Trump jurors hear video testimony at New York civil rape trial

In Ireland, Trump told reporters he would probably attend the trial. Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 Republican nomination for president, has yet to attend the trial, which began last week in Manhattan federal court.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump denied knowing E. Jean Carroll in a video deposition played for jurors on Thursday at a civil trial where she accuses him of rape. In Ireland, Trump told reporters he would probably attend the trial. Carroll, 79, has testified that Trump, 76, raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in the mid-1990s, and then tarred her reputation and career by lying about it online.

In a video excerpt played on Thursday, Trump was asked about a statement he made in 2019 about never having met Carroll. He said that was true at the time but he was later shown a photograph of him shaking either her hand or her husband's hand at a receiving line at a celebrity event.

"I shake a lot of hands with people but I had no idea who she was," Trump said. Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 Republican nomination for president, has yet to attend the trial, which began last week in Manhattan federal court. His legal team told U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan that Trump would not be testifying in person and they would not be calling any witnesses.

But during a visit to a resort he owns in southwest Ireland, Trump told reporters he "will probably attend." "I think it's a disgrace that it's allowed to happen, false accusations against a rich guy, or in my case against a famous, rich and political person," Trump told reporters while he played golf at the Doonbeg resort.

"I have to go back for a woman that made a false accusation about me, and I have a judge who is extremely hostile," Trump added. The trial is expected to extend into next week.

Trump's lawyer, Joe Tacopina, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In a brief portion of the video played on Wednesday, Trump denied Carroll's accusation and accused Carroll of making up the story to drive sales of a 2019 memoir in which she made her claims public.

Carroll said during three days of testimony and cross-examination that Trump slammed her against the wall in either 1995 or 1996, put his fingers into her vagina and then inserted his penis.