A police call operator told US President Donald Trump’s youngest son, Barron, to “stop being rude” when he phoned officers in the UK after receiving a video call from a woman who was being attacked, a court has heard.
Matvei Rumiantsev, 22, is on trial at Snaresbrook Crown Court in London accused of charges including assault and rape against a friend of Barron Trump. Mr Rumiantsev denies assault, actual bodily harm, intentional strangulation, perverting the course of justice and two counts of rape.
Jurors heard Mr Trump was on a video-call with the friend, a woman in London he is “very close” to – who cannot be named for legal reasons, and saw her allegedly being attacked on January 18 last year.
Shortly afterwards he spoke to police in London, the court heard, and a transcript of the call was released by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).
“Oh, I’m calling from the US, uh, I just got a call from a girl, you know, she’s getting beat up,” Mr Trump told City of London Police in the call.
“This was happening about eight minutes ago. I just figured out how to, how to call someone. Uh, uh it’s really an emergency,” the transcript reads.
During the call, Mr Trump said he met the alleged victim on social media.
According to the transcript, he said: “I don’t think these details matter, she’s getting hurt,” when the police operator asked him how he came by the information.
“Can you stop being rude and actually answer my questions,” the operator said.
“If you want to help the person, you’ll answer my questions clearly and precisely, thank you.”
In a subsequent email to police investigating the allegations, Mr Trump said that what he saw was “very brief indeed but indeed prevalent”, the court heard on Thursday. His email was in response to officers asking whether he would be willing to provide a witness statement.
“I didn’t expect her to pick up due to the time difference,” the email from May 2 said, jurors heard.
“The phone was picked up. The individual who answered was a shirtless man with darkish hair. This view lasted maybe one second … then the view flipped to the [alleged] victim.”
The email continued: “I made two of my friends call the Met Police in the UK, even though they are in the US.
“As per evidence, I do not have any. I was told by the victim who I am very close with that this individual was giving her difficulty for a long time.”
Jurors heard that police replied to the email from Mr Trump but did not receive a response to that or to a follow-up email sent on July 1.
The trial continues.
