E. Jean Carroll "Verdict" Is What It Looks Like--A Rigged Show Trial To Punish Trump.
There are not just destroying the Rule of Law and the judiciary, they're making a mocker of both.
Just over a week ago on Friday, January 26, 2024 a “jury” found that former President Donald J. Trump must pay E. Jean Carroll $83.3 million for “defaming” her. The absurdity of the award was self evident, but the magnitude of legal corruption on the part of Democrat players was lost in the typical Media induced hysteria / celebration that followed. While nonpartisan citizens sensed that what was happening was unjust, what we witnessed is far worse than that. Unfortunately, it is going to get a lot worse before it gets better.
This latest “verdict” in a high profile “defamation” case represents a significant escalation in the Left’s weaponization of the law to punish their political opponents, interfere in elections, and censure disfavored speech (among other things). We have written in the past about how the Left has weaponized “defamation” by expanding that which satisfies the elements of the tort to include what otherwise is protected speech. In summary, cases that in the past would have been dismissed are permitted to proceed to a “jury” trial where innocent defendants have their financial fate in the balance; sort of a legal “anti-lottery.” The E. Jean Carroll debacle represents an amplification of the scheme in several respects.
Consider for example that her case likely represents the first time someone’s Constitutionally protected defensive speech has been punished. While prior falsely accused persons such as Alex Jones and Rudy Giuliani were harassed by bogus “defamation” cases, at least it was for speech they initiated. In Trump’s case, his supposed defamation arose from him defending himself from Carroll’s accusations. This represents a serious heightening of the legal shenanigans because we have crossed into the domain of preventing someone from defending himself or herself. As bad as that is, it gets worse.
The facts reveal the issue. Carroll claims Trump raped her sometime in 1995 or 1996. She is now 79, but claims she cannot recall the year and cannot explain why she remained silent for so many years until 2019. She broke her silence in 2019 because she had a book so sell and the book recounted the alleged sexual confrontation with Trump in the 90s. The corrupt Media was, of course, happy to help Carroll and whoever funded her and ghost wrote her “book” in smearing Trump generally and interfering in the 2020 “election.” Accordingly, on June 21, 2019, New York Magazine ran an article in the run-up to the book’s publication featuring Carroll on the cover, supposedly wearing the same dress she wore when Trump allegedly attacked her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room (it would later be demonstrated that the dress did not exist in 1995 or 1996).
The article, was entitled “Hideous Men.” It promoted Carroll’s book—What Do We Need Men For?, which was to be published on July 2, 2019. Trump, of course, denied the allegations of the article and the book, proclaiming that he did not even know Carroll and that she was lying to promote her new book. Under traditional American law, this should have been the end of it. Carroll would be free to promote her book, smear Trump and interfere in his upcoming reelection campaign and Trump would attempt to overcome the allegation. This is when Left’s recently concocted lawfare scheme stepped in.
Supposedly based on an idea from former conservative now Trump Deranged attorney George Conway, Carroll decided to sue Trump for defamation. This lawsuit was initiated on November 4, 2019. Based on the understood common law, Trump’s denials and claims that Carroll was lying to promote a book would not be actionable for a variety of reasons, but primarily because they were not sufficiently specifically directed at her “profession,” which by the way she did not have at the time of the comments, 2019, and because they clearly were opinions and not statements of fact directed at ones profession, livelihood, or reputation. But when the Rule of Law is abandoned, everything that the Left disapproves of becomes actionable and Federal Judge Kaplan permitted Carroll’s frivolous claims to proceed.
This was bad enough, but it soon became worse. On November 24, 2022, the New York Legislature, in the aftermath of the #metoo movement, passed the Adult Survivors Act, which permitted people claiming to be victims of “sexual assault” to sue their alleged assailants regardless of when the alleged attack occurred. Essentially, they eliminated the statute of limitations for Carroll’s then at least twenty-six year old claim. Victims were provided one year to file claims. Within hours of the law’s passage on November 24, 2022, Carroll filed another lawsuit against Trump. In this case, Carroll repeated the defamation charges of the 2019 lawsuit and added an allegation of battery under the freshly passed Adult Survivors Act.
As the two cases would be play out, we would soon witness the application of the defamation hoax from prior uses. However, in a shocking escalation, Carroll was being permitted to present the same claim twice. Yet another baseless application of lawfare. But, it would be far worse.
As the cases playing out, Carroll’s second case, even though it was filed years later, would go to a jury first. Thus, on May 9, 2023, the jury awarded Carroll $5 million.
The jury in the second case specifically declined to find that Trump raped Carroll, but did find that he “sexually abused” her. You can read the actual jury verdict form here. Trump was ordered to pay an additional $3 million for Trump’s denials of Carroll’s claims and his accusations that she lied for book sales (i.e. the defamation claim).
This damages award for defamation was dubious because denials have never been considered defamatory and plainly were opinions. In addition, Carroll was not employed at the time and, even if she had been, she would be unlikely to make $3 million for her remaining years on this planet. This is when things went from the merely corrupt to the absurd.
On January 26, 2024, a new “jury” declared that Trump would have to pay an additional $83 million for “defaming” Carroll on essentially the same statements as the May, 2023 award. Carroll was permitted to sue for Trump’s merely repeating his supposedly defamatory statements—a previously unheard of set of events in American history. This time the “jury” believed Carroll, who, again, was not employed at the time, deserved $18.3 million for damage to her “reputation.” More shockingly, the “jury” declaimed that Trump should be penalized with a punitive damages award of an additional $65 million. You can review the actual verdict form here.
As staggering as these ridiculous numbers are, consider that this was yet another situation where the jury was instructed to determined damages only because the “judge” had unilaterally declared as a matter of law that Trump had defamed Carroll based on the conclusions of the “jury” in the second Carroll case that, even though it was filed years later, proceeded to trial first. It likely would not have made a tremendous difference, but declaring Trump guilty based on the verdict of another jury in a later filed case proved beyond doubt the level of rigging and corruption.
However, this is just the surface of the injustice in this case. Detailing the entirety of the deviation froms the Rule of Law is beyond the scope of this article. One can find ample information of the “judge” refusing Trump any semblance of a defense by, for example, refusing to permit him to enter into evidence the fact that Carroll’s story mirrored almost identically an episode of Law & Order, or the fact that the dress Carroll claimed to be wearing at the time of the attack did not exist. Plainly the fix was in.
While it is nearly impossible to imagine the deviations from the Rule of Law and justice in these two cases could be surpassed, the Leftwing infrastructures praising and trumpeting of the verdict might well have accomplished it. Not one MainStream publication treated the verdict as anything other than a “he said, she said” and yet another in a long line of genuine litigation involving Trump.
It was topped off by Carroll appearing on Rachel Maddow’s show and giggling about how she was going to spend the money buying her friends lavish gifts, including trips to France and penthouses—nothing says “victim of sexual assault” quite like laughing on national television and handing out lavish gifts as if it were candy. Serious norms and traditions were violated and no one on the Left seemed to care.
It was not long ago that the American Left appreciated the concept that if the Rule of Law were abolished, eventually mob “law” would come for us all, including them. Perhaps Hans Gruber’s line in Diehard sums it up best, “sooner or later I might get to someone you care about.” They apparently think this corruption of the system will never harm them.
Perhaps they simply do not care, desiring destruction of the American system above all. It is getting harder to comprehend the madness they have descended into.
What is crucial at these moments is to appreciate that what happened to Trump in the E. Jean Carroll cases is not the Rule of Law and is not justice. We must continue to sound the alarm about the loss of our Freedoms and rights. We might not be able to stem the tide of the destruction, but if we are not aware of the fact that it is happening, salvaging the greatest system of government and Free Society will be rendered impossible. Thankfully, for those interested in the truth, outlets for spreading it still remain.
This BS analysis and $3.50 will get you a cuppa coffee. A jury found him civilly liable for sexual abuse/rape. After that the orange man was found a liable (The fact you can’t even use the correct legal term for his culpability is evidence of this sloppy analysis), of defamation for implying the whole thing was a hoax for/didn’t know who she was, etc. Basically calling her a liar. You don’t get to do that after you’ve been found liable in the related case. So you’re brilliant, soon to be convicted felon ex- President showed himself to be the great businessman he claims, by turning a $5 million loss into an $83 million loss. As Bugs Bunny used to say: “what a maroon!”