after it went public — “do not even tangentially relate” to the suit filed by E. Jean Carroll, Trump said in a filing late Thursday in federal court in Manhattan.
Carroll, who went public with her claims in 2019, sued Trump for defamation after he accused her of fabricating the rape to sell a book. Carroll seeks to use the tape to demonstrate a pattern of behavior by the former president. Trump last week said he plans to testify in his own defense at a trial set for April.
Carroll’s “desire to introduce this evidence can serve only one purpose: to suggest to the jury that defendant had a propensity for sexual assault and therefore the alleged incident must have in fact occurred,” Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba said in the filing.
Read More: Tape of Trump’s Crude Remarks About Women Rocks Campaign
Trump’s filing also seeks to block from the trial all testimony from two other women who went public with sexual-assault claims against him before the 2016 presidential election: Jessica Leeds, who claims Trump groped her when they sat next to each other in first class on a flight three decades ago, and Natasha Stoynoff, who alleges he attacked her at his Mar-a-Lago resort when she was interviewing him for People magazine in 2005.
Both women have been deposed by Carroll’s lawyers and are on her list of potential witnesses at the trial. Their claims gained traction after the “Access Hollywood” tape emerged, though Trump went on to win the 2016 election.
Trump, who’s making a third run for the White House, is also seeking to preclude Carroll from using evidence “relating to speeches and statements” he made while he was campaigning for president, according to the filing.
Trump has consistently denied attacking Carroll and claims the allegations are part of a broader “witch hunt” against him.
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
©2023 Bloomberg L.P.