Trump found liable for sexual battery, defamation

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According to Farron Cousins (who does have a Law education) trump can’t appeal the decision and here’s why:

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/Su18uY ... tid=KsPBc6

I’ve heard rumblings in that direction but the lawyers I follow aren’t convinced. She limited appeals, in their opinion, but didn’t close them. Their opinion is that the punitive part of the award is going to get cut because punitive awards almost always get cut, and this one meets previous rulings on what is excessive.

Have there been previous rulings against self proclaimed multi-Billionaires?

The amount would be excessive if it were levied against you or I, buuuut it’s intended to be enough to actually be punitive to trump so he stops the defamatory behaviour. So far it seems to be working as he hasn’t continued to do it.

The legal community hasn’t traditionally looked at the wealth of the defendant, but at the ratio of punitive damages to actual damages. Punitive damages are traditionally deemed excessive, apparently, if they are more than three times the actual damages.

A federal judge on Thursday rejected former President Trump’s request to delay the $83.3 million judgment in advice columnist E. Jean Carroll’s defamation lawsuit, refusing to give Trump more time to post a bond with the deadline only a few days away.

The former president and near-certain GOP nominee has mounted efforts to postpone the judgments in both Carroll’s lawsuit and the New York attorney general’s sprawling fraud prosecution, with Trump staring down hundreds of millions in penalties between the two civil cases.

Thursday’s ruling hands a loss to Trump by maintaining default rules that enable enforcement of the judgment in Carroll’s lawsuit as early as next week, effectively making it Trump’s deadline to post a bond.

“Mr. Trump’s current situation is a result of his own dilatory actions,” U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan wrote in his ruling.

Trump in recent days has filed motions seeking a new trial in the case or to get the damages reduced. Trump had demanded Kaplan, appointed to the bench by former President Clinton, delay the judgment until 30 days after the judge rules on those motions or alternatively reduce the bond amount to $24.475 million.

Kaplan has not yet ruled on that delay request, but on Thursday, the judge denied Trump’s more recent demand for an administrative stay in the meantime to punt Saturday’s deadline.

“This is a continuation of a totally lawless witch hunt,” Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement. “President Trump filed a timely motion to stay the ridiculous judgment, and many courts, including the Second Circuit, recognize the importance of temporary administrative stays while such motions are considered. We look forward to continuing to litigate the case and to complete vindication of the truth.”

Carroll’s lawyers opposed the former president’s request to delay the judgment or reduce his bond amount, expressing concerns that Trump wouldn’t actually pay up.

“He simply asks the Court to ‘trust me’ and offers, in a case with an $83.3 million judgment against him, the court filing equivalent of a paper napkin; signed by the least trustworthy of borrowers,” they wrote to the judge.

Trump’s lawyers pushed back, noting that Carroll’s team had highlighted to the jury Trump’s own claims about the size of his wealth, a strategy aimed at upping the total damages.

Trump's lawyers requested that the $83.3 million verdict be appealed, but in order to do so, he has to first put up the money from the judgment and then some.

The former president posted a bond worth $91,630,000, according to a court document filed on Friday.

Donald Trump on Monday once again denied writer E. Jean Carroll’s rape and defamation claims against him, despite facing nearly $90 million in civil penalties over similar denials.

Speaking on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” the presumptive Republican presidential nominee claimed that the numerous judgments against him in New York will prompt companies to leave the state.

They’re “the most ridiculous decisions,” Trump said, “including the Ms. Bergdorf Goodman, a person I’d never met.”

“I have no idea who she is, except one thing, I got sued,” he said. “From that point on I said, ‘Wow, that’s crazy, what this is.’”

“I got charged, I was given a false accusation and had to post a $91 million bond on a false accusation,” Trump added.

Trump at a Saturday rally had also accused Carroll of making a “false accusations.”

Police in New York took possession of a gun belonging to writer E. Jean Carroll in February after she said during testimony in her defamation lawsuit against former President Donald Trump that she had an unlicensed firearm at home, according to a police report obtained by NBC News.

The chief of police in Warwick, N.Y., visited Carroll at her home on Feb. 15 “to discuss some open issues,” the report states, including Carroll’s disclosure of the handgun while she was on the witness stand Jan. 17.

During the second day of the civil trial, Carroll had told the federal court in lower Manhattan that she kept a “high standard revolver, nine chambers” at home with ammunition. “By my bed,” she said.

"I still do not have a license," Carroll added.

John Rader, the reporting officer, said in his report that he “offered to secure the weapon at the police station’s property for safekeeping.”

Carroll and a member of her security team surrendered the gun a day after Rader visited, and the firearm was being held until Carroll receives a New York pistol license, the report said.

Under New York state law, a person can be found guilty of criminal possession if they possess a firearm, such as a pistol, that has not been registered. The felony carries a maximum sentence of four years.

It was unclear why police waited almost a month to inquire in person about the unregistered gun Carroll said she had at her house or whether police are still in possession of it.

A federal judge in New York on Thursday rejected former President Donald Trump's bid for a new trial in a defamation case brought by writer E. Jean Carroll. The ruling upheld the jury's $83.3 million damage award.

"Contrary to the defendant's arguments, Ms. Carroll's compensatory damages were not awarded solely for her emotional distress; they were not for garden variety harms; and they were not excessive," Judge Lewis Kaplan wrote.

"Mr. Trump's malicious and unceasing attacks on Ms. Carroll were disseminated to more than 100 million people," he added. "They included public threats and personal attacks, and they endangered Ms. Carroll's health and safety."

A federal appeals court on Monday rejected President-elect Donald Trump's attempt to overturn a jury's verdict last year that found he sexually abused writer E. Jean Carroll in the mid-1990s.

The Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decided "Trump has not demonstrated that the district court erred in any of the challenged rulings" and "has not carried his burden to show that any claimed error or combination of claimed errors affected his substantial rights as required to warrant a new trial."

The jury in the civil case held Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll in a dressing room at a Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan in the mid-1990s, and determined that, in 2022, he made defamatory statements about her. The jury awarded Carroll $5 million in damages.

A different jury, in a separate civil trial, ordered Trump to pay Carroll, a former Elle magazine columnist, $83 million in damages. Trump's appeal of that verdict is pending.

In the first trial, Trump claimed District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan erred by allowing two women, Jessica Leeds and Natasha Stoynoff, to testify about Trump's alleged sexually assaults of them. Trump has denied the claims of those two women.

Trump also faulted Kaplan's decision to allow part of the now-infamous "Access Hollywood" tape into evidence. In the 2005 recording, Trump is heard describing to then-Access Hollywood host Billy Bush how he kissed and grabbed women without first obtaining their consent.

The appellate court, in Monday's opinion, decided the tape was admissible "as evidence of a pattern" of alleged behavior by Trump.

"The jury could have reasonably concluded from those statements that, in the past, Mr. Trump had kissed women without their consent and then proceeded to touch their genitalia," the opinion said

Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung, in a statement, said the Carroll case "will continue to be appealed."