'He may yet prevail': Expert says Trump is perfecting 'deep state' defense in Carroll case

Former President Donald Trump is perfecting a “deep state” defense in the defamation case brought by E. Jean Carroll that may prove successful in his ultimate battle to reclaim the White House, a legal expert said Friday.

"For his core supporters, backing down is for losers,” NYU law professor Stephen Gillers told Newsweek. "He may yet prevail.”

Trump faces multiple legal hurdles this election year with four criminal cases linked to accusations of election interference, confidential documents stored in a ballroom and hush money paid to a porn star, as well as two civil cases in which he has been found liable for fraud and defamation.

Trump has pleaded not guilty in the criminal cases, denied wrongdoing in the civil, and continued to barrage his followers with messages painting himself as the victim of a political witch hunt.

He’s even used the witch hunt language against Carroll, an 80-year-old woman he’s been found liable for sexually abusing in the 1990s and defaming while president.

And while legal experts casting keen eyes on his attorney Alina Habba — who they say is regularly breaking basic rules of courtroom decorum — predict the former president faces a big payout, Gillers argues this is not a problem for Trump.

“When he predictably loses,” Gillers said, “he will claim he is the victim of the deep state.”

What matters is not backing down, he added.

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Trump’s courtroom antics and social media diatribes may cost him points with the jury, but they win him kudos with the MAGA voters who might send him back to the White House, where he could effectively kill the criminal cases against him, Gillers contends.

"If he wins in November, the federal cases will disappear and the state cases will be delayed until January of 2029,” Gillers said.

“‘Concede nothing, challenge everything’: I think this must be how he instructs his lawyers."