In what was likely the final day of the E. Jean Carroll rape case against Donald Trump, jurors in a Manhattan federal court Thursday were treated to a videotaped deposition of Trump mounting his defense. Carroll, who is suing Trump for battery and defamation, has accused the former New Yorker of raping her at a luxury department store in the mid-90s—an accusation he denies.
Although the jury never heard from Trump in person, it’s difficult to imagine he could have harmed himself more substantially on the stand than in the recorded deposition from last October. Although some of the information from the deposition was already public, jurors saw the video for the first time.
Politico reporter Erica Orden described Trump’s demeanor in the deposition as “agitated” and pugnacious, sometimes folding his arms over his chest in his signature show of pouty disgust. But maybe even more to the point, Trump essentially admitted to believing that, as a “star,” he can get away with forcibly molesting women. He also effectively confessed to Carroll being his type even as he testified that she wasn’t.
Amid it all, Trump also managed to make a supreme ass of himself while being cross-examined by Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan.