New video of Donald Trump testifying under oath has been made public after a court ruling Friday unsealed footage of the GOP nominee’s deposition in a case involving his new Washington D.C. hotel.
NBC and MSNBC were among the news organizations that sued for access to the videotape, which records Trump’s deposition in his legal feud with restaurateur and celebrity chef Geoffrey Zakarian.
Zakarian and another DC-area chef, Jose Andres, pulled out of deals to open restaurants at the hotel last year after Trump derided Mexican immigrants as “rapists” who are “bringing crime" to the United States.
Transcripts of the video have already been made public. In his testimony, which was conducted under oath, Trump complained that the chefs who objected to his rhetoric about undocumented immigrants were being “politically correct” and “grandstanding” when they canceled their plans to operate at Trump's new hotel at the historic Old Post Office on Pennsylvania Avenue.
Trump also explained at the deposition when and why he wrote the "rapists" comment, saying that he did not write the statement in advance of his presidential announcement speech last year but that he did plan it.
"All I'm doing is bringing up a statement that is very real about illegal immigration, and I think most people think I'm right," he said.
The video could become fodder for campaign ads in the final weeks of the general election.
In the decision, Judge Brian Holeman said that concerns about selective editing of the video should not be considered valid grounds for the prevention of its release.
"The public shall not be held captive by the suggested eventuality of partisan editing in a manner unfavorable to Plaintiff or the deponents," he wrote.
