Cosby: I won’t take stand at my sex trial

Bill Cosby won’t testify in his own defense at his sex-assault trial next month, he said in an interview that aired Tuesday.

Speaking publicly for the first time in more than two years, Cosby told SiriusXM’s Michael Smerconish that he couldn’t answer questions about allegations surrounding his trial beginning June 5 in Norristown, Pa.

“No, I do not,” he simply answered when Smerconish asked whether he expected to testify.

But Cosby, 79, did say the choice not to take the stand was a calculated one.

“Once again, I go back to lawyers. When you have to deal with examination, cross-examination, et cetera, et cetera, more than two sides to every story, sometimes it’s four or five,” Cosby explained.

“And what people want to say and want you to say and how they maneuver, and, yes, I do have lawyers protect me — ‘objection,’ ‘sustained.’ But I just don’t want to sit there and have to figure out what I believe is a truthful answer as to whether or not I’m opening a can of something that my lawyers are scrambling [to shut].”

The formerly beloved TV dad is accused of drugging and molesting Temple University employee Andrea Constand at his home in suburban Philadelphia in 2004. He has maintained that the sex was consensual.

Prosecutors reopened the case in 2015 after newly released court documents showed Cosby admitting he gave drugs and alcohol to young women before sex over a 50-year period.

During the half-hour Smerconish interview, Cosby agreed with new claims made by one of his daughters, Ensa, that the explosive allegations against him are “racist.”

“Could be, could be,” he told the host. “There are so many tentacles. So many different — ‘nefarious’ is a great word. And I just truly believe that some of it may very well be that.”

“But your accusers are both black and white?” Smerconish pressed.

“Well, let me put it to you this way. When you look at the power structure and when you look at individuals, there are some people that can very well be motivated by whether or not they’re going to work or whether or not they might be able to get back at someone,” Cosby said.

Cosby admitted that Mother’s Day got a little awkward this year after he prepared a meal for his long-suffering wife, Camille, who has vehemently defended him, and left her a note at home.

They dined together in peace until their conversation turned to the sex scandal. Then, Cosby said, things were “removed from my plate until I apologized.”

Cosby, who suffers from glaucoma and is legally blind, wrapped up the Smerconish interview by adding, “Yeah, I just hope I’m not in trouble now, man.”

I just don’t want to sit there and have to figure out what I believe is a truthful answer. Bill Cosby