Excerpts from Donald Trump's testimony in the EJ Carroll rape case will remain sealed

Excerpts of Donald Trump's testimony in E.

Jane Carroll rape case will remain sealed - at least for now

On Monday afternoon, a federal judge determined that excerpts of Donald Trump's testimony used as documents in the lawsuit by author E.

Trump and the President of the United States of America. Jane Carroll

whom he accuses of rape, can remain sealed for now.

That same federal judge had earlier in the day ordered the publication of certain parts of Trump's nomination before abruptly and unexpectedly changing his mind.

U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan noted in the previous decision that Trump's legal team had missed the deadline to provide justifications for the need to keep certain parts secret.

Trump's lawyer was wanted

according to the judge who was "obliged to submit a letter within three days explaining the need to seal or revise parts of the defendant's testimony that were presented as part of a document."

Kaplan's one-page order stated that "the defendant did not do so and made no effort to justify the continued sealing of his statement".

Later that day

though 

• Trump's legal team noted that Kaplan appeared to write the defendant

• which referred to the former president

• not the plaintiff, which referred to Carroll. Subsequently

• Judge Kaplan abruptly changed his decision to disclose the document.

Carroll came forward in

2019 with her long-standing accusations against Trump

 accusing him of raping her in the Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the mid-1990s.

 At the time

• she publicly stated the charge

• appearing on a number of cable television shows

• and briefly on her autobiography pages.

Trump told reporters in response to

the accusations that she was not of my kind.

•  Carroll sued Trump for defamation in response to that remark.

• Until New York established the Adult Survivors Act

• the statute of limitations prevented a lawsuit alleging sexual assault.

Later

separate charges related to sexual battery were filed.

Both Carroll and Trump have taken the position of depositions while both cases proceed through the legal system. Carroll agreed to share some of her work with the public. Trump didn't.

Graphic details of the alleged assault were uncovered in the changing room of Bergdorf Goodman in Carroll's deposition.

Carroll testified:

I hit my head twice and then he put his hands on my arm

pushed me back again

• hit my head and then put his shoulder in me, a big man.

• He - and he - guessed 220, probably 225 at the time.

• I weighed 120. He weighed an extra 100 pounds.

And that was one of the things that went through my mind was how big and heavy his weight was because his whole weight came, his shoulder came into me, and so at this point, I realized that he was serious.

I was shocked before that he put me against the wall

but now I understand that this is a battle, and I put down my tight pockets. 

After the judge's order to revoke the seal

Trump's lawyer sent Michael T. Madio wrote in which he claimed that their opposition to dismissal of the appeal was limited to an error in the judge's preliminary judgement. According to the handwritten judgment

Carroll

the "plaintiff", not defendant Trump, has three days to contest the disclosure.

We have understood the order of 20 December 2022 to

place the burden on the applicant to

explain why the confidential copy of the deposit should

be disclosed;

This position was pragmatic, in our view

as excerpts were deposited with respect to the proposed discovery plan and related only to matters not contested by the parties.

In the light of the above

• in the light of the Court's order explaining its position

• we respectfully request three days to

• submit a letter opposing the revocation of

• the seal of the exceptions to the defendant's testimony.

The plaintiff informed

the defendant that he must submit a letter

within three days, explaining the need to seal or revise the material consistent with the presumption in favour of public access to judicial documents, in accordance with the judge's order, which was clarified in a letter from Roberta Kaplan, Carroll's lawyer. The judge and the lawyer are unrelated even though they bear the same last name.

In the end

Trump's argument that his initial instructions required clarity seemed to

convince Judge Kaplan.

He handwritten the phrase "granted" next to

Trump's lawyer's request and a stamp reading "ordered".

Judge Kaplan is currently considering a motion to dismiss Carroll's second complaint, which directly addresses allegations of rape rather than defamation charges.