Donald Trump defends ‘Grab ‘em by the p***y’ remark during civil rape trial

(Trigger warning: Some readers may find details of this report disturbing. Discretion is advised.)

Amid the ongoing civil rape trial, former US President Donald Trump on Thursday (May 4) defended private comments he made back in 2005. This comes as the jurors saw a video deposition in which he was addressing the “Access Hollywood” tape, where he was caught on a hot mic saying, “when you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything...Grab 'em by the p***y.”

The hearing on Thursday

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The lawyer for writer E. Jean Carroll, Roberta Kaplan, asked Trump about the tape in the video deposition taken last October and shown to the jury on Thursday where he was heard saying, “Historically, that’s true, with stars...if you look over the last million years.”

This comes as the trial entered its seventh day in a Manhattan court. District Judge Lewis Kaplan said he would give Trump until 5:00 pm (local time) on Sunday to ask to reopen his case for the sole purpose of personally testifying. Trump’s lawyer had previously said the former president has decided against testifying.

However, as of Thursday, the former president’s lawyer has rested his case without calling any other witnesses. During the hearing, a social media and marketing expert hired by Carroll told jurors that it would cost the former president up to $2.8 million to repair the reputational damage of his statements against her.

The excerpt from the October video deposition also shows that Trump also mistook Carroll for an ex-wife, when he was shown a black-and-white photograph where he was seen speaking to people at an event, reported Reuters. “It’s Marla,” Trump said, referring to his second wife Marla Maples.

He also went on to call Carroll’s lawyer, “You’re a political operative also. You’re a disgrace,” in the deposition taken at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, reiterating his previous statement and calling Carroll’s allegations politically motivated.

‘Access Hollywood’ tape

The tape, which came to light in 2016, caught Trump in conversation with Billy Bush, an Access Hollywood TV show personality. In it, the businessman, in a very graphic manner, boasts about how celebrities like him can grope women without waiting for consent.

Last month, a federal judge ruled that the tape can be used by the columnist in her lawsuit accusing Trump of rape. Carroll is suing Trump for battery and defamation in a civil trial.

The former magazine advice columnist, who first publicly aired her allegations against Trump in 2019, has accused the former president of raping her at Bergdorf Goodman, a luxury department store based on Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York.

In his order, Judge Kaplan had written, “In this case, a jury reasonably could find, even from the Access Hollywood tape alone, that Mr Trump admitted in the Access Hollywood tape that he in fact has had contact with women’s genitalia in the past without their consent, or that he has attempted to do so.”

(With inputs from agencies)

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