It
took
a
jury
less
than
three
hours
yesterday
to
find
Donald
Trump
liable
for
sexual
assault
and
defamation
of
advice
columnist
E.
Jean
Carroll.
The
panel
returned
a
“no”
verdict
on
the
rape
charge,
since
Carroll’s
memory
of
whether
Trump
actually
managed
to
achieve
intercourse
was
somewhat
hazy
—
a
fact
Trump’s
supporters
are
desperately
trying
to
spin
as
a
win.
But
the
jurors
believed
her
account
of
the
assault
and
imposed
a
$5
million
penalty
on
the
former
president
for
his
conduct
in
that
long-ago
dressing
room
and
subsequent
lies
about
his
victim.
On
the
courthouse
steps,
attorney
Joseph
Tacopina
vowed
to
appeal.
Then
Trump’s
sparklemagic
lawyer
Alina
Habba
went
on
CNN
to
explain
to
Dana
Bash
why
New
York’s
Adult
Survivor
law,
enacted
last
year
to
extend
the
statute
of
limitations
for
victims
to
sue
their
abusers,
is
bad
actually.
“It’s
indefensible!
There
are
things
called
justice,
and
people
have
the
right
to
go
to
courts
and
go
to
prisons
and
go
to
police
officers,”
she
fumed,
pointing
to
gaps
in
Carroll’s
memory
of
the
attack.
“You’re
not
allowed
to
do
that.
This
is
un-American.
So
this
is
not
about
rape
victims,
this
is
about
politics,”
she
went
on,
adding
that
the
verdict
was
“a
sad
thing”
for
rape
victims.
In
point
of
fact,
you
are
“allowed
to
do
that,”
as
the
jury
just
demonstrated.
Habba
challenged
the
constitutionality
of
the
Adult
Survivors
Act
in
this
very
case
and
lost.
Although
perhaps
this
attorney
is
not
the
world’s
foremost
expert
on
what
is
“allowed,”
considering
she
just
got
clocked
with
a
million
dollars
in
sanctions
to
compensate
opposing
counsel
for
filing
a
RICO
LOLsuit
which
“no
reasonable
lawyer
would
have
filed”
against
Hillary
Clinton
and
half
of
DC.
As
former
federal
prosecutor
and
current
Rottenberg,
Lipman,
Rich
member
Mitchell
Epner
explained
(to
me)
on
the
Opening
Arguments
podcast,
filing
an
appeal
will
force
Trump
to
post
a
$5
million
supersedeas
bond
with
9
percent
statutory
interest.
In
the
likely
event
that
he
loses
that
appeal,
Carroll
will
immediately
get
the
money.
But
if
Trump
simply
allowed
the
verdict
to
stand,
he
could
force
Carroll
to
dun
him
for
it.
On
a
press
tour
yesterday,
Carroll
and
her
attorney
Roberta
Kaplan
vowed
to
collect
the
entire
$5
million.
Funnily
enough,
Kaplan
will
eventually
claim
a
share
of
the
supersedeas
bond
Trump
posted
in
Florida
(5.35
percent!)
after
appealing
that
sanctions
order.
The
brief
explaining
grounds
for
the
appeal
in
that
case
is
due
today
—
be
there,
will
be
wild.
And
speaking
of
wild
…
Yesterday
Trump
complained
that
he
was
“not
allowed
to
speak
or
defend
myself”
and
insisted
that
he
would
“appeal
the
Unconstitutional
silencing
of
me,
as
a
candidate,
no
matter
the
outcome!”
This
was
not
a
complaint
about
being
blocked
from
appearing
in
court
to
defend
himself,
of
course,
since
he
was
offered
the
opportunity
to
come
in
and
testify,
even
after
the
parties
had
rested
their
cases,
and
he
refused.
This
was
about
Judge
Lewis
Kaplan’s
suggestion
that
Trump
should
knock
it
off
with
the
social
media
posts
about
evidence
excluded
in
the
case.
Because
the
former
president
appears
to
think
that
the
First
Amendment
includes
the
right
to
tamper
with
the
jury.
Obviously
he’s
getting
it
all
out
of
his
system
this
morning,
along
with
a
fundraising
screed
about
“the
Marxists
who
orchestrated
this
witch
hunt
in
a
city
where
the
voter
registration
of
the
jury
pool
favors
Democrats
7:1.”
As
Roberta
Kaplan
pointed
out
on
MSNBC,
Trump
removed
the
case
from
state
court,
meaning
that
he
was
before
a
federal
grand
jury
which
drew
largely
from
outside
the
city
proper.
No
doubt
the
Second
Circuit
will
be
deeply
impressed
with
Trump’s
attack
on
a
federal
judge,
though.
He
should
definitely
keep
that
up
as
Tacopina
and
Habba
work
their
magic
in
the
Thurgood
Marshall
Courthouse.
Carroll
v.
Trump
I [Docket
via
Court
Listener]
Carroll
v.
Trump
II [Docket
via
Court
Listener]
Liz
Dye lives
in
Baltimore
where
she
writes
about
law
and
politics
and
appears
on
the Opening
Arguments podcast.