A devastating loss against Donald Trump yesterday has not been properly reported about what it means for a future $83 million case against them brought by the same plaintiff who was victimized by him. So says two federal juries, the e gene carol case lives on.
We've got the new reporting, yes, that she won the $5 million case that was tried first. But what does it mean that the appellate court ruled in her favor? What does it mean for the larger $83 million case? A second jury awarded her for defamation and punitive damages after Donald Trump testified in that case. I'm going to clear it all up right here on legal AF and the Midas Touch Network. I'm Michael Popok. Let's dive in.
The case, the case of Eugene Carroll being victimized and sexually abused by Donald Trump found itself in two separate cases. One case was originally filed based on statements of defamation made by Donald Trump while he was still president of the United States in 2017, where he denied
The allegations made by E. Jean Carroll that she was sexually assaulted in a dressing room of a New York department store directly across the street from Trump Tower back in 1996. That formed the basis of the first filing, the first filing.
we refer to as Carol one. That case was not tried first. That case was tried second because after New York passed the Adult Survivors Act, allowing people like Eugene Carroll and others who were sexually abused to go after the people that tormented them and sue them with a one year window of statute of limitations. She filed a second case based on the statements that he made after he was president.
in 2020, where he also defamed her and denied that he had sexually assaulted her. That case we call Carol to the Carol to case was tried first. That's where the confusion comes in. Carol to case about statements made by Donald Trump after he was president was tried to one jury
in New York and a 9-0 jury, six men and three women ruled against Donald Trump and they found for her found that she had been sexually assaulted. They were this close to finding that she was also raped under New York law but couldn't conclude what was inserted inside of her so they went with sexual assault.
that so says Louis Kaplan, um, in his, as he presided over that case, they, uh, in that particular case, Donald Trump and Carol to the first trial. Donald Trump did not testify. Alina Haba was the lead lawyer. She did terribly, but they did show a video deposition of Donald Trump, which obviously swayed the jury for aging. Carol who also testified.
They awarded her $5 million, $2.02 million for the sexual assault, $2.98 million for defamation.
Then there was a second case, which was about the first case that was filed. Carol won about the same sexual assault now proven by one jury. Therefore, it became what's called law of the case or race, judicata. That issue had already been resolved. And then we go to the defamation that Donald Trump made against Eugene. Carol, while he was president, that implicated some argument of immunity.
that Donald Trump had immunity from suit because while he was president, he was allowed to defame, apparently, aging Carol. That issue went up to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York, led by Alina Haba. And last December, a year ago, the court ruled against Donald Trump and Alina Haba and found immunity
if it were to apply at all had been waived by Donald Trump and Alina Haba because they didn't raise it in time because you have to raise it or wave it and they found waiver. Now Donald Trump took an appeal to the United States Supreme Court to try to reverse the Second Circuit's opinion to find that immunity applied and therefore he couldn't be sued related to these issues, but the Supreme Court has not taken up that appeal.
I mean, we check the docket every day during this term to see if they're during their caucus on Tuesdays, whether they decided to take up that case or not, but they have not, leaving undisturbed the ruling by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. What does that mean? That means that that case went forward and was tried, and there was no immunity defense. And the Supreme Court has sat by idly and watched it happen. In the second trial,
Donald Trump decided he was going to testify and how did that work out for him? Not well. The new jury, a second jury ruled against Donald Trump. They were already instructed that the sexual assault had been proven and they needed to go to defamation and punitive damages related to the statements he made while he was president. That jury, after hearing from Donald Trump, after hearing from others, including aging Carol again, awarded aging Carol 83
million dollars, first jury, five million, second jury, Donald Trump testifying, 83 million dollars. Now, there after all of that happened, Donald Trump, um,
took an appeal of the $5 million case, Carol too, that was tried first got it about statements he made after he was president. So no immunity issue. And that's what we just reported that the second circuit court of appeals, the same second circuit, but a different three judge panel
because appellate courts operate under generally three-judge panels that are randomly assigned. And just because the case involves something that had already been argued doesn't mean you ever get that three-judge panel back, you get a new randomly assigned three-judge panel. It could be some overlap occasionally, but a new three-judge panel said, no, denied.
Appeal denied that Lewis Kaplan did not as a judge, as the gatekeeper, as the person that makes the decisions in a jury trial did not make reversible errors about evidence to be presented to the jury. Donald Trump jumped up and down in both trials about the testimony of at least two witnesses.
Right? A people, a people magazine reporter who says she was sexually assaulted by Donald Trump after he shut the door at Mar-a-Lago after an interview she was doing about his new one year marriage to Melania and the birth of Barron, he attacked her, abused her and said, and you know, and touched her sexually and inappropriately and violently. And then there was another person who testified about Donald Trump groping her sexually, trying to stick his hand up her skirt and touching her breast on a plane.
while he was in first class, apparently. Donald Trump hated that, hated the fact that the Access Hollywood recording came in where he was bragging to Billy Bush, the reporter were off mic that he could he could grab a woman by her P word, her genitalia and get away with it because he was a celebrity. He hated all of that coming in.
But ultimately, after looking at all of that evidence and looking at the issues of how the judge decided which evidence would come in and which evidence wouldn't, they sided with Lewis Kaplan, finding that he has broad discretion, as all trial judges do, to let in evidence or to exclude evidence. And he did it right and that there was no reversible error. It's what we call at best, it was harmless error.
See, I'll talk to you now as a trial lawyer. There's no such thing as a perfect trial. You're not entitled to a perfect trial. There's never been a perfect trial. I've never put even the trials I've won. I've never been perfect. You're not entitled to that. You're entitled in your due process to a fair and impartial jury. You're entitled to have not error free, but reversible error free.
trial. And the second circuit said that's what happened. Now, what does that mean for Eugene Carroll? What does that mean for the $83 million judgment that the Supreme Court looks like is not bailing out Donald Trump about?
Well, on the $5 million, he can take another appeal to the United States Supreme Court, but based on them not being that interested in the $83 million judgment, I don't think they're going to be interested at all at activities of Donald Trump after he was president and some decisions by a trial judge about whether evidence should come in or not. So the chances of that being accepted by the Supreme Court are probably less than 1%, which means the $5 million is going to be going to Eugene Carroll, I believe in the next 90 days or so.
There was a bond, a cash bond posted by Donald Trump, cash deposited into a court registry that will go right over to Eugene Carroll. The start of a new year is the perfect time to get organized, set goals and prioritize what matters most. For me, a top priority is my financial wellness, which feels more important than ever. Now that I'm going full time with my media work,
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as far as I'm concerned, they should start the collection process for the $83 million. He is going to lose, now he can appeal on the, because the immunity issue is not going to work, he can appeal on any other errors he believes that
that Lewis Kaplan made in the trial, same judge in the second case for 83 million, but he's going to raise the same issues, evidence issues and certain witnesses shouldn't have been allowed and Donald Trump should have been allowed to testify longer or whatever he's going to argue. You see the writing on the wall. Yes, it will be a new three judge panel of the, of the second circuit, but they're going to rule the same way. That's my prediction.
He's going to owe that $83 million that's been running with interest for over almost two years. So, so Eijing Carroll is going to get that too. Now, could this United States Supreme Court try to bail out Donald Trump on the immunity issue and find he's immune because it's within their definition of immunity on a civil case because it was part of his official conduct to attack Eijing Carroll and say she was a hoaxster, that she was trying to shake down artists, that she wasn't his type and the rest.
He could they could try, but they haven't yet. They haven't yet. I think they're already trying to put the genie back in the bottle for what bad things they did during the immunity decision in the summer, you know, as it relates to crimes. So I believe, and I'm telling you straight here that now that I've straightened out the kinks, right?
Uh, Carol won, which was tried second for $83 million is going to end up being paid over to EG Carol. There's a bond that's been in place by a bonding company, a surety to ensure that Donald Trump makes that payment. Same with the cash bond. She's going to get, I think with interest, almost $100 million through her lawyers, Robbie Kaplan in 2025.
It's a hard rain falling on Donald Trump between now and his inauguration. I know he thinks he was going to take some sort of victory lap between now and then, but with the second circuit ruling against him, the second circuit going to rule against him on the next $83 million. Judge Mershan about to make a decision could be any day now, any minute now. I think just after the new year, we're going to see Judge Mershan issue his ruling in the New York State Supreme Court about sentencing Donald Trump to the 34 felony counts.
uh, and the like and the 11th circuit, potentially ruling about the moral logo case and whether the special prosecutor special counsel and that indictment should have been dismissed or not. It's going to be a hard rain falling on Donald Trump between now and the day of the inauguration.
The biggest event that's going to happen in Washington, the one with the most pageantry, with the most crying, with the most solemnity, with the most dignitaries, is not going to be the inauguration. It's going to be Jimmy Carter laying in state inside of the capital, in a state funeral on the 9th of January.
And I know Donald Trump's ego is going to hate it. He's going to start counting the crowd size again between Jimmy Carter's funeral and his inauguration. That's a patriot. That's somebody we should respect. I mean, let's be frank, Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime that I did not refer to as my president. Even if I didn't agree with the politics of somebody like George Bush one or George Bush two or Reagan, they were my president until they were no longer my president.
because I believed in the institution of the presidency in the office of the presidency. I'm a scholar of American history. My major was in the American presidency in college. All right. I have always had a soft spot for the presidency until the last until the occupant before Biden and the one it's about to enter office. That's not my president. There's no other way to put it.
He has disdain for the office of the presidency. He took a crap on its legacy. He doesn't deserve to be in office. And therefore I can't recognize him as my president, as patriotic as I am. And that's okay to be in opposition, to be in opposition. I still have a deep love for our country and a deep belief that united together
Right? We, we can hold Donald Trump and others accountable from elected office and the federal judiciary on down by binding together in audiences like this, staying enlightened, staying united for 2025.
That's my pledge to you that on legal AF and on the Midas Touch Network, it will now be my full-time job. My full-time job is going to be working with the Midas Touch Network and legal AF and all things related to that because it's that important since the election. It changed my mind about my own future and the shape of my own future. And so I'm here to tell you that right now, I am committed to you because you're committed to legal AF for the Midas Touch Network.
And we'll continue to follow the intricacies of cases like this one so that you understand them. First, I got to understand them. And then I can explain them to you and analyze them with my 34 years of legal experience and training in courtrooms and courthouses, just like the ones I report on. So until my next legal AF reporting, until my next Popok live here on the Midas Touch Network Tuesdays at 8 p.m. I'm Michael Popok and I'm reporting.
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