Trump questioned in rape accuser's defamation lawsuit

Former US President Donald Trump has answered questions nether oath successful a suit brought against him by an proposal columnist who says helium raped her.

E Jean Carroll alleges the onslaught took spot successful a New York luxury section store dressing country successful the mid-1990s.

Mr Trump denied the assertion and said Ms Carroll was lying, prompting her to writer him for defamation.

Ms Carroll's lawyer did not merchandise details of the deposition, but said it took spot connected Wednesday.

A civilian proceedings successful the lawsuit is scheduled for 6 February.

"We're pleased that connected behalf of our client, E Jean Carroll, we were capable to instrumentality Donald Trump's deposition today," a spokesperson for instrumentality steadfast Kaplan Hecker & Fink said.

"We are not capable to remark further."

Mr Trump's attorney, Alina Habba, said successful a statement: "As we person said each along, my lawsuit was pleased to acceptable the grounds consecutive today.

"This lawsuit is thing much than a governmental ploy similar galore others successful the agelong database of witch hunts against Donald Trump."

It is unclear what Mr Trump said during the deposition, oregon whether helium spoke successful idiosyncratic oregon remotely. According to CNN, helium participated from his Mar-a-Lago property successful Florida.

In a 2019 nonfiction for New York magazine, Ms Carroll - a longtime Elle proposal columnist - said she had a accidental brushwood with Mr Trump successful precocious 1995 oregon aboriginal 1996 astatine the section store Bergdorf Goodman.

She said she was helping him prime retired a acquisition and the 2 of them ended up successful a dressing room, wherever she alleges that helium raped her. She says she was 52 and helium was astir 50, and Mr Trump was joined to Marla Maples.

At the time, Ms Carroll besides said she told 2 friends astir the incident. One advised her to spell to the police, but the different warned her to support quiet, saying: "Forget it! He has 200 lawyers. He'll hide you."

Mr Trump rapidly dismissed the allegation, accusing Ms Carroll of lying to merchantability her book.

She past filed a defamation suit against Mr Trump portion helium was US president, saying his comments had harmed her reputation.

Mr Trump's lawyers tried to hold the deposition, but Judge Lewis A Kaplan of the national tribunal successful Manhattan past week denied the request.

Mr Trump had responded to that ineligible setback by taking to societal media to accidental "this 'Ms Bergdorf Goodman' lawsuit is simply a implicit con job".

More than a twelve women person antecedently made intersexual misconduct allegations against Mr Trump, which helium has denied.

Last month, Ms Carroll's lawyers said she intends to writer Mr Trump a 2nd clip nether a caller instrumentality that gives big intersexual battle victims a one-time accidental to record civilian lawsuits adjacent if the statute of limitations has expired.

She plans to record the caller suit connected 24 November, her lawyer said.

This is the latest successful a drawstring of ineligible challenges facing Mr Trump.

Among different cases, helium is facing allegations of fraud by New York prosecutors, who filed a suit against him successful September, and is being investigated by the Department of Justice for removing allegedly classified authorities documents from the White House and storing them astatine Mar-a-Lago.

Mr Trump has denied wrongdoing successful each cases.