Are there legal records or sworn statements from Ivana Trump about sexual assault by Donald Trump?
Executive summary
Ivana Trump is reported to have described a 1989 sexual incident with Donald Trump in a 1990 sworn divorce deposition that was later sealed and made public in varying forms by journalists and biographers; she subsequently softened or disavowed the rape characterization in later statements [1] [2] [3]. Public, verifiable legal records producing an unambiguous, accessible sworn statement from Ivana publicly asserting criminal sexual assault by Donald Trump do not exist in the open court record as available to reporters: the deposition is described in secondary reporting as sealed, and the media trail is a mixture of biographer claims, book excerpts, and later retractions [1] [4] [3].
1. The core claim — a sworn deposition alleging rape
Multiple contemporary and retrospective accounts trace a passage back to Ivana’s 1990 divorce deposition in which she is reported to have used the word “rape” or described being sexually assaulted by Donald Trump in 1989; that description appears in Harry Hurt III’s 1993 book Lost Tycoon and is cited by outlets summarizing Hurt’s reporting [5] [1] [3]. Journalists and fact-checkers have repeatedly noted the existence of a sworn deposition that described a violent episode after a scalp-reduction surgery, with Hurt saying he had obtained a copy of the sealed testimony [1] [3].
2. Why there’s no clear, public “legal record” to read today
Reporting across outlets makes clear the deposition and related matrimonial records were sealed in the divorce and are not part of a freely accessible public docket; some investigative accounts say the documents were sealed or may have been lost or destroyed, and journalists rely on secondary accounts — Hurt’s reporting among them — rather than on an open court transcript available to readers [1] [6]. Fact-checkers and news organizations that have parsed the matter emphasize the lack of an accessible criminal filing or public court judgment that encompasses an outright, contemporaneous sworn criminal allegation against Donald Trump by Ivana in a public, unsealed legal record [2] [7].
3. Ivana’s subsequent statements and retractions
Ivana herself later walked back the most graphic renditions: in a 1993 statement she described the episode more obliquely as marital relations in which he “behaved very differently,” and in a 2015 endorsement statement she said comments attributed to her decades earlier “are totally without merit,” language reporters cite as her softening or disavowal of the rape characterization [3] [5]. Coverage from outlets including PBS and The Guardian summarizes that while the 1990 deposition described an incident that Ivana initially characterized strongly, she did not pursue or publicly litigate a criminal charge, and later public statements downplayed or rephrased her earlier language [7] [8].
4. How reporters, biographers and creators have used the material — and the agendas involved
Biographers such as Harry Hurt III presented a version drawn from a claimed copy of the sealed deposition, and that account fed into books, magazine features and later dramatizations; filmmakers and some modern profiles have dramatized the episode, which raises obvious incentives to amplify or condense for narrative effect [3]. At the same time, fact-checkers and mainstream outlets point out the evidentiary limits — sealed file, no public criminal prosecution, later retraction — which temper claims that there is a straightforward, publicly verifiable sworn accusation available to review [1] [2].
5. Bottom line: what can be stated with confidence and what remains uncertain
It is established in the reporting record that Ivana’s 1990 divorce deposition has been reported to include a description she used to characterize an assault by Donald Trump and that biographers and journalists have cited that sworn testimony [1] [3]; it is equally established that the deposition was sealed, has not been produced as an open public court transcript for broad inspection, and that Ivana later softened or denied the most explicit rape characterization in subsequent statements [2] [5]. Beyond that dual reality — reported sealed deposition plus later disavowal — available sources do not provide an unambiguous, public legal document that can now be read which would settle whether Ivana formally and unequivocally accused Donald Trump of criminal rape under oath in an unsealed, accessible court record [1] [2].