The verdict from Donald Trump's second E. Jean Carroll civil defamation trial "is important foreshadowing" for his pending criminal trials, former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner claimed on Saturday.
A New York City jury on Friday ordered that Trump must pay $83.3 million in damages to Carroll, a former Elle columnist, for statements made in 2019 when he claimed that she was lying about allegations that he sexually assaulted her inside a Manhattan department store dressing room in the 1990s. That amount includes $7.3 million in compensatory damages, $11 million for reputational repair, and $65 million in punitive damages. Trump was previously ordered to pay Carroll $5 million in damages last year in another civil defamation trial stemming from a denial he made about her claims in 2022.
Trump, the frontrunner in the 2024 GOP presidential primary, has long maintained his innocence, even after the first jury found him liable for sexual abuse. Vowing to appeal, Trump has accused the cases of being "witch hunts" against him and the Republican Party directed by President Joe Biden, despite neither Biden nor the Department of Justice (DOJ) having any involvement in the civil case.
In a Saturday morning thread shared to X, formerly Twitter, Kirschner, a former assistant U.S. attorney turned legal analyst known for his criticism of Trump, wrote that the result in the former president's second defamation trial will have major implications for his criminal trials, as it shows how his claims continue to fail in a court of law. Trump has been hit with four criminal indictments amounting to 91 criminal charges, all of which he has pleaded not guilty to.
"The result in the 2nd E. Jean Carroll case is important foreshadowing for Trump's upcoming criminal trials," Kirschner wrote. "When cases move from the court of public opinion into courts of law, Trump loses. He lost the NY civil fraud trial...He lost BOTH E. Jean Carroll cases...Here's the thing: the rules of evidence don't apply in the court of public opinion. So Trump lies every day in his desperate attempt to continue to deceive & grift from his ever-shrinking gaggle of supporters. But the rules of evidence, the rules of procedure, & the rule of law all apply inside courtrooms."
He continued: "And what did we see just yesterday - Trump LITERALLY can't handle the truth, given that he stormed out of the courtroom when Ms. Carroll's attorney told the jury that Donald Trump is a liar who acts like the rules don't apply to him. Once Trump's criminal trials commence - and the rules of evidence and the rules of procedure control the proceedings - Trump will be convicted so fast it will make his head spin."
Newsweek reached out to Trump's office via email on Saturday afternoon for comment.
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Thomas Kika is a Newsweek weekend reporter based in upstate New York. His focus is reporting on crime and national ... Read more
