Donald Trump’s legal team is attempting to have the “Access Hollywood” video, in which the former president boasts brutally about how celebrities may molest women, excluded from his future civil rape trial.
Attorneys for Donald Trump Alina Habba and Michael Madaio filed documents in Manhattan federal court late on Thursday in an effort to halt testimony in an April trial over allegations made by veteran advice columnist E. Jean Carroll about the 2005 filmed meeting and the video itself.
The recording was dubbed “irrelevant and very biased” by the critics, who said that it may be unfairly used to persuade jurors that Trump had a history of sexual assault and so had to have raped Carroll. Also, they requested a ban on any mentions of Trump’s campaign speeches as well as the suppression of testimony from two women who have accused him of sexual misconduct.
When New York State temporarily amended the law to let adult rape victims to sue their abusers even if the crimes took place decades ago, Carroll, 79, filed a lawsuit against Trump in November. On April 24, a trial is scheduled, and both Trump and Carroll are anticipated to give testimony.
In her 2019 book “What Do We Need Men For?,” Carroll, a former Elle magazine journalist, said Donald Trump sexually assaulted her in the dressing room of an upscale Manhattan department shop called Bergdorf Goodman in late 1995 or early 1996.
In public speeches, Trump has adamantly rejected it, at times furiously.
Physically, Carroll is not my type, Trump said in a deposition for the approaching trial in October, but he also confused her as his ex-wife when he was shown a picture.
Roberta Kaplan, Carroll’s attorney, asked him whether any of the allegations that twenty other women had made against him were accurate.
“I would opine. I don’t see any, really. You haven’t shown anything to me, “According to the transcript, Trump answered.
His responses could make the pornographic remarks he made on the “Access Hollywood” video, which were made public only a few weeks before he was elected president in November 2016, more relevant.
In the recording, he said that sometimes when he encounters attractive women: “I just begin kissing them. It acts as a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even hold off.” He further said, “They let you to do that if you are a celebrity. Anything you want to do, “even snatching them by the legs.
He then made a rare apology, claiming the remarks were “locker room banter” that was recorded on a hot mic.
Carroll claimed in her complaint that she met Trump by accident and that their chance meeting turned into fun banter when he requested her to assist him in choosing lingerie for a friend. She said that after being cajoled into donning some intimate apparel, they entered the changing room where Trump got aggressive and sexually assaulted her.
On Friday, her attorney opted not to comment.
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