There’s nobody, not even Donald Trump, who wasn’t gobsmacked by the jury’s verdict in the E. Jean Carroll defamation case. $83.3 million! Even for mega-millionaire Donald Trump, that’s a lotta money.
No wonder the Powerball-size verdict gobbled up all the headlines. But the real significance of the verdict lies not in the mountain of money Trump must pay Carroll, but in what that ruling says about Trump’s ongoing legal troubles and the impact it could have on 2024. Neither bodes well for Trump.
First big take-away: If you’re a prosecutor assigned to handle a case against Donald Trump, call him as a witness. On your side. There’s no stronger witness against Donald Trump than Trump himself.
Trump proved that in the E. Jean Carroll defamation case, where he alienated the jury in every way possible. He got in a verbal tiff with the judge. He muttered disparaging remarks, loud enough for the jury to hear, about the judge, the trial and the woman who’d accused him of sexual abuse. He stormed out of the courtroom in the middle of Carroll’s attorney’s closing argument. He continued to attack the judge and Carroll publicly during the trial, while entering and leaving the courthouse. And when he finally took the stand in his own defense, he was defiant and said nothing to help his case.
In her own closing remarks, Carroll attorney Shawn Crowley told the jury that Trump’s disruptive behavior in the courtroom alone proved their case. “He gets to lie. He gets to threaten. He gets to ignore a jury verdict. He gets to defy the law and the rules of this courtroom,” she told the jury. “You saw how he behaved through this trial,” she continued. “Rules don’t apply to Donald Trump.”
Crowley told the jury he had to be slammed with a big number to show he’s not above the law. And they agreed, forcing Trump to cough up $83.3 million. As Colin Jost quipped on “Saturday Night Live,” “That’s how likeable he is.”
Second big take-away: Trump’s legal battles may not be the political bonanza he’s counting on. Trump didn’t have to be in the courtroom for this second E. Jean Carroll case. He didn’t show up in the first case, where he was found liable of sexual abuse and ordered to pay $5 million for defaming Carroll. But he turned up every day in New York, treating it like a campaign stop and playing to the cameras. He would have been better off staying home.
Republicans rushing to embrace Trump as their 2024 presidential nominee would be wise to stop in their tracks and consider two factors. First, the latest Gallup poll — where 66 percent of Americans said they would not vote for a candidate convicted of a felony. Trump still faces 91 felony charges.
Second, what happened with the E. Jean Carroll jury. Nine Americans, seven men and two women, sat down, considered the facts, took a good look at Donald Trump — and didn’t like what they saw.
They didn’t believe he’s the victim of a “vast Democratic conspiracy.” They didn’t give him a pass for being a former president. They didn’t agree that, as past president, he enjoyed total immunity from the law. And they held him accountable.
That has enormous implications for 2024. If Independent voters and moderate, non-MAGA Republicans respond to him like the E. Jean Carroll jury did, Donald Trump and the Republican Party are in big trouble.
Press hosts “The Bill Press Pod.” He is the author of “From the Left: A Life in the Crossfire.”