Op-ed by Summer Lane | Photo: Alamy
On Tuesday, a federal jury in New York declared that President Donald Trump was liable for battery and defamation in the civil trial surrounding assault allegations made by E. Jean Carroll, CBS reported.
“Waiting for a jury decision on a False Accusation where I, despite being a current political candidate and leading all others in both parties, am not allowed to speak or defend myself, even as hard nosed reporters scream questions about this case at me,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Tuesday, ahead of the verdict.
As reported by RSBN, E. Jean Carroll has pointedly accused the president of raping her in a department store dressing room in the 1990s. In 2019, Carroll published a detailed account of the so-called assault, which Trump has repeatedly denied ever happened.
The jury found that Carroll could not be found liable for rape, but he was liable, somehow, for battery and defamation. Overall, Trump has been left footing the bill for a whopping $5 million in damages that he must now pay the former Elle columnist, per CBS.
The puzzling aspect of this case is that while there was no evidence that the jury found that could possibly prove that Trump sexually assaulted Carroll, she is somehow still walking away with $5 million in damages.
In February, one of Trump’s lawyers, Joe Tacopina, offered to provide a DNA sample from the president to test against the DNA sample on Carroll’s dress that she claims she was wearing during the alleged assault. The Hill reported that Carroll’s attorney refused to take the Trump team up on the offer.
“I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA WHO THIS WOMAN IS,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, shortly after news of the verdict broke. “THIS VERDICT IS A DISGRACE – A CONTINUATION OF THE GREATEST WITCH HUNT OF ALL TIME!”
Per RSBN, Carroll’s account of what she claims happened between her and Trump three decades ago is muddied by examples of sexually charged statements she posted on her Facebook page over the past two decades.
“Big D*** Energy: Obama’s got it. Putin’s got it. Maxine Waters’s got it. Who’s on YOUR Big D*** Energy List?” she wrote in 2018, via The National Pulse. Other posts from Carroll included lewd questions about sex, lust, pornography, and sexual fantasies with actor Brad Pitt, to name a few.
In a deposition tape, Trump was seen facetiously deadpanning that Carroll was “not my type.”
Kyle Becker of Becker News astutely pointed out, “It appears that Donald Trump can be found ‘not guilty’ of rape, but be found guilty of ‘defaming’ the accuser; be criminally indicted on bogus charges during an election campaign, but get a gag order from a judge warning not to defend himself; …Only if you’re Donald Trump.”
Indeed, the ongoing political and legal persecution of President Trump has hit new highs in the past few months. Carroll’s civil suit, for example, was just one of five major investigations against the 45th president in the court system right now.
In early March, Trump was arraigned on an astronomical 34 felony counts of “falsifying” business records, and based on the proceedings out of the New York court on Tuesday, it looks as if the Big Apple is hellbent on giving the president anything but a fair and balanced trial.
“The continued abuse of our great Constitution for political ends is disgusting and cannot be tolerated,” Trump wrote in an official statement after the jury’s verdict. “Our nation is in serious trouble when claims lacking any evidence or proof or eyewitnesses can invade our courts to score political points.”
The president affirmed his decision to appeal the verdict in his statement, vowing to “ultimately win” in the face of the “never-ending-witch-hunt.”
