Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Trump Gets DEVASTATING ORDER in Federal Court

Episode Date: April 26, 2024

Donald Trump LOST AGAIN in his efforts to have E Jean Carroll’s sexual $83.5 million abuse/punitive damages federal judgment tossed. Michael Popok explains Judge Kaplan’s new order which also makes some new observations about Trump’s “REPREHENSIBLE CONDUCT” even during the trial itself that influenced the jury to rule against him, which is a precursor to what is playing out in his criminal trial right now. Lomi: Visit https://Lomi.com/LEGALAF and use code LEGALAF and checkout to save $50! Visit https://meidastouch.com for more! Join us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/legalaf Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast The Influence Continuum: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show Burn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 Political Beatdown: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown Lights On with Jessica Denson: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/lights-on-with-jessica-denson On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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and awarded E. Jean Carroll punitive damages for $83.5 million in total along with actual damages. The judge Kaplan has just denied Donald Trump's motion for new trial, motion to lower the actual damage amount, motion to lower the punitive damage amount and to render verdict in his favor. I'm gonna walk you through the order, but that's the headline. Now let's get down to the molecular level.

I'm gonna start from the back, which I think is the most interesting of the observations by Judge Kaplan and work my way back to the front of this 18 page order. As the judge addressed the heart of the matter, the punitive damage award that was awarded by this jury of nine people,

a federal jury in New York of $65 million. Donald Trump said, nothing I did, everything I did was garden variety. Nothing was outrageous. Nothing was reprehensible. Nothing was wanton and willful, which are the standards for punitive damages. And the amount that was too high. This is what the court had to say about it. And he also reminded the judge, Kaplan also reminded everybody

about what this case was about. First line on page two, the jury in a closely related case tried previously found that Donald Trump forcibly sexually abused plaintiff, E. Jean Carroll in the mid 1990s, and maliciously defamed her in an October 2022 statement. In this case, the one he's dealing with now, another jury awarded Ms. Carroll

17.3 million in compensatory and 65 million in punitive damages against Trump for defaming her in two other statements that he made from the White House on June 21 and 22 of 2019. That's what this case is about. Sometimes a judge calls it technical raping of E. Jean Carroll by Donald Trump.

Today he's calling it forcibly sexually abuse. Has to do with the unique definition under New York law. Now let's go back to the reprehensible conduct. On the bottom of page 13 of the order, the judge says the jury was entitled to find that the quote, degree of reprehensibility of Mr. Trump's conduct was remarkably high, perhaps unprecedented.

This is the judge. Far from being purely defensive, there was evidence that Mr. Trump used the office of the presidency, the loudest bully pulpit in America and possibly the world, to issue multiple statements castigating Ms. Carol as a politically and financially motivated liar, insinuating that she was too unattractive for him to have sexually assaulted, whatever that means, and threatening that she would pay dearly for speaking out. The jury could have found that Mr. Trump wielded his position as arguably the most powerful and famous man in the world to broadcast his lies to millions.

The judge said earlier in the brief over 100 million of his dedicated followers in an effort to destroy Ms. Carol's credibility, to punish her, to deter other women from doing so as well. It could have also found that he continued his attacks for nearly five years that it took this case to come to a jury verdict. The jury in this case, bottom of page 14 by Judge Kaplan, the jury in this case, at least arguably was entitled moreover to conclude that Mr. Trump's continued defamation of Ms. Carroll even during the trial, even during the course of the trial, the judge emphasized, in turn warranted a finding that he would not stop attacking Ms. Carroll

unless faced with a significant deterrent, a critical function of substantial punitive damages award. That's why it's right in their name, punitive, punishing damages. But beyond his out of court statements disparaging Ms. Carol, this is the key for me of the brief during trial, many of which were introduced in evidence, right? New evidence was being created during the course of the trial by Donald Trump acting out and speaking out because he wasn't gagged outside the courtroom. But the lawyers were smartly able to bring that evidence

to the jury in real time. Never had a case where a client continued to manufacture damning evidence against them during the course of one of my trials. The judge went on on page 15 to say, the jury could have found that Mr. Trump's demeanor and his conduct in the courtroom itself. Now we're back to Donald Trump acting out in a courtroom

and a jury observing it exactly what we're watching down the street at 60 Center Street, where the criminal trial of Donald Trump's going on right now. We've done other hot takes on that. Now the judge is calling it out. The jury could have found that Mr. Trump's demeanor and conduct in the courtroom itself put his hatred and disdain for Ms. Carroll on full display. Mr. Trump, this is the judge's observations presiding over the trial, could be heard repeatedly complaining to his counsel about the proceedings. So much so, the plaintiff's counsel twice requested that the court instruct him to stop.

Let's stop right there. I had missed this the first time around. Apparently, when they were trying this case the second time, the lawyers, Habba, and whoever else was there at the time lost control of Donald Trump and they asked the court to instruct Donald Trump to stop because they had lost control. Mother's Day is coming soon and if you're looking for a gift for mom that's also a gift to Mother Earth, Lomi is the perfect option. Food waste isn't actually waste, it's a valuable resource for our planet. Lomi helps to transform food scraps into nutrient-rich food

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and use the promo code LegalAF to get $50 off your Lomi. That's $50 off your Lomi. Head to lomi.com slash Legal AF and use code LegalAF at checkout. Thank you Lomi for sponsoring this episode. Particularly the judge cited to the trial transcript. He said the plaintiff's counsel's first application to the court concerning his interruptions.

The court instructing mr Trump to take special care to keep his voice down when he's conferring with counsels The jury doesn't hear it and then the second application to the court the court second warnings to mr Trump to contain his errant remarks the judge goes on In particular during miss Carroll's testimony the, the jury could have found Mr. Trump could be heard making audible comments that Ms. Carroll's testimony was false, that the proceedings were a witch hunt, a con job, and most notably that his earlier statements disparaging Ms. Carroll were true.

The most dramatically, mere minutes after plaintiffs council began her closing argument, that's Alina Abba. I'm sorry, the closing argument made by Robbie Kaplan for E. Jean Carroll. Sorry about that. Robbie Kaplan making closing argument for E. Jean Carroll. Mr. Trump conspicuously stood and walked out of the courtroom in the middle of this female lawyer's presentation of her closing argument to the jury about her client who had been sexually assaulted, maligned, defamed.

Uh, he just walked out. They said that he said, the judge said the jury could have concluded that by doing that conspicuously stood standing up and walking out of the courtroom for no apparent reason save to evidence his disapproval, though he was present again when the court resumed later that morning and remained for his own counsel's entire summation. On this exceptional record, the punitive damages evidence passes constitutional muster." I think that was the most damning section of it. The judge basically adopted all that Robbie Kaplan, the lawyer for

E. Jean Carroll wrote in their briefs. He went in to describe how the lawyers for Donald Trump, again, and that's just to remind everybody, if you're playing the Trump on trial home game, it's Alina Haba and Michael Medayo joined by John Sauer, who's now arguing for the United States Supreme Court on the issue of whether there's constitutional immunity from prosecution for a president for Trump, but he's also on the brief here. They also said, you got the law wrong. They argue in their Trump briefs that you have to show a higher level of malice,

constitutional actual malice, before a jury can award those damages. And the judge says, we're under New York law, not federal law, and under New York law, as expressed by the Court of Appeals, the highest court in New York, and as affirmed time and time again, a common law malice is what is required.

And common law malice is an instruction he gave to the jury that if they find that the defendant with deliberate intent to injure or out of hatred, ill will or spite, or with willful wanton or reckless disregard of another's rights, they can award punitive damages. That's all New York law applies. He just said, Judge Kaplan, later in the brief, the jury could have seen his ill will and spite towards

Eugene Carroll on full display the way he acted in the courtroom, let alone the issues that were present there. So they said, first, you got the law wrong, New York law, court of appeals, and the Second Circuit, which is his bosses, at the appellate level for the federal court, they've always adopted the common law malice instruction related to that. So he spends a lot of pages talking about that. He says, as to your attack on the standard of proof,

there's a burden that all parties have to make. In civil court, as opposed to criminal court, little Patreon breakout session here, it's not at the highest level. It's not beyond a reasonable doubt. It's generally what we call a preponderance of the evidence. It's easier to prove your case in civil court than criminal court. A plaintiff in civil court like E.G. Carroll just has to show on two equally balanced scales of justice that the weight of the evidence just tips ever so slightly in her favor. It's the feather on one side of two equally balanced scales.

That's it. That's preponderance. So Trump's brief said, oh, you have to instruct that it has to be proven by clearing convincing evidence before punitive damages can be awarded. I don't know what you're talking about, but for the last hundred years in New York, it's not new law, the courts for a hundred years applying the Corrigan case have said that it is only a preponderance of the evidence and that was the proper standard that I provided. So another attempt at arguing some sort of reversible error that failed.

And so all of the judge that ended his brief by comparing the compensatory damages, the non-punitive damages that were awarded for 17 million to E. Jean Carroll with other similarly situated cases precedent in the past, and many of them from 10, 15, 20, and 30 years ago. When he ran all those amounts that were awarded and found to be fined forward under present dollars, under $20, $24, the $17 million that was found kind of fell right in the heartland of what was appropriate and has been found to be appropriate by other courts. And so he wasn't going to take away the jury's right to establish the right amount of consequential damages, having found that they did it right and the number they came up with was right. Putative damages stay,

up with was right. Punitive damages stay, actual damages stay, rejection of a new trial, and now Donald Trump can try to take his appeal, his full appeal to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. He's already posted his bond. As we know, there is an appeal that's there now, the 83.5 million. I think he had to post close to 100 million for the two cases. The way the bonds work is if he loses on appeal, that money can go. If he doesn't pay the judgment within 30 days, then they can just, the E. Jean Carroll could just go get the bonds and have that paid to her as compensation. And those bonds are updated as time goes on to make sure they're carrying enough accrued interest so that the judgment creditor who is E. Jean Carroll, she has two judgments

against Donald Trump, is protected. We'll continue to follow everything about E. Jean Carroll. It's not just what's happening in the criminal courts with Donald Trump. It's the civil courts, the $465 million civil fraud judgment that's up on appeal. It's this $100 million of E. Jean Carroll damages that's up on appeal that's important as well. It will bring you these up on appeal that's important as well. And we'll bring you these developments at the intersection of law and politics. Then we bring it all together in a show we call Legal AF.

That's New York for you every Wednesday and Saturday at 8 p.m. Eastern time. You want to know why we call it Legal AF, join us. They will tell you. So until our next hot take, until our next Legal AF, this is Michael Popak reporting. Heary, heary, Legal AF Law Breakdown is now in session. Go beyond the headlines and get a deep dive into the important legal concepts you need to know and we discuss every day on Legal AF.

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