E. Jean Carroll's lawsuits against Trump for Sexual Assault and Defamation

[N.E. Brigand]

After reading a lot of Youtube comments posted to news stories about this case, I have learned that many Trump supporters were unaware of this case before now. And they misunderstand it. As we saw during the Brett Kavanaugh hearings, they seem outraged that a woman might choose not to report sexual assault when it happens. They don't know this is a civil rather than criminal proceeding (although that is true of some Trump critics too). They don't know that a jury already found him liable for assault and defamation and awarded him $5 million. They can't understand the importance of the 1987 photo of Donald Trump and E. Jean Carroll, which is that Trump thought it showed him with his future wife, Marla Maples.

I think it may be helpful to note that Republicans were among the many people who were outraged by the reports of Bill Cosby, Harvey Weinstein, and other "Hollywood" figures sexually assaulting women and getting away with it, which was a leading impulse behind the passage of the survivors' law that made it possible for Carroll to sue Trump for assault. Trump is very much in that Hollywood club. Remember that he called himself a "star," while being interviewed for Access Hollywood, no less, and used that to explain how he could get away with sexual assault.

[N.E. Brigand]

E. Jean Carroll's expert witness testified that it would require $7.2 - $12.1 million to repair the "reputational damage" caused by Donald Trump's defamation. I wonder if the jury will accept that range as fair and then average it: $9.65 million?

[N.E. Brigand]

I have been confused by Donald Trump's claims that E. Jean Carroll has destroyed evidence in this case. It turns out that he's referring to the fact -- which she apparently confirmed during cross-examination -- that she deleted some of the threatening texts and/or emails she received.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Wouldn't you? I'm not necessarily directly that question at you, N.E.B., more the general "you". As in, wouldn't any reasonable person want to do whatever they could to eliminate that filth from their lives?

[N.E. Brigand]

Donald Trump's right hand today appeared to have several bloody welts on it there were not there yesterday. There is speculation that this could represent something more serious, but it's probably just that he fell overnight and doesn't want to admit it.

This is a pretty deep cut (captioned: "Trump campaigning in the 2026 midterms"):



Probably the best scene in that movie. "The Jerusalem has come."

[N.E. Brigand]

I can't remember if this came up before. Last year, Donald Trump was found liable for sexual assault in a New York civil trial. In light of the sequel trial now underway, some people are asking: did Trump have to register with the state as a sex offender? Turns out USA Today did an article about this before. The answer is no.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

The court session was postponed today because a juror was sick. The judge asked if the parties were willing to move forward with the 8 remaining jurors and Carroll's attorney said yes, but Habba said that she also had a fever and had been exposed to Covid and so requested a postponement for today. The judge granted it over Carroll's attorney's objection. Tomorrow, of course, is the New Hampshire primary, so that likely will be Trump's excuse to not testify after all. Of course if Habba really has Covid, who knows what will happen.

[N.E. Brigand]

And now Trump's supporters, including Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, are claiming that by granting Trump's request, the judge has engaged in election interference.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

There is a new minute order saying that the trial is postponed tomorrow and continued until Wednesday. No explanation, so it is not clear whether it is because of the illness(es), the NH primary, both, or neither.

[N.E. Brigand]

After reading a lot of Youtube comments posted to news stories about this case, I have learned that many Trump supporters were unaware of this case before now. And they misunderstand it. ... They don't know that a jury already found him liable for assault and defamation and awarded him $5 million. ...

Greg Sargent in The New Republic touches on the point I bolded above in some commentary on Rep. Elise Stefanik, the Republican from New York who once seemed like a moderate but over the past few years has become one of Donald Trump's most vocal supporters. A few days ago in New Hampshire, Stefanik was asked to reconcile her support for Trump with past statements she's made supporting victims of sexual violence.

At first Stefanik falls back on the stale MAGA talking point that the focus on Trump's sexual assault is a media witch hunt. But when reporter Vaughn Hillyard points out that a jury reached this conclusion, Stefanik was at first nonplussed, then got angry, and then repeated those talking points with a vehemence bordering on derangement.

Notably, the Trump campaign barred that reporter from a subsequent campaign event. That plus Trump's recent unhinged barrage of attacks on Carroll suggest he's deeply worried about this story's political impact.

Stefanik's response got more unhinged on Monday, when Trump's appearance in a courtroom on the Carroll matter was postponed. That delayed Trump's plans to attend the trial (apparently to show his base he's fighting the witch-hunters, which does play to Trump's advantage in GOP primaries), and Stefanik immediately raged that "blatant election interference" was at work.

In reality, the trial was delayed because both a juror and even Trump's own laywer Alina Habba reporte feeling ill. The ham-handedness of Stefanik's effort to discert a nefarious conspiracy behind the delay shows it's getting harder to defend Trump as his legal challenges enter advanced phases.

Yesterday Lisa Rubin said that based on which members of Trump's legal team were in the courtroom, she thinks Trump really does plan to testify. Last night I saw a television commentator suggest that Trump may deliberately violate Judge Kaplan's rules on what he may say in order to force Kaplan to declare a mistrial. If so, I can see at least two motivations. One would be to prevent the media from being able to question Trump and his surrogates about a second jury have rules against him, because, as Sargent writes, it's hard "to fabricate conspiracy theories around the ordinary Americans whose judgement Trump faces". Contrast to the New York fraud case overseen by Judge Engoron, in which Trump's team -- accidentally or deliberately -- failed to ask for a jury trial: I expect after Engoron issues his judgement that Trump will hammer the fact that it was just one judge and not a jury who ruled against him.

Another would be monetary. After the jury last year found Trump liable for sexually assaulting E. Jean Carroll and determined that he therefore owes her $5 million, he was forced to move that money to an escrow account (where it will remain until his appeals are exhausted). It seems to be widely thought that this jury will award Carroll at least twice as much. And his assets don't seem to be very liquid.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I would be surprised if Trump does not testify and even more surprised if he doesn't violate Judge Kaplan's order when he does so. But Judge Kaplan is not going to declare a mistrial. He'll shut Trump down, instruct the jury to disregard Trump, and potentially sanction Trump and his attorneys. In my opinion, of course.

[N.E. Brigand]

I would be surprised if Trump does not testify and even more surprised if he doesn't violate Judge Kaplan's order when he does so. But Judge Kaplan is not going to declare a mistrial. He'll shut Trump down, instruct the jury to disregard Trump, and potentially sanction Trump and his attorneys. In my opinion, of course.

And he is testifying as I write this.

[Sunsilver]

This should be interesting...

According to Cohen's book, the Access Hollywood tapes reveals Trump's attitude towards women. He never saw him grab a woman by the p****, but he would grab and forcibly kiss them. He was also ogling Cohen's 15 year old daughter and said, "Look at that piece of ass. I would love some of that!"

When Cohen, totally shocked, told him she was his daughter, Trump replied, "When did she get so hot?"

There's a lot more - Cohen attended the Miss Universe pageant with him, and saw how he drooled over the girls. Trump asked which of the girls he favoured, and had that particular contestant come and sit with them, along with Trump's favourite, and have drinks after the contest was over. He also attended a very obscene nightclub performance with Trump, which featured some of the performers pretending to urinate as part of the act.

He also said he had no intention of being faithful to his wife, and couldn't believe that Cohen wouldn't cheat on his wife. He said he didn't care if Melania left him - he could easily find someone else.

It's hard to fathom the evangelicals putting up with someone like this, but few of them will be reading Cohen's book. The rest probably just shrug and say, "Trump's changed, and Carroll and the others are lying"...

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I would be surprised if Trump does not testify and even more surprised if he doesn't violate Judge Kaplan's order when he does so. But Judge Kaplan is not going to declare a mistrial. He'll shut Trump down, instruct the jury to disregard Trump, and potentially sanction Trump and his attorneys. In my opinion, of course.

And he is testifying as I write this.

It was very short and anticlimactic, though he did probably violate the judge's order when he said that he stands by his deposition and denies all of the allegations.

[N.E. Brigand]

On Monday, Donald Trump's lawyer, Alina Habba, told Judge Kaplan that she was feeling unwell. On Tuesday night, Habba was photographed at Trump's victory party in New Hampshire. The man who took the picture was promptly kicked out of the party. But he was no Democratic plant: he was a Jan. 6th participant who genuinely supports Trump and had no idea that he was potentially getting Habba in trouble.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

This is just gobsmacking.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Trump just got up and stormed out of the courtroom in the middle of Carroll's attorney Robbie Kaplan's closing argument.

[RoseMorninStar]

Shocked, but not surprised.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

There is reportedly a verdict already.