Former president Donald Trump's "lackluster deposition performance" could help his accuser in a civil rape and defamation case win a "credibility battle" between the two parties, a former United States Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama said on Friday.
Joyce Vance, who served as a U.S. Attorney from 2009 to 2017, was speaking to Joy Reid of The ReidOut on MSNBC Friday when Reid asked whether it will hurt Trump's case to include a deposition in which he misremembers details. Trump's attorneys emphasized their questioning of alleged victim E. Jean Carroll on minute details that she likely wouldn't remember.
"I mean, this is about a credibility battle between two witnesses, one of whom did not come to the courthouse, did not sit in the courtroom during the trial, did not testify. And then gave this really lackluster deposition performance," Vance said. "So if you're E. Jean Carroll's attorney, Roberta Kaplan, you are likely very content to play this deposition and to let the jury see for themselves that this is an individual who has a bad memory when it serves him."
Vance added that it will be "up to the jury" to determine what really happened in this case.
Reid asked Vance if the judge is protecting himself by ensuring Trump still has the opportunity to testify, despite the fact that his lawyers have claimed he will not be presenting testimony on his own behalf.
"This is the judge making every effort to hold Trump accountable. In a civil case, E. Jean Carroll could have subpoenaed Trump to testify," Vance said. "Her lawyers chose not to, I think likely because the deposition testimony is just so startlingly good for them. Trump can voluntarily choose to testify if he wants to. He did not. He relinquished that right, but after he made those comments on the golf course in Ireland, it was almost as though you could."
