Dem
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GOP
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No, we don't mean that his COVID-19 booster shot failed. We mean that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled yesterday that he is not immune to lawsuits for actions he took as president that are not part of the job description. This matters for the defamation case brought by E. Jean Carroll.
Trump is involved in so many lawsuits that you are excused if you have forgotten this one. Briefly, Carroll claimed that Trump digitally raped her (that is, with his fingers) in a Manhattan department store dressing room in the 1990s. He called her a liar and she sued him for defamation—twice—and sexual assault. She won the first case and the jury awarded her $5 million for her injury. So what did Trump do? Go off and mope and tell Melania that Carroll is lying? No, he defamed her again, so she added his latest comments to her remaining lawsuit.
One of his defenses is that he is immune to lawsuits like this because, well, presidents can do whatever they want to. He lost in court and now the Second Circuit upheld that verdict. As a result, there will be another trial in January. This one isn't about whether Trump defamed Carroll again. The judge has already ruled that he did that. The trial is about how much he has to pay her this time. We don't expect a terribly sympathetic jury since some of these defamatory comments came right after he was held liable in the first case. Isn't he capable of learning? One can easily imagine that the jurors are really going to stick it to him this time because he absolutely knew that calling her a liar was defamatory. After all, he had just lost a case about that.
The Second Circuit's decision was on the narrow legal ground that Trump waited too long to assert immunity and the window had closed. Nevertheless, the decision will stand and Trump will go on trial in January unless some higher court lets him off the hook. (V)