Attorneys for former President Trump filed to ban the “Access Hollywood” tape, in which he brags that he as a celebrity can get away with sexually assaulting women, from his upcoming civil rape trial.
Trump attorneys Alina Habba and Michael Madaio filed papers in Manhattan federal court late Thursday seeking to block both the tape and any references to the 2005 taped encounter, calling its content “irrelevant and highly prejudicial.”
Writer E. Jean Carroll filed suit against Trump for battery under New York State’s Adult Suvivor’s Act on the same day the legislation went into effect—Thanksgiving day.
The Adult Survivors Act dictates that New York State waive for one year, starting this past Thanksgiving, the normal deadlines for filing lawsuits over sex crimes, allowing survivors to seek compensation for assaults that happened years or even decades ago.
Carroll, a former advice columnist for Elle magazine, says Trump raped her in a department store dressing room in the mid-1990s. Trump denies the allegation, saying Carroll made it up to sell a book.
Carroll is already suing Trump for defamation, saying his public denials and disparaging comments have damaged her reputation. She is seeking unspecified damages in her battery lawsuit, asserting that Trump caused her lasting psychological harm.
In an October deposition for the upcoming trial, Trump dismissed Carroll’s claims by saying, “Physically she’s not my type.” In that same deposition, however, he misidentified a photograph of Carroll as his ex-wife, Marla Maples.
In the “Access Hollywood” tape, which was made public a few weeks before the 2016 Presidential election, Trump says, “When you’re a star [women] let you do it. You can do anything, grab them by the p—y.”
Afterward, Trump issued a rare apology, saying the comments had been “locker room banter” caught on a hot mic.
Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, who is presiding over both of Carroll’s lawsuits against Trump, has yet to rule on the “Access Hollywood” filing.
