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'He's known for throwing things': Trump aide describes how ex-president reacted to verdict

Donald Trump was likely not very happy when he heard a jury found that he owed E. Jean Carroll more than $83 million, according to a former Trump administration official.

Former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham appeared on MSNBC's Alex Witt Reports on Saturday, and was asked about how she thought the ex-president would have responded to the massive damages award.

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'We got caught': Trump's team reportedly 'very surprised' by huge E. Jean Carroll ruling

Donald Trump's team was "very surprised" by the $83.3 million damages ruling in the E. Jean Carroll defamation case, and those close to the former president see a need to recalibrate their approach, according to a reporter on Saturday.

The Guardian's Hugh Lowell appeared on MSNBC's Alex Witt Reports, where he was asked about how Lowell's sources close to Trump viewed the recent Carroll decision. The host asked him if the massive number is "even being seen as something that will effectively rein Donald Trump."

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'The jury didn't like that': Legal expert shows how Trump's defamation damages skyrocketed

Donald Trump and his team did a number of things in the E. Jean Carroll defamation case that made the jury prop up a punitive damages award that otherwise could have been lower, a former prosecutor said on Saturday.

Former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance appeared on MSNBC's Alex Witt Reports, where she was asked about the recent $83.3 million jury award against the ex-president. Specifically, the host asked about the impacts of Trump's behavior, as well as whether the verdict reflected the jurors' view on "victim shaming."

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Lauren Boebert's dismal straw poll numbers after debate 'drew gasps' from crowd: report

Colorado Republican Lauren Boebert's decision to leapfrog from her district into a neighboring one that is a more conservative-friendly is not going very well, reports Colorado Politics.

On Thursday, the controversial Republican congresswoman made an appearance at the first public debate held for District Four Republican contenders held in Lupton, Colo., and a straw poll after the debate demonstrated she has some work to do.

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Alina Habba's antics make her a candidate for Bar Assoc. disciplinary action: attorney

Donald Trump lawyer Alina Habba's "flagrant disregard" for courtroom rules could pave the way for Judge Lewis Kaplan to refer her to the State Bar for a hearing and investigation.

According to former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance, the E. Jean Carroll case judge would be completely within his rights to ask the New York State Bar Association to review the former president's attorney's conduct after Kaplan repeatedly was forced to admonish her during the two-week trial.

On her Substack platform, Vance suggested that Habba's lack of legal skills and knowledge about the rules of evidence aren't the issue so much as the chaos she repeatedly created in the civil trial she ultimately lost which cost her client $83.3 million on Friday.

RELATED: 'Performative' Alina Habba cost Trump 'an incredible amount of money': ex-GOP official

According to Vance, who called Habba's outbursts "disgraceful," she, "... would not be surprised to see the Judge refer her to the Bar Association for disciplinary action."

Clarifying her reasoning, she explained, "It wasn’t her novice mistakes that were the issue, although they caused a lot of comments. It was her flagrant disregard of the Judge’s decisions about arguments that could and could not be made to the jury. She trod on those rulings despite repeated warnings from the Judge."

Vance added the proper procedure when a lawyer feels the judge erred is to take it up later in an appeal.

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Elise Stefanik busted deleting statement calling for January 6 rioters to be prosecuted

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) — who is thought of as a leading candidate to be former President Donald Trump's 2024 running mate — recently deleted a 2021 statement from her website calling for the prosecution of January 6 participants.

Stefanik apparently deleted the statement after former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) linked to it on Saturday. On her official X/Twitter account, Cheney called the statement a "rare moment of honesty" from the woman who replaced her as House Republican Conference chair, adding that "she will have to explain how and why she morphed into a total crackpot."

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'He slurs his words, he gets confused': Columnist makes case Trump has 'a screw loose'

Appearing on MSNBC with host Ali Velshi, Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin claimed Donald Trump is finally running into some major headwinds as he makes his third run for the presidency and a major one is questions about his mental decline.

According to the journalist, even Republicans are starting to admit the former president is not all there — something that has become a major talking point in South Carolina Republican Nikki Haley's campaign.

Pointing to President Joe Biden's re-election campaign, she told the host, "The economy is pretty good and it's been good for a while, of course, but you wouldn't know it from some of the coverage. Now, I think that has shifted quite dramatically and Biden is getting some recognition."

ALSO READ: Why Trump was the worst boss ever — according to 12 of his top White House officials

Adding, "I think there's a lot of things that we don't normally credit with for President Biden, and the last is that it's becoming pretty apparent, even to Republicans, that he [Trump] has got a screw loose."

"He slurs his words, he gets confused. That's what Nikki Haley has been exploiting finally," she elaborated. "It's not going to help her with the Republican base, but it sure is going to provide a lot of material for President Biden in the general election."

Watch below or at the link.

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'Trump will be convicted so fast it will make his head spin': former federal prosecutor

Friday's $83.3 million judgment against former President Donald Trump in writer E. Jean Carroll's defamation lawsuit is proof that the former president can and will be convicted in criminal court, according to a veteran federal prosecutor.

In a Saturday thread posted to X (formerly Twitter), Glenn Kirschner — who was an assistant US Attorney in the office of the US Attorney for the District of Columbia — predicted that Carroll's judgment is merely the first guilty verdict in court Trump will experience in 2024.

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Trump in danger of donor 'backlash' after E. Jean Carroll debacle: legal analyst

Asked if Donald Trump can use campaign contributions and other funds given to him by donors to pay a part or the total $83.3 million due to E. Jean Carroll for defaming her, MSNBC legal analyst Danny Cevallos claimed the law is unsettled but the former president may find his donors less than forgiving.

Appearing less than 24 hours after a Manhattan jury brought the hammer down on Trump for his attacks on the New York writer, Cevallos was asked by MSNBC host Ali Velshi if the former president can tap donor funds to at the very least pay a portion of the judgment.

According to the legal analyst, Trump will have to tread carefully to avoid a "backlash" from supporters.

"We are in unprecedented territory where you have a political candidate who has massive judgments and possibly, eventually criminal court fines and he may be using those same funds to pay off those fines and or judgments," he told host Velshi.

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'Unusual inclusion' in E. Jean Carroll jury instructions helped seal Trump's fate: expert

According to former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance, a cautionary warning provided to the jury deciding the E. Jean Carroll defamation trial by the judge all but assured there would be no jury nullification in support of Donald Trump.

On her Substack platform, the former prosecutor admitted she had never seen anything quite like the comments made by U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Senior Judge Lewis Kaplan as he sent the jury off to decide the case that ended with the former president being slapped with an $83.3 million judgment.

While praising Kaplan for keeping the trial on track and not putting up with any foolishness from Trump and his lead attorney Alina Habba, Vance suggested a key turning point came when Kaplan made an "unusual" appeal to the jurors.

ALSO READ: Alina Habba is persona non grata at her Pennsylvania law school

Pointing out that Trump was likely banking on "jury nullification" from just one juror to avoid a massive penalty, Vance wrote, "Judge Kaplan had an unusual inclusion in his jury instructions, something I’ve never heard a judge do before. He read from the Constitution. He talked about 'we the people' and the establishment of a justice system. And he referred to the history of the Southern District of New York, where federal courts have been in existence since 1789."

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'Overleveraged' Trump has a major money problem after $83.3 million judgment: attorney

Appearing as a guest on MSNBC's "The Weekend," host of her own MSNBC show Katie Phang explained that the $83.3 million judgment Donald Trump was slapped with by the jurors in the E. Jean Carroll defamation trial likely not only plunged his finances into turmoil but may make it near impossible to for him to get outside help.

Speaking with the hosts, Phang, a former prosecutor, explained the hoops Trump will have to jump through to come up with the entire amount to go into a trust if he appeals the devastating verdict, which he has indicated he will do, or to convince a bonding company to help him out.

'He could use real estate properties," she suggested. "But the problem for Donald Trump's leverage is he is overleveraging himself, and that is what got him into trouble in the first place with the New York Attorney General's case for the civil fraud."

"Well, there is that saying the numbers don't lie. They don't, they are what they are" Phang later added. "That's kind of what got Donald Trump into trouble with the New York Attorney General's office. But to your question, Donald Trump has said that he has $400 million in liquid cash to be able to access — that does not include the totality of his assets which is a real estate portfolio other investments that he has."

ALSO READ: Few Trumpers who embrace political violence understand its endgame

"You know it is the cumulative effect of whether or not it is enough to make a dent in his net worth. I think that your net worth, especially for someone like Donald Trump, isn't just cash on hand. Your net worth also includes whether people think that you're a risk, a risk worth taking. So, putting aside what a success is with the New York AG's case and whether he's able to survive what they called a corporate death penalty to be able to do business in the state of New York, is Donald Trump a worthwhile risk if you are a person in the world of finance and business?"

"Is the kind of person that you think is going to be worth taking a gamble on to loan money to; to be able to invest with to continue to maybe make a profit with," she added. "We have seen him file bankruptcies. We have seen him fail miserably as a businessman. So despite his attestations or his protestations that he is worth a lot of money, that his brand is valuable, and then he's quote 'the richest man in the world' because of that brand, the reality comes crashing down for him because it is not."

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'Not getting into it': Swing district Republicans are distancing themselves from Trump

House Republicans in swing districts are already sensitive about being associated with former President Donald Trump, and many are hoping to avoid having to mention him altogether, as Democratic strategists are aiming to do ahead of the November election.

According to Politico, Democrats hoping to retake the majority in the House of Representatives are tying freshman Republican lawmakers running for reelection in competitive districts to Trump. This has resulted in some GOP representatives distancing themselves from the former president.

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'Performative' Alina Habba cost Trump 'an incredible amount of money': ex-GOP official

Donald Trump attorney Alina Habba's abrasive behavior and her decision to defend the former president in the E. Jean Carroll defamation trial with an eye on pleasing him, and not trying to convince a jury, in the end cost her client tens of millions of dollars..

That is the opinion of former Republican National Committee chair Michael Steele, which he explained as part of his duties hosting MSNBC's "The Weekend."

During a panel discussion on the stunning $83.3 million judgment levied against the former president on Friday, Steele stated he wanted to focus on Habba and shared a clip of her combative impromptu press conference outside the courthouse after the verdict was read.

Noting that Habba claimed defending Trump was "the proudest thing I could ever do," Steele reminded viewers of Habba's previous claims that she would rather be "pretty than smart" to which she replied, "pretty" because she can "fake being smart."

After introducing the clip by stating, "One of the things I found very fascinating as we looked at the professionals in the room, E. Jean Carroll's lawyer, and those who were laying out the case before the judge, the jury, and then there is Alina Habba, I would like to play her response to this verdict," he continued afterward with, "I recall a comment that she made at one point where she was asked, would you rather be pretty or smart, and a response was, I would rather be pretty because I can fake being smart."

Laughing he continued, "So the reality of it is that you need to be smart in the courtroom. You need to understand that her reaction a lot of times shocked."

ALSO READ: Why Trump was the worst boss ever — according to 12 of his top White House officials

"It was performative, and it was to appease Trump, it was not to deal with the facts that were at hand, and first off, this was not a case where you are trying to prevent him from being judged a sexual predator," he explained. "That had already taken place. This was about something very different. She seemed to be out of sorts with what her mission was, and actually wound up costing her client I think an incredible amount of money."

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