Rape claim, climate change, they're all hoaxes, hoaxes, hoaxes: Donald Trump

Donald Trump’s sworn testimony in a defamation case by a New York author who accuses him of rape was partially unsealed, revealing the former president’s anger about the many “hoaxes” against him.

Trump, who was deposed in October in the case by former Elle magazine advice columnist E Jean Carroll, derided the case as “a big, fat hoax” and called his accuser a “liar” and a “sick person”, according to a partial transcript made public on Friday by US district judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan.

Questioned by Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, Trump agreed that he uses the word “hoax” a lot in public, possibly more than 250 times in 2020 alone. He didn’t appear to hesitate when asked what other hoaxes he thought had been played on him.

“The Russia Russia Russia hoax,” the former US president replied. “It’s been proven to be a hoax. Ukraine Ukraine Ukraine hoax. The Mueller situation for two and a half years hoax ended in no collusion. It was a whole big hoax.”

Climate change is a hoax as well, Trump said. He was also asked if he thought mail-in ballots are a hoax, according to the filing. “Yeah, I sure do,” he said, though he also said he votes by mail.

Carroll included the partial transcript in a court filing over Trump’s objection to demonstrate that he has already been questioned extensively about an allegedly defamatory October 12 social media post in which Trump called Carroll a liar and said the case was a “hoax”.

The unsealing came the same day the judge denied Trump’s motion to dismiss Carroll’s sexual assault claim under the New York Adult Survivors Act.

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