E. Jean Carroll verdict in Trump defamation case was a major win for the rule of law: ex-federal prosecutor

10 May 2023

Although Donald Trump has yet to be convicted of a criminal offense — his 34-count prosecution by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, Jr. won't go to trial until 2024 — the ex-president suffered a major loss in civil court when former Elle Magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll prevailed in her defamation lawsuit on Tuesday, May 9. The jury's verdict in Carroll's favor could cost Trump millions of dollars.

On his Truth Social platform, Trump was quick to slam the verdict as an act of political persecution. The 2024 GOP presidential primary frontrunner wrote, "The partisan Judge & Jury on the just concluded Witch Hunt Trial should be absolutely ashamed of themselves for allowing such a travesty of Justice to take place."

Carroll alleges that Trump tried to sexually assault her in a Manhattan department store in 1996 — an allegation he has denied. And she stressed that Trump's public comments about her were defamatory; the jury agreed.

Trump, on Truth Social, lambasted the judge in the case, Lewis Kaplan, posting, "This Clinton appointed Judge, Lewis Kaplan, hated President Donald J. Trump more than is humanly possible. He is a terrible person, completely biased, and should have RECUSED himself when asked to do so."

But University of Baltimore law professor Kimberly Wehle, a former assistant federal prosecutor, has a totally different view of the Carroll verdict. In an article published by the conservative website The Bulwark on May 9, Wehle praises the jury's unanimous decision as "a big win for Carroll, for the rule of law, and for countless victims of sexual assault across the country."

"Any attempt to vindicate Trump because the jury didn't say he actually raped Carroll — an absurdity on its face — is also belied by the jury's award of punitive damages as well as compensatory damages," Wehle argues. "Punitive damages, as their name suggests, are designed to punish. The jury awarded $2 million in compensatory damages for battery and $20,000 in punitive damages."

The Never Trumper adds, "On the defamation claim, which Carroll established based on Trump's public statement that she's not 'my type' while publicly denying he even met her, it awarded an additional $1.7 million in compensatory damages for reputational harm, another $1 million in compensatory damages for other harms caused by the defamation, and a topping of $280,000 in punitive damages — assigning a higher value to his words than his abuse."

Read Kimberly Wehle's full article for The Bulwark at this link.

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