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By Katherine Fung
Senior Writer
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Former President Donald Trump's lawyers are making a last-ditch effort to keep his testimony from an ongoing sexual assault lawsuit private after a judge ordered his deposition to be unsealed.
On Monday, the district judge presiding over the lawsuit brought by writer E. Jean Carroll ordered that key excerpts from Trump's testimony be unsealed, citing that the former president did not file any documents explaining why the deposition should be sealed or redacted within the deadline he previously set.
Carroll has alleged that Trump sexually assaulted her in the dressing room of Bergdorf Goodman, a New York department store, during the mid-1990s. This is the second lawsuit she has brought against him, with the first seeking to hold him accountable for battery in relation to the incident. Meanwhile, Trump has denied any wrongdoing.
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In response to the court order, Trump's attorneys said they had misunderstood the previous order requiring them to prove the need to seal, and that they thought the court was asking Carroll to explain why she wanted to unseal the deposition instead, which they saw as "practical."
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"In light of the Court's Order clarifying its position, we respectfully request three days to file a letter opposing the unsealing of Defendant's deposition exce[r]pts," Trump's lawyers wrote to Judge Lewis Kaplan.
Former federal prosecutor and president of West Coast Trial Lawyers, Neama Rahmani, told Newsweek on Monday that even though Kaplan's handwritten order mistakenly said "plaintiff" instead of "defendant," it was "obviously" an error.
However, Rahmani said it's likely that Kaplan will grant Trump's lawyers the additional three days to oppose unsealing the motion out of caution. If Kaplan does not grant Trump's request, and unseals the transcripts, he won't be able to undo the possible damage from releasing the deposition, even if the Court of Appeals rules against him.
"The public will have already seen the transcript," Rahmani said.
He added that it's also unlikely there's some sort of admission in Trump's testimony, since the former president has publicly denied the sexual assault. So, rather than trying to cover up damning information, Rahmani said it's more likely that Trump's lawyers are seeking to prevent additional media coverage of the allegations by blocking the release of his deposition.
Carroll first came forward with her allegations in 2019. Like Trump, she has also sat down for depositions, but has agreed to make portions of her testimony public while Trump has not. Carroll has also filed for excerpts of both depositions in support of arguments seeking to expedite evidence-gathering.
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