Glenn Kirshner points out that the statements he made defaming her since Tuesday can be included in the second “EJC v. DJT” case which is due to begin shortly.
I imagine she can ask for punitive damages much higher than before with these new remarks as a clear sign that a mere $5 mil didn’t serve as sufficient motivation for him to stop defaming her.
Trump possibly thinks it is unlikely she would sue again. That if she does, the amount can easily be covered by fundraising. I would guess he thinks the political value of insults outweighs its legal or moral costs. Since he seems likely to win the republican nomination, amazingly, this hypothetical train of thought may not be completely illogical.
I remember, decades ago, reading about journalists discussing Ronald Reagan’s anecdotes about welfare queens and how leaves were a tremendous source of forest pollution. “The press basically held him to a lower standard” with regards to facts, due to his age, charisma and folksy manner. Those days seem very quaint, nonetheless.
Which sets up a new kind of fraud, money from MAGAnuts going through Trump’s legal defense fundraising to EJC ad infinitum.
I think it’s not fraud if the money is solicited as being for the legal defense.
And if this defamatory rhetoric is what energizes people to donate, it’s not a stupid move. The worst that will happen is that he gets sued and has to pay more. As long as he’s getting enough in donations to cover it, he’s fine. At that point it’s a sustainable business model. The lawsuits are just the cost of doing business. Meanwhile, he’s pulling in voters and supporters by not backing down.
How gross that the defamation of a sexual assault victim by her attacker can potentially be a viable business and political strategy.
Well, it’s not as if Trump originated this strategy, even if he’s figured out a way to maximize its profitability.
Stranger
I don’t think he’s capable of thinking and then restraining himself. Not like in a pathological way, but simply in the sense that he never bothers to consider consequences or denies himself anything he wants. He has never developed any “self restraint” muscle. Any rationale for anything he does comes after the fact. (And may or may not be related to reality, itself.)
Ms. Carroll could bring a new defamation lawsuit against Mr. Trump based on his recent comments, experts said. “He doesn’t get carte blanche to defame her because she sued him once and collected and won,” said Stephen Gillers, a legal ethics professor at New York University School of Law.
It was the snippet that came at the top of a Google search results. Here’s the article it’s from – presumably paywalled and I’m not an NYT subscriber:
Is he, though?
He might be intensifying his support among MAGA voters, but I’m pretty sure he’s driving away independents, moderates, low-information voters, centrists, all of whom he needs to get votes from. Meanwhile, he’s sending EJC their contributions indirectly. I don’t see this as a smart strategy overall. It might make him feel good, to defame her and not lose any money doing so, but as a vote-getting strategy, I have my doubts.
He’s also been saying that he wasn’t allowed to testify, and wasn’t allowed to defend himself. The judge took the eye popping step of announcing that it would allow him to ask for the record to be reopened before the jury started deliberating, if he wanted to testify. (He was never present for any part of the trial.)
I do suspect that his lawyers said he wasn’t allowed to testify. Whether they meant they would quit or implied that the court wouldn’t let him, I don’t know.
I will say I hope not. I hope this backfires terribly. I hope it turns off undecided voters. It would be great if it fails bigly. But I don’t take anything for granted anymore.
Maybe they can just keep a running tally of his defamations and garnish his bank accounts on a monthly basis. I’m imagining one of Carroll’s lawyers following him around with a note pad and ticking off every time he mention Caroll like bugs bunny in this classic cartoon.
As I understand it, statements made in relation to any legal proceedings are privileged, i.e. immune from libel. This protects the right of a party to make public statements about the case without risking additional legal action.
So you’re saying that Trump can defame her freely as long as he does it in public relating to the case just concluded? I doubt that very much.
I think it’s very unlikely that litigation privilege would protect Trump’s social media posts and statements to the general public. The idea behind the privilege is that you should be able to say what you need to say to try to win your case in an actual judicial proceeding without getting in trouble. After a verdict is in and you’re just spouting off on Truth Social, there’s not really any litigation interest being pursued.
E. Jean Carroll is weighing whether to file a new defamation lawsuit against former President Donald J. Trump in the wake of his diatribe against her during a CNN town hall Wednesday night, when he said her claim of a decades-old sexual assault was “fake” and a “made-up story,” her lawyer said on Thursday.
Just give him the rope to hang himself:
Full title: “He is confessing on live TV”: Legal experts say Trump’s CNN town hall could badly backfire in court
“Big hair. Don’t care.”
I actually tripled the punitive damages for the next round. Punitive damages were only $300k of the $5M, the rest were actual damages and reputation repair.
Oh, I see. But man, Trump can raise $300K from the rubes in five minutes. I’m changing my plan to raise the punitive amount 10X for each violation.
One of the experts quoted, Renato Mariotti, disagrees:
as a practical matter, it would be difficult for her to establish additional damages after a jury verdict made her whole for the damages she suffered up until this point
But I disagree with him. Hearing the audience laughing at Trump’s remarks, and seeing that on nationwide TV, represents an entirely new trauma for EJC. “Omigod, after all that, his followers still don’t believe me, still make me out to be a figure of fun, and he’s still encouraging them to think that way.” KA-CHING!!!