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The full deposition that former President Donald Trump gave as part of E. Jean Carroll's rape lawsuit may soon be released after his lawyers withdrew their request to keep the entire testimony sealed.
Portions of Trump's deposition have already been made public after Judge Lewis Kaplan rejected attempts to have sexual assault lawsuits brought forward by former Elle columnist Carroll thrown out.
Carroll is suing Trump for defamation over comments he made while denying allegations he raped her in a dressing room in New York department store Bergdorf Goodman in the 1990s.
Carroll also filed an additional suit for battery while taking advantage of New York's Adult Survivors Act [ASA]. The law, which came into effect on November 24, 2022, gives alleged adult sexual assault victims one year to bring lawsuits even if the statute of limitations has expired.
In a letter to Kaplan, Trump attorney Michael Madaio confirmed that the former president's legal team have withdrawn their request to keep the rest of the deposition sealed, paving the way for the rest of Trump's under oath answers that he gave about the alleged rape in October be made public.
The partial unsealing of Trump's deposition showed that the former president repeatedly insulted his accuser, accusing Carroll of being a "liar," a "nut job" and a "sick person."
Trump also defended his previous remarks saying he wouldn't have raped Carroll as "she's not my type"—comments which form a key as part of the defamation lawsuit against him—as well as misinterpreting comments Carroll made during a 2019 interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper to suggest she claimed she enjoyed being sexually assaulted.
The deposition was carried out ahead of a civil trial in April when Trump will defend himself against the defamation and battery lawsuits.
On January 13, Kaplan rejected Trump's attempts to have the suits thrown out, ruling there was no merit to the argument that they should be dismissed for denial of due process.
"To suggest that the ASA violates the state Due Process Clause because the legislature supposedly did not describe that injustice to the defendant's entire satisfaction in a particular paragraph of a particular type of legislative document—itself a dubious premise—is absurd," Kaplan wrote.
In a statement to Newsweek following the decision, fellow Trump attorney Alina Habba said: "While we are disappointed with the Court's decision, we intend to immediately appeal the order and continue to advocate for our client's constitutionally protected rights."
Trump's lawyers have been contacted for further comment.
About the writer
Ewan Palmer is a Newsweek News Reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on US politics, and Florida ... Read more