Donald Trump mistook rape accuser E Jean Carroll for ex-wife, trial told

Donald Trump appeared to mistake E Jean Carroll for his ex-wife Marla Maples in a deposition played for jurors in  Carroll’s civil rape suit against him.

In the video,  Trump was shown a photo of himself speaking to other people at an event. “It’s Marla,” he says, before his lawyer corrects him. “No, that’s Carroll,” the lawyer says.

Carroll, 79, has accused Trump, 76, of attacking her in a New York City department store in the mid-1990s, an allegation Trump has denied.

Lawyers for  Carroll have argued that  Trump’s confusion over the photo undermines his claim that  Carroll is “not my type”, a comment he has repeated since she first came forward with the allegation in 2019.

Trump has not yet attended the civil trial, now drawing to a close after two weeks of proceedings in Manhattan. Both sides rested their case on Thursday, though Trump’s team called no witnesses in his defence.

(BBC)