Lordy, all this not winning from trump when it comes to legal accountability. A second trial involving trump's defamation towards E. Jean Carroll when she came forward with her rape allegations ended with the jury finding major punitive damages against him (via Ximena Bustillo at NPR):
A New York jury on Friday ordered former President Donald Trump to pay a total of $83.3 million to E. Jean Carroll for ruining her credibility as an advice columnist when he called her a liar after she accused him of sexual assault.
The jury awarded Carroll $65 million in punitive damages, $11 million for the damage to her reputation and another $7.3 million. Trump is almost certain to appeal the verdict.
Despite the size of the penalty, the verdict was not unexpected. Judge Lewis Kaplan ruled even before the trial that Trump had in fact defamed Carroll. The jury only had to decide how much Trump owed her — not if he was liable. This is the second time Trump has been ordered pay Carroll; last year he was mandated by a jury to pay $5 million for a separate instance of defamation...
This one is different from the first trial trump faced against Carroll and lost. That matter revolved around her rape allegations directly, which she was able to file under a special law New York had passed to let rape victims confront their attackers in civil court. This matter revolved around trump just being a vicious gaslighting defaming asshole, which Carroll's lawyers were able to prove in court especially as trump kept attacking her AND the judge throughout this particular matter.
It quickly became a question not if the jury would find trump liable, but how much they would set the punishment to see what would work to shut him up. David A. Graham at the Atlantic is curious to see if $83 million-plus at this point would do it:
Although Trump’s fortune is enormous, usually estimated in the billions, he is likely to feel the cost of today’s verdict. First, he is a notorious skinflint—he once cashed a 16-cent check sent to him as a prank by Spy magazine—so any cost, especially one denominated in eight figures, will pain him. Second, much of his net worth is tied up in illiquid assets such as real estate or intangible ones such as brand value. The former president sometimes acts like he has limited cash flow, so coming up with $83 million (if that amount is sustained) might not be simple...
The second defamation case was entirely an own goal by Trump. Having lost the first case, all he really had to do was stop publicly assailing Carroll. He didn’t have to admit that he was wrong. He didn’t have to admit that he had sexually assaulted Carroll. He didn’t even have to admit that he had defamed her. He just had to stay quiet.
But this being Trump, he couldn’t do it...
What had been trump's greatest legal strength - his willingness to bully and harass his legal targets until they surrendered to him and settled for less money and no admission from himself - is now his biggest weakness because he can never shut up. trump can't stop attacking anyone and everyone he perceives are his enemies, and trump can't stop lying like he does when he sells himself as both hero and victim.
And he's now going against legal opponents who either cannot walk away from the fight (like Carroll), or they have the resources both legal and financial to take the fights to the bitter end, like the state of New York going after trump's tax evasion and acts of fraud.
We are all, by the by, waiting for the judge to return the findings in THAT matter any day now. Which should come before the New York criminal trial into trump's hush money payments set for late March. We're still waiting to find out if the federal appellate court will determine if trump has absolute immunity, and if that would allow the DC court case into trump's involvement in January 6th to proceed sometime in March as well (it's looking like it might get delayed until mid-year).
And this is the grifting, law-breaking, vulgar con artist the Republican Party still wants to represent them for the presidency in 2024. Gods help us all.
1 comment:
Wasn't 502 Park Avenue recently appraised at just about what he now owes her? And wasn't he recently prohibited from doing business in New York? And wasn't a receiver recently appointed to oversee the winding down of his New York businesses?
Yes, those outcomes still hinge on his appeal of Tish James' suit, but on the more optimistic side, his Truth Social rant decrying his loss in court was notable for the absence of E. Jean Carroll's name...
-Doug in Sugar Pine
Post a Comment