for you, a jury in new york finding donald trump, the republican presidential front runner, by far liable for sexually abusing and defaming writer, e. jean carroll. the jury also awarding the former magazine columnist nearly $5 million in damages to be paid by mr. trump. carol walked out of the manhattan courthouse just moments ago with her lawyer who said that they re quote, very happy with the jury s decision. carol s lawsuit stemmed from an encounter between her and trump in a new york department store dressing room in 1996. she claims donald trump sexually assaulted her. donald trump reacted on his social media platform, writing in all caps, quote, i have absolutely no idea who this woman is, this verdict is a disgrace, continuation of the greatest witch hunt of all-time, unquote. this all comes as trump is facing another very serious case in new york city, just last month the former president pleaded not guilty to 34 felony charges related to hush money payments to ad
i mean, the assumption that by virtue of ones politic, that you are unable to follow the jury s instruction to something that has been unsuccessful for many a litigant across this country. more broadly, there was a wide viewer process. they didn t just pull names out of the head and say, here you go, you will now sit. they had to whittle it down to the nine, it was actually 12 who sat, because they had to have alternate who might have been available in case of any issue that could arise. to suggest that there was somehow no ability to do a full background check on the average juror is a little absurd to me, given that normally, and even in a criminal context, where you re fighting for your life outside of bars, that you would be able to know whether the jurors could follow the instructions, whether they could be objective and unbiased. that s the criteria. not so much whether you ve had a chance to do a full background check on one s voting habits and beyond. but it s notable, of cours
testify, other things can come in. it was also brought up several times in a short address there that this was a rape trial. he was accused of rape but the jury did not find trump guilty of rape, but of sexual abuse. not to be too graphic, what she s accused him of is digitally penetrating her without her cob sent. so i don t know if technically the did tails here, but is it hrelevant he wasn t found guilt of rape? i m sure it s relevant in his ability to say in front of the reporters that donald trump was not found to be a quote, unquote, rapist. but i found a couple things odd about that statement. he said it s difficult to prove a negative. they compared this case to say i stole your pen. how would i prove that? just so we re all clear in this country and beyond, a sexual
election in 2016, donald trump on tape, joking with billy bush about how star, women let you essentially commit sexual assault. now, trump s team, both on the campaign and subsequently at the white house, they would say that was a locker room talk, it was just words, it wasn t deeds. but when trump was asked about that tape, those claims in this trial, he basically doubled down, he agreed with it. he said, yeah, this is how it is, if your star, it s been like this for millionaires. you get away with it. and then he said, unfortunately, or fortunately, or fortunately, do you think that that might have played a role in the jury s verdict? he s obviously saying sometimes, i mean, just to parse what he said, sometimes it s a good thing that a star can get away with sexual assault. i mean, that s what fortunately means in that context. yeah, exactly, jake.
sexually abused her, it just goes to show that there is a disconnect between what i believe he may have understood this trial to be about and what he was accused of having done and what he s required to do from here out. early, obviously, this is a horrible day for donald trump. i guess, one of the questions i have is, if you had been his attorney, would you have told him, please go on the stand, please testify, and please express, if not contrition, police say, i would never do such a thing? wouldn t that be what somebody would tell a client to do? that will be exactly what i would tell donald trump before his deposition, jake, ideally. i think that s absolutely the best defense. you just deny this, you can deny this respectfully, you poke holes in e. jean carroll s testimony, and you let it rest with the jury. instead, at that deposition, donald trump absolutely did