Is there a publicly available copy or transcript of Ivana Trump's 1989 sworn deposition?

1. What people mean by “the 1989 deposition” and why it matters

When journalists and commentators refer to Ivana Trump’s “1989 deposition” they mean sworn testimony tied to the Trumps’ divorce proceedings in which Ivana — according to multiple later accounts — described an episode she characterized as a form of rape and then later clarified the language ^{[5] [2] [3]}. That fragment became a focus because it was cited in biographies and documentaries as a notable allegation from the divorce record ^{[2] [3]}.

2. Where reportage points and what it actually provides

Major contemporary reports and later retrospectives reproduce Ivana’s quoted language or summaries rather than providing a complete primary transcript: The Independent and The Guardian both reproduce the line attributed to Ivana — “During a deposition given by me in connection with my matrimonial case, I stated that my husband had raped me” — and note a subsequent 1993 clarification that softened the literal criminal interpretation ^{[2] [3]}. Wikipedia’s entry similarly cites the deposition language as part of public discussion of the divorce, but it is a secondary synthesis, not the primary record itself ^[5].

3. Claims about who actually held the document

Harry Hurt III, a biographer of Donald Trump, has been reported to have obtained a copy of Ivana’s sworn deposition and to have quoted from it in his book; subsequent reporting and verification efforts indicate Hurt said he later discarded the physical copy, meaning researchers have relied on his account rather than an independently verifiable transcript ^{[1] [4]}. Snopes summarizes this chain: portions were circulated via Hurt’s reporting but the original sealed court record has not been made available through public archives in the sources supplied ^[1].

4. Confusion with other depositions and archival traps

Search results and document repositories can mislead: for example, a DocumentCloud file titled “Ivanka-Trump-Deposition” is a distinct, later deposition relating to Ivanka Trump, not Ivana’s 1989 divorce deposition — a reminder that similarly named files do not constitute the Ivana document being sought ^[6]. Other transcript aggregators and transcript services collect many depositions ^{[7] [8]} but none of the provided materials contain a full 1989 Ivana Trump deposition.

5. Alternative viewpoints and limits of available evidence

Some accounts treat Hurt’s quoting as effectively publishing parts of the deposition; others stress that the original court deposition remained sealed or inaccessible and that Ivana later issued clarifications that altered the public meaning of the quoted passage ^{[1] [3]}. The sources made available to this analysis do not include a scanned court file, docket entry, or official archive release of the 1989 sworn transcript itself, and therefore an authoritative, complete public copy cannot be confirmed from these records ^{[1] [4] [9]}.

6. Bottom line for researchers

Based on the reporting provided, there is no publicly available, verifiable full copy or verbatim transcript of Ivana Trump’s 1989 sworn deposition in the public record shown here; what exists in public discourse are quoted excerpts, a 1993 clarifying statement, biographer accounts that claim past possession of a copy, and secondary summaries in news articles and encyclopedic entries ^{[2] [1] [3]}. To obtain a definitive primary text would require locating an original court filing or certified transcript not included among the provided sources ^[9].