Trump attended E. Jean Carroll trial so he could 'harass the real victim': legal expert
January 16, 2024
Trump is playing the victim card and showing his strategy by sitting in his civil defamation trial — which is designed to "harass the real victim," according to an expert.
A jury was selected Tuesday to determine damages that former President Donald Trump must pay E. Jean Carroll for making comments, already deemed defamatory, that undermined her claims that she was sexually assaulted by him decades ago.
"While I initially doubted he would show up at all, now I see Trump’s unified legal & political strategy more clearly: playing victim while continuing to threaten and harass the real victim," tweeted legal expert Lisa Rubin as part of a thread.
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Rubin continued to rail against the 45th president's mere presence trying to be a distraction to blind the jury silly: "For Trump, that doesn’t just mean defaming Carroll again and again and again today in a torrent of 'Truths' or showing up so prospective jurors can watch him shake his head no when Judge Kaplan notes Carroll has proven defamation and assault."
Carroll won her initial case after accusing Trump of sexually assaulting her in the Manhattan-based Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in the mid-1990s, and then cutting her down after she published a firsthand account of what purportedly happened in 2019.
Trump has tried to suggest he never met the columnist saying, "she's not my type" and "she would not be my first choice" while denying her accusations.
The civil lawsuit resulted in her being awarded $5 million by the jury.
On Tuesday, Trump was present in the courtroom remaining mum as a jury was picked, one day after he took first by a wide margin in the Iowa caucuses in his bid to return to the White House as president.