Dem
51
GOP
49
You are probably thinking: "Yesterday must have been a slow news day, so you guys are just rerunning some oldies but goodies." Actually, no. This is (relatively) fresh news. On Saturday, Donald Trump once again trashed former columnist E. Jean Carroll. The first time he did it, it cost him $5 million. The second time he did it, it cost him $83 million. The third time could start to be real money.
At a rally in Georgia, Trump mentioned the $91.6 million bond he had to post to keep Carroll from seizing his properties and selling them. He said: "Ninety-one million based on false accusations made about me by a woman that I knew nothing about. Didn't know, never heard of. I know nothing about her. She wrote a book. She said things. And when I denied it, I said: 'It's so crazy. It's false.' I get sued for defamation." Then he added: "This woman is not a believable person."
Carroll's lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, probably broke out the champagne yesterday in expectation of a third—and much bigger—payday for her client and herself. This is precisely the scenario that turned a minor (for Trump) $5 million award into a serious (even for Trump) $83 million award. Trump insiders say that he is just hopping mad and can't control himself. Carroll might as well sue again, since she has a good chance of winning and there is no downside for her, since Kaplan is probably willing to take the case on a no-cure, no-pay basis in return for something like 30% of the award if she wins. Kaplan has plenty of practice so she won't even need to spend much time preparing. And if it goes to trial again, she is surely going to tell the jury: "An award of $83 million wasn't enough to get Trump to stop defaming my client, so you need to go REALLY BIG this time to get him to stop it."
If Carroll sues again, the judge will have to work around all the criminal trials Trump may yet have. But if the criminal trials are all delayed, for various reasons, another civil one will keep Trump in the news, and not in a good way. (V)