Trump wants to ban the infamous Access Hollywood tape of E Jean Carroll’s civil rape trial
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Donald Trump’s lawyers want to bar jurors in his upcoming civil rape trial from hearing about the infamous ‘grab ’em by the f*ck’ tape, in which the former president boasts about how celebrities can abuse women.
Trump’s attorneys, Alina Habba and Michael Madaio, filed papers in Manhattan federal court Thursday night.
They are trying to block references to the 2005 taped encounter and the tape of the April trial itself.
On the tape, he said that sometimes when he sees beautiful women: ‘I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait.
‘When you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything, grab them by the c*ssy.
The judgment stems from the claims of advice columnist E. Jean Carroll.
Lawyers called the tape “irrelevant and highly prejudicial” and said it could unfairly be used to suggest to jurors that Trump had a propensity for sexual assault and therefore must have raped Carroll.
Trump’s lawyers are trying to prevent the infamous Access Hollywood tape from being shown at his rape trial on April 25. He has said that the encounter with Carroll in the mid-1990s at a high-end Manhattan department store never happened.
Billy Bush and Donald Trump are seen meeting actress Arianne Zucker in 2005 during an ‘Access Hollywood’ segment. Shortly before Trump and Bush began filming, Trump bragged about being able to “grab women by the f*ck.”
They also called for avoiding testimony from two women who have accused Trump of sexual misconduct and banning references to their campaign speeches.
Carroll, 79, sued Trump in November after New York state temporarily changed laws to allow adult rape victims to sue their abusers, even if the attacks occurred decades ago.
The trial is scheduled for April 25 and Trump and Carroll are expected to testify.
Carroll, a former columnist for Elle magazine, said in her 2019 memoir, ‘What do we need men for?’ that Trump raped her in late 1995 or early 1996 in the dressing room of Bergdorf Goodman, an upscale Manhattan department store.
Trump has denied this, sometimes angrily, in public statements.
In an October deposition for the upcoming trial, Trump dismissed Carroll’s claims, saying, “Physically, she’s not my type.”
Trump has denied knowing Carroll, despite a 1987 photo showing them together with Carroll’s then-husband and his first wife, Ivana Trump, who died last year.
It was that photo that he was apparently shown in October 2022 when he mistook Carroll for his second wife, Marla Maples.
Donald Trump was reportedly shown this photo with his first wife, Ivana, rape accuser E. Jean Carroll, and Carroll’s then-husband. He mistook Carroll for Marla Maples
Trump shares a daughter, Tiffany, with actress Marla Maples (pictured left in 1996). Writer E. Jean Carroll (pictured right in 2020) accused him of sexual assault.
In his testimony, Trump said of Carroll: “She’s not a woman I’m attracted to.” There’s no reason for me to be attracted to her’
Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, confronted him with claims that two dozen other women had made against him, asking if any were true.
‘I would say. I mean, I don’t see any. I mean, you haven’t shown me anything,” Trump responded, according to the transcript.
His responses could increase the relevance of lewd comments he made on the “Access Hollywood” tape, which was released just weeks before he won the November 2016 presidential election.
He then issued a rare apology, calling the comments “locker room jokes” caught on a hot microphone.
In excerpts from his statement placed on the public record Thursday night, Trump said it has largely been true “for the last million years” that celebrities can grab women they find attractive.
“Unfortunately or fortunately,” he added.
“And do you consider yourself a star?” Kaplan asked.
“I think you can say that, yes,” Trump responded.
In his lawsuit, Carroll said he had a chance encounter with Trump that turned into a joke when he asked her to help him pick out lingerie for a friend.
She said they taunted each other into trying on a piece of lingerie and went into the dressing room, where Trump became violent and raped her.
His attorney declined to comment Friday.