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Trump’s New E. Jean Carroll Defense Is That He Assaulted Other Women

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The New Republic 

Donald Trump on Friday inexplicably started detailing two horrific sexual assault allegations made against him, as part of a hapless attempt to discredit a completely different sexual assault allegation.

During a press conference in New York City, Trump gave rambling remarks in which he made gross references to two women who claim he sexually abused them. His comments came shortly after oral arguments concluded for the day in Trump’s appeal of the verdict in E. Jean Carroll’s sexual abuse and defamation case against him. 

Trump’s lawyers argued in court Friday that  Carroll’s 2023 rape trial was tainted by the presence of other allegations. While attempting to follow their lead to downplay Carroll’s claims against him, Trump recapped the accusations two women made against him during the trial—as if that would somehow make him seem less guilty. 

“There were two witnesses. One is a woman who followed me for years,” Trump said, talking about Jessica Leeds, who told jurors at Carroll’s civil trial that Trump had groped her when they sat next to each other on a plane to New York City in the late 1970s. 

“There was no conversation. It was like out of the blue. It was like a tussle,” Leeds claimed at the time. 

Trump’s characterization of the interaction was quite a bit different: “She said in 1979 I was in an airplane with her, commercial flight, and … we became very intimate,” said the former president.

As he told the story, Trump interrupted himself to say, “I was famous then too. I’ve been famous for a long time,” apropos of nothing. Later Trump tried to return to this point, dismissing the claims, saying, “It’s very funny, when you’re rich and famous, you get lot of people come up with a lot of stories.” Combined, Trump’s remarks sounded eerily similar to his infamous Access Hollywood tape, where he claimed that “when you’re a star they let you” grab their genitals.

Throughout his explanation of the supposedly “totally made-up story,” Trump continued to insist that he didn’t know when exactly their interaction had taken place, noting that this likely happened “a long time ago,” in 1979.

“I believe I had some pretty big success then, and I was being talked about a lot. Maybe The Art of the Deal was out, you know, sometime after that, I’m not sure. But I was well known,” Trump said. As it happens, The Art of the Deal came out almost 10 years later, in 1987. In attempting to make light of the serious allegation, Trump boasted about his popularity and seemed to reveal his own faulty memory. 

“And passengers are coming into the plane, and she said I was making out with her, and then, after 15 minutes—and then she changed her story a couple of times, maybe it was quicker—that I grabbed her at a certain part, and that was when she had enough,” Trump said. 

“So think of the impracticality of this,” Trump urged. Later, he implied that her story made no sense because “back in those days” there was an arm rest between passengers on airplanes. 

“What are the chances of that happening? What are the chances?” Trump questioned. “And, frankly, I know you’re going to think it’s a terrible thing to say, but it couldn’t have happened. It didn’t happen. And, she would not have been the chosen one. She would not have been the chosen one.”

The story was “a total lie,” according to Trump. “Now, I assume she’ll sue me now for defamation like I got sued by E. Jean Carroll.”

“No police reports, no witnesses, no corroboration of any kind. No criminal suggestions. No nothing,” Trump said, appearing to read off a card in front of him. 

Trump then moved on to the allegations made against him by journalist Natasha Stoynoff, who’d testified that while she visited Mar-a-Lago to interview Trump and Melania for an article in 2005, the former president had pushed her against a wall and forcibly kissed her, before they were discovered by Trump’s butler.

Throughout Trump’s remarks Friday, he repeatedly referred to pieces of paper he was holding, but that did not seem to help him recall key details—like, who he was actually choosing to defame in the first place. 

“Her name was … whoever. Let’s see. Her name … was who?” Trump leaned back so his lawyer, Alina Habba, could feed him the answer. 

“Swornov? Yeah. I don’t have it,” Trump said, confused. “Whatever her name was—I don’t know the lady, so. Perhaps it’s better that way, but I don’t know the lady.”

Trump claimed he couldn’t possibly have assaulted her, because she had ultimately written a “beautiful story.”

Throughout his remarks, Trump’s lawyers looked increasingly displeased with their client’s ramblings—but it seems that Trump wasn’t too happy with them, either.

“I’m disappointed in my legal talent, I’ll be honest with you,” Trump said while standing right in front of them, complaining that they had not brought up “such a famous dress” that was “Monica Lewinsky part two,” which he claimed would have exonerated him.