Former President Donald Trump called a writer’s claims that he raped her in a Manhattan department store the most ridiculous, disgusting story.

Attorneys for prosecutor E. Jean Carroll played about 30 minutes of excerpts from the former president’s statement, including his emphatic denial of columnists’ longstanding accusation that he assaulted her in a Bergdorf Goodman locker room in the mid-1990s.

If it happened, it would have been reported within minutes, Trump said, claiming that customers and employees at the very busy store would have heard a commotion and alerted authorities.

It’s the most ridiculous, disgusting story. It’s just made up, Trump said in the video deposition held in October.

Several judges leaned forward and watched blankly as the video played on individual monitors in front of their seats.

“Donald Trump raped me,” the writer tells the jury in a trial

In other developments Wednesday, Trump’s lawyers said they would not call witnesses, and the judge said closing arguments would likely take place Monday before the jury begins deliberations on Tuesday.

Trump did not attend the trial and will not testify, giving his statement more weight. Asked about the matter while traveling through Ireland on Wednesday, Trump told reporters: I hear we’re doing very well in New York.

Jurors in federal court in Manhattan are expected to hear more about Trump’s statement Thursday, followed by three more witnesses called to the stand by Carroll’s attorneys.

Carroll is seeking unspecified monetary damages and a retraction of Trump statements she says were defamatory.

Trump has denied ever knowing Carroll, once saying she’s not my type and arguing that her claims are politically motivated attempts to smear his reputation as he runs for the White House again.

’40 zillion hands’: Woman testifies during rape trial she was also attacked by Trump

His impeachment denials interrupted an emotional day in court that saw more allegations of inappropriateness

or predatory

behavior with women and playing the Access Hollywood video in which Trump bragged about grabbing women’s genitals without asking permission.

Natasha Stoynoff, a former writer for People magazine, tearfully testified that Trump forcibly kissed her against her will while showing her around his Mar-a-Lago estate just after Christmas in 2005 for an article about his first wedding anniversary to his third wife. melanie

Before the trial, Trump’s lawyers failed to prevent jurors from seeing the Access Hollywood video and hearing from Stoynoff. Trump’s subsequent denials during a 2016 debate.

The horrifying thing for me was that I was worried because I didn’t say anything at the time, other women were being hurt by him, so I had to be sorry, Stoynoff said.

Stoynoff began to cry when asked about her journey to beat the Trumps in Palm Beach, Fla. Stoynoff testified that Trump pulled her away from the staff and a photography crew with a ruse of wanting to show her a really great room at the estate before cornering her and kissing her.

Schrijver says the rape trial against Trump is fueling new attacks against her

Stoynoff, a Canadian who took an old surname for her writing career, recalled that the door closed behind her and Trump soon put his hands on my shoulders, pushed me against the wall, and started kissing me. The meeting lasted several minutes, said Stoynoff, whose real name is Nancy Stevens.

I tried to push him away, Stoynoff said, explaining how Trump came at her again and how she tried to push him away again. She was so shocked and confused” she couldn’t speak and didn’t scream, she said.

No words came out,” Stoynoff told the jurors.

Trump showed no signs of stopping, but suddenly backed off when a butler entered the room to announce that Melania was ready for the next phase of the interview, Stoynoff said.

As they walked to a patio, Stoynoff said, Trump told her you know we’re going to have an affair, reminding her that his second wife, Marla Maples, once told a tabloid that sex with Trump was the best she’s had . ever had.

The trial begins in E. Jean Carroll’s rape case against Trump

Trump has denied ever trying to kiss Stoynoff. Trump’s attorney, Joseph Tacopina, suggested she was irrelevant to Carroll’s case and ended his cross-examination after asking her a single question: Was she involved in a lawsuit against Trump? She isn’t.

Stoynoff’s testimony came a day after another woman, former stockbroker Jessica Leeds, testified that Trump grabbed her breasts and tried to put his hand up her skirt when they sat next to each other on a plane flight in the late 1970s.

Carroll kept her allegations against Trump secret for 17 years, telling only two close friends before making the allegations public in a 2019 memoir. In the book, she described how a sometimes flirtatious chance meeting with Trump at the department store in the spring of 1996 violently ended when Trump cornered her in a dressing room after they challenged each other to try on a piece of lingerie.

Trump’s lawyers attacked Carroll’s credibility through exhaustive cross-examination, questioning why she didn’t scream for help during the alleged attack and why she never went to the police.

A psychologist who tested on Carroll’s behalf said Wednesday that it’s common for rape victims to remain silent and blame themselves.