How many listeners have heard of the writer E. Jean Carroll? If you were watching the news during the days immediately after the IOWA caucuses, you would have learned that Donald Trump was once again in a courtroom being sued for damages because he had defamed Ms. Carroll.
Here’s a brief summary: Back in the 1990s, E. Jean Carroll, a writer with a long very interesting career ran into Donald Trump at the Bergdorf Goodman department store. Before the encounter was over, he had sexually assaulted her. Though she told two friends, she did not make a public accusation until 2019.
[Here’s a link to Ms. Carroll’s Wikipedia page: ]
This accusation was nothing new. Some folks might recall that during the 2016 campaign for President, Trump was accused by TWENTY-SIX women of various forms of sexual assault. He denied all of them of course and then promised to sue them once the campaign was over. (Of course, he never did file even one suit, but unfortunately, the stories of these women were buried.)
[For details on the 26 accusations, see. Eliza Relman and Azmi Haroun “The 26 women who have accused Trump of sexual misconduct” Business Insider, May 9, 2023, available here.]
According to Ms. Carroll, it was the Me-Too movement that convinced her to go public about Trump.
[She did so in New York Magazine --- see E. Jean Carroll, “Hideous Men: Donald Trump assaulted me in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room 23 years ago. But he’s not alone on the list of awful men in my life,” (June 21, 2019) – available at here.]
Here is where his ignorant arrogance screwed him up. He could not have been prosecuted or even sued for the assault because so many years had passed. Yet he opened the door to a defamation suit by publicly calling her a liar, claiming he didn’t even know her and that she was not “his type.” That oral assault gave her an opening and she sued him.
That lawsuit, which the journalists call Carroll I, immediately got tied up because when he called her a liar it was 2019 and he was President. His lapdog Attorney General, Bill Barr (who had not yet discovered the spine he displayed when Trump tried to steal the election in 2020) immediately intervened in the case, claiming that Trump was immune to civil suits related to his actions AS PRESIDENT. (As if calling Ms. Carroll a liar was part of his duties as President.)
What follows is a description of Carroll I by the journalist Katie Phang.
“… the Barr Justice Department inserted itself into the lawsuit on behalf of Trump, pursuant to a federal statute called the Westfall Act. If the DOJ’s substitution had proven to be successful, Trump would have been immune from Carroll’s civil claims and Carroll I would have been dismissed. [District Judge] Kaplan, however, rejected Trump’s defense and, eventually [last year], the DOJ (under Attorney General Merrick Garland) reversed its position and determined that Trump was making his 2019 defamatory statements about Carroll in his personal capacity with no purpose to serve the U.S. government. The DOJ then withdrew its substitution in the lawsuit, leaving Trump to defend himself. Carroll is seeking $10 million for harm to her reputation, as well as an unspecified amount of punitive damages.”
However, because Trump appealed the District Court’s ruling and it took time for the Second Circuit to uphold that ruling, Carroll One was delayed until just now.
But Trump, obviously drunk with the glory of what he thought was getting away with his defamation due to Barr’s intervention, repeated his defamation of Ms. Carroll AFTER he left the Presidency. He did that in 2022 inviting a second lawsuit which Ms. Carroll promptly filed setting the stage for what journalists call Carroll II. But New York State had in the period since 2019 passed a very interesting law – The New York Adult Survivors Act -- which went into effect in November of 2022. That law provides victims of sexual assault who were 18 years or older at the time of their abuse a one-year look-back period to file a lawsuit against their abuser.
Here is Katie Phang again:
“Filed in late 2022 for defamatory statements made by Trump in that same year. Carroll II also included a claim for sexual assault, brought under the New York Adult Survivors Act. As Carroll I was winding its way through the appellate court system, Carroll II went to trial in May last year, with a jury deliberating for only about three hours before returning a verdict in Carroll’s favor on all counts. The jury found that Trump’s 2022 defamatory statement about Carroll was a lie and was made with actual malice. The jury also found that Trump had sexually assaulted Carroll. Carroll was awarded $5 million in damages: $2.02 million in compensatory and punitive damages for her battery claim and $2.98 in compensatory and punitive damages for her defamation claim. Trump has since appealed this verdict.”
[These quotes are from Katie Phang, “Trump is facing a second E. Jean Carroll trial. Here’s where the two cases collide.” MSNBC, Jan 16, 2024 available here.]
This is extremely important. In Carroll II, a jury of ordinary New Yorkers heard Carroll’s testimony and viewed Trump’s deposition. Trump could have decided to testify in his own defense but he chose not to. However, the jury heard her testimony – saw her actions on the witness stand – saw her withstand a withering cross-examination in which the defense lawyers tried to argue that she was making this story up so she could sell a book. After viewing her testimony and Trump’s deposition (where he famously thought a picture of Ms. Carroll was a picture of his second wife --- belying his assertion that Ms. Carroll was “not his type” --- and he then tried to excuse that mistake by asserting the picture was blurry --- which the jury could plainly see was another lie!) the jury found that MS CARROLL WAS BELIEVEABLE and that when he called her a liar, he was defaming her --- They further concluded that he HAD sexually assaulted her. And they awarded damages as described above by Ms. Phang
What is going on now in a New York courtroom is the litigation of the DAMAGES as a result of Trump’s defamatory statements made in 2019. The Judge has ruled that since a jury has already determined that Trump’s 2022 statements were defamatory, that fact can no longer be litigated. Thus, the only issue for the jury is how much damages to award Ms. Carroll. Her testimony therefore has been focused on the harm she suffered when the most powerful man in the world called her a liar and she immediately lost her job as an advice columnist for Elle magazine and began receiving death threats. The jury’s sole job will be to determine how much money she is entitled to (in compensatory and punitive damages) from Trump.
Unlike his behavior at the first defamation trial (which was Carroll II because of the delays caused by Barr’s intervention back in 2019) where he hid from the courtroom, this week he has determined that attempting to appear the martyr because of all the cases being brought against him will increase the intensity of the support from his cult-like followers.
Trump is behaving as if he can gain something from his supporters by continuing to attack Ms. Carroll. As I write this, she had to endure his presence at the trial. HE did not have to attend but he obviously believes he can intimidate Ms. Carroll by being there when she testifies and that he can demonstrate to his supporters that he is --- wait for this word --- STRONG by sitting in the courtroom. (It appears that those folks who support Trump think of him as STRONG. Why is it “strong” to sit in a courtroom and try to intimidate his accuser? Wouldn’t it have been “stronger” to testify and try to win the first trial?). And after I recorded this commentary, I learned he was making negative comments about Ms. Carroll’s testimony that were audible to the jury. When admonished by the Judge he in effect dared the Judge to throw him out of the courtroom and when the Judge more in sorrow than in anger stated to Trump, “You can’t help yourself,” Trump retorted “Neither can you.” I sure hope the jury comes back with a gigantic punitive award.
I actually believe that Trump thinks that just as he has gained support from his followers by playing the martyr who was the victim of a witch hunt when he was indicted for four felonies (91 counts) he can do the same when defending himself in civil suits. Responding to his criminal indictments, he argues that Joe Biden is using the Justice Department to make it harder for Trump to win the election. I don’t think this set of arguments can hold up when applied to the E. Jean Carroll lawsuits.
First the obvious. Ms. Carroll is a private citizen --- she is not the US government which has nothing to do with her lawsuit. Second, Trump’s credibility was on trial in Carroll II. When Trump tells lies in his speeches and when he rants and raves in Court such as he did in the fraud case against his business, his supporters can nod their heads and say, “That’s right,” because there is no one to contradict him.
But in the Carroll case, a group of ordinary New Yorkers heard his lies AND E. JEAN CARROLL’s VERSION. AND THEY BELIVED HER AND NOT HIM.
I remind Trump worshippers out there --- these jurors were ordinary citizens --- they were neither brainwashed nor selected by Joe Biden. They heard the evidence and responded with common sense. Trump is a lying sexual predator --- and anyone who still doubts that has been thoroughly brain-washed.
Michael Meeropol is professor emeritus of Economics at Western New England University. He is the author with Howard and Paul Sherman of the recently published second edition of Principles of Macroeconomics: Activist vs. Austerity Policies.
The views expressed by commentators are solely those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect the views of this station or its management.