Trump Denies Knowing Carroll

The federal jury considering E. Jean Carroll's rape accusation against Donald Trump heard the president defend himself in a video deposition on Thursday, a testy appearance in which the former president told the plaintiff's lawyer he had no sexual interest in her—a question Roberta Kaplan hadn't asked. Trump also said that he didn't know Carroll in the recording, which was made in October, the BBC reports. Trump called his accuser "a whack job," per NBC News, in repeatedly denying committing sexual abuse at a department store in the mid-1990s. "She is a sick person, in my opinion. Really sick," he said in the deposition. "There is something wrong with her."

The 45 minutes of video, watched over two days, appeared to be the jury's only opportunity to hear from Trump. Joseph Tacopina told the judge that his client would not come in person to testify and that the defense would call no witnesses. But on a golf course in Ireland on Thursday, Trump told reporters he'd end his trip so he could go to New York. "I'll be going back early because a woman made a claim that is totally false, it's fake," Trump said. The same day, jurors heard from other witnesses, per Politico. A longtime friend of Carroll’s, Carol Martin, testified that Carroll told her she'd been raped by Trump a day or two after she said it happened.

The video showed Trump becoming agitated and combative during questioning by Kaplan. If he had raped Carroll, he said, "it would have been reported within minutes" because other people in the "very busy store" would have heard it. After he watched a bit of the Access Hollywood tape in which he discussed grabbing women by the genitals, Kaplan asked about Trump's statements that women who have accused him of assault, including Carroll, were not his "type." Kaplan asked Trump about confusing Carroll in a photo with Marla Maples, one of his ex-wives. "I take it the three women you've married are all your type?" Kaplan asked. "Yeah," Trump answered. Becoming confrontational, he added, "You wouldn't be a choice of mine, either, to be honest." (More Donald Trump stories.)