Donald Trump Keeps Messing Up His Legal Defense – Former President Donald Trump is drowning in legal problems.
Yet, in typical Trumpian fashion, he continues exacerbating his woes with his loose talk and ill-advised actions.
Take, for example, the civil case brought against the former president by New York-based writer, E. Jean Carroll. The writer accused Trump of sexually assaulting her in a Bergdorf-Goodman’s department store dressing room in the 1990s.
The case should have gone nowhere, because it had exceeded the statute limitations. That is until New York state allowed special exemptions on sexual assault charges stemming from the 1990s onward.
Therefore, Carroll’s case could be heard, even though at any other time, in any other court in the United States, it’d simply have been outside the statute of limitations.
For his part, Donald Trump denies the event ever took place. Of course, again in standard Trump operating procedure, even after denying ever knowing Carroll or having any interaction with her, the former president has praised Carroll’s late husband, a news anchor, as numbering among Trump’s friends.
Donald Trump Is Already Liable
Anyway, Trump was found liable in the case of battery charges (sexual assault).
The New York jury that heard the case would have found Trump guilty of rape, had they been allowed to charge him with that. Thankfully for Trump, the rules governing this particular case prevented the jury from doing so. Yet, they did indeed charge him with battery—meaning that Trump was found legally liable for sexual assault.
So, when the forty-fifth president publicly denies that the assault ever happened, he’s legally lying, and therefore opening himself up to further damages.
Not only did the jury in the case find Trump guilty of battery, but they also awarded E. Jean Carroll $5 million for her accusation that the former president defamed her on social media. Even after being found liable, Trump, ever the stubborn one, doubled-down on his legal woes in that case by further defaming Carroll while speaking at a townhall event with Kaitlan Collins of CNN.
Immediately thereafter, Carroll predictably brought forth another defamation suit.
Trump’s attorneys attempted to have the claims dismissed. But, since Trump was already found liable of battery (sexual assault), his public denunciations of both Carroll and her allegations of having been raped by Trump in the 1990s are, by definition, defamatory.
Welcome to the wild world of American law.
Former President Trump can kvetch about it all he wants. His supporters can continue decrying the cases against the former president as little more than politically motivated witch hunts. And, most of the cases against Trump, likely are being carried forth with such prosecutorial zealousness because of Trump’s politics.
That doesn’t mean Trump gets a free pass.
The courts have already found against the forty-fifth president on the matter of E. Jean Carroll’s sexual battery and defamation charges. Because Trump yet again defamed the New York-based writer in public—in a forum for his presidential reelection campaign, no less—Trump is going to be made to pay even more money to Carroll for his claims.
Trump Needs to Stay Quiet and Get Better Legal Representation
I have heard from people within Trump’s Mar-a-Lago orbit that the former president is very fond of his young attorney, Alina Habba. He even recently threw her a private birthday party at Mar-a-Lago.
However promising Habba’s professional future may be, defending Trump is a full-time job that requires one to contort into professional—and personal—pretzels that are almost impossible to successfully maintain for even the most experienced attorney, especially one as green Alina Habba.
Given the fact that Habba is a relatively young and inexperienced attorney, this means that the forty-fifth president, coupled with his absurd style of public self-defense, is being outmatched and outwitted by his legal and political foes in these various cases he’s being subjected to.
Habba erroneously believes that Carroll’s second defamation suit will be thrown out on appeal. It might very well. But the first case, in which Trump was found liable of sexual battery and defamation of Carroll will not be overturned.
Trump needs better attorneys working for him and he needs to learn to sit back, stay quiet, and let those attorneys do their jobs. Since he’s unlikely to ever change, it’s obvious that the forty-fifth president will be subsumed by these charges.
A 19FortyFive Senior Editor, Brandon J. Weichert is a former Congressional staffer and geopolitical analyst who is a contributor at The Washington Times, as well as at the Asia Times. He is the author of Winning Space: How America Remains a Superpower (Republic Book Publishers), Biohacked: China’s Race to Control Life (Encounter Books), and The Shadow War: Iran’s Quest for Supremacy (July 23). Weichert occasionally serves as a Subject Matter Expert for various organizations, including the Department of Defense. He can be followed via Twitter @WeTheBrandon.
From the Vault
‘He Should Quit’: Donald Trump Just Got Hit With A Devastating New Poll
