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Let’s just take a moment to stop and smell the sweet bouquet of justice, as it were.
E. Jean Carroll received a very public vindication on Tuesday when a jury of nine people — six men and three women — agreed that she sufficiently proved she was sexually assaulted by Trump in the 1990s. She convinced the same nine jurors that he defamed her by calling her claims “a complete con job” and “a hoax and a lie” on social media.
Carroll is one of dozens of women who have accused Trump of various forms of sexual misconduct; Trump has also called those accusations hoaxes and lies. Because this was a civil trial, Trump was never in jeopardy of losing his liberty, or having to register as a sex offender. But he will have to pay Carroll $5 million dollars in damages.
It is true that the jury found Trump “not liable” for rape. No doubt the jurors will provide their reasons for this distinction in upcoming days. But for historical reasons, having everything to do with the “legitimacy” of heirs, “rape” has a strict legal definition — the actual penetration of a vagina by a penis. The jury may have concluded that Carroll’s early descriptions of her attack were vague on this detail. In any event, this finding of “not liable” makes it difficult for anyone who is not Trump to claim the jury made its decision based on bias.
Trump’s legal team will no doubt file a last flurry of motions challenging the judgment; all of which are doomed from the start. Trump himself has announced that he will appeal, because, he says the “Clinton judge,” U.S. District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan, was “very unfair.”
Judge Kaplan, a former tobacco-company lawyer who became a federal judge, is well-known for putting his big meaty thumb on the scales of justice. And no doubt, the legal system could have done without him explaining Jonathan Swift to Trump’s defense counsel in the presence of the jury, or his constant admonitions to defense counsel to move along, as if the latter was merely some gawker at an automobile accident. Judge Kaplan, however, has been doing crap like this for close to 30 years, and always is clever enough to stop well-short of conduct that will get the case reversed.
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Fundamentally, the case was a question of whether the jury believed E. Jean Carroll, which they plainly did. Appeals courts almost never reverse cases based on their own feelings about witness credibility — those are uniquely the province of the jury.
So what’s next? This case is unlikely to have further legal repercussions for Trump. He cannot be tried for sexual assault or rape in a criminal case because those statutes of limitations have long passed. But he could face additional civil actions.
Carroll’s lawsuit was made possible by the New York’s decision to provide a fresh, one-year civil statute of limitations for adult survivors of sexual abuse. That one-year window is open until November 24, 2023, so more Trump survivors could come forward.
As for E. Jean Carroll, it seems she regained the dignity taken from her long ago, plus five million dollars, plus demonstrating extraordinary courage and even good cheer as she relived the worst day of her life in front of half the planet’s media.
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“Today, the world finally knows the truth,” Carroll said following the verdict. “This victory is not just for me but for every woman who has suffered because she was not believed.”
Live long and prosper.
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Courtesy : https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/political-commentary/whats-next-trump-carroll-civil-suit-1234732523/