Judge Lewis Kaplan purposefully did not disclose why he advised jurors to keep their identities secret in the high profile case
Judge Lewis Kaplan purposefully did not disclose why he advised jurors to keep their identities secret in the high profile case
After the verdict was read in the defamation trial between writer E Jean Carroll and former president Donald Trump, the judge overseeing the trial suggested the jurors never reveal their identities.
At the end of the two-week trial, the jurors, who were purposefully made anonymous due to the high-profile nature of the case, are now free to identify themselves by name if they wish.
“My advice to you is that you never disclose that you were on this jury,” Judge Lewis Kaplan advised them in the courtroom.
Judge Kaplan did not explicitly explain why he was offering the advice, however, previous legal actions against the ex-president have led to threats of violence against both jurors and judges from Trump supporters.
“I fully disagree with both verdicts and will be appealing this whole Biden Directed Witch Hunt focused on me and the Republican Party. Our Legal System is out of control, and being used as a Political Weapon. They have taken away all First Amendment Rights. THIS IS NOT AMERICA!” [Trump] claimed...
This mother fucker is so dumb he thinks civil suits are brought about by the federal government. Sometimes I still can't believe this guy was actually president.
That's for his followers, to rile them up and keep them loyal, that's not really what he believes. Not to say he isn't a dumb cunt, he is, but this is not an example of that.
I agree it's mostly for his followers, but I think it's arguable that it's an example of both. I'm sure he really doesn't know (or understand the difference) or confused this with another trial, or both.
I swear in a hundred years there will be arguments in every history class about whether his entire political career was even real or some kind of parable to frighten young people into voting.
About 20 years ago, I used to work with an older dude who was just on the verge of retirement. That guy hated Nixon. He would occasionally go on rants about how much of a piece of shit ol' Tricky Dick was. But at the time, Nixon was 30 years removed from office, and all that shit happened before I was born. So I just kind of blew it off as an over-exaggeration of this one dude.
But yeah, in about 25-30 years, we'll be talking to kids in their 20s trying to explain the complete and utter shit-stain that was Donald Trump. And they'll humor us, but mostly they'll just be thinking "I'm sure it wasn't that bad. The guy was elected president after all."
Luckily they don't have access to those. I'm not even sure the judge did. I think only the Marshalls and the clerk of courts. Otherwise they are completely sealed.
Judge Kaplan said Trump will face an anonymous nine-person jury, with the names, addresses and places of employment of prospective jurors kept secret, saying he found "strong reason" to provide special protections for jurors at the civil trial.
If you're asking why Trump wasn't charged with sexual assault, it's because the statute of limitations had run out. She was able to prove to a jury in civil court that there was a preponderance of evidence that he sexually assaulted her. His deposition was played for the jury but he did not attend the trial. In the deposition, he denied ever meeting the victim and called her crazy. She testified for two days, had corroborating witnesses, and photos of her with Trump proving they had met. Trump was shown the photo in his deposition and confused the victim for his wife at the time, Marla Maples.
Two additional victims testified that he assaulted them in the same way, and they had the audio of the tape where Trump says he can grab women by the pussy.
So Trump's statements
He didn't know her, never met her
He wouldn't assault her because she's ugly
He didn't assault her, that's a lie she made up
Her evidence
Photo of them together
He thought she looked like his wife
Pattern of assault and private admissions that he assaults women
It feels icky disproving that second one, but it just demonstrates that every statement is a proven lie.
Would that be enough to convict him of sexual assault in New York? We won't know that for sure, but we do know that Trump sexually assaults women.
At the end of the two-week trial, the jurors, who were purposefully made anonymous due to the high-profile nature of the case, are now free to identify themselves by name if they wish.
After approximately three hours of deliberations, the jury ordered Mr Trump to pay $83.3m in damages to Ms Carroll after he repeatedly rejected her claim that he sexually assaulted her in a department store dressing room in the mid-1990s.
The trial comes after a similar one last year where a jury found Mr Trump liable for sexually abusing Ms Carroll and defaming her.
“I fully disagree with both verdicts and will be appealing this whole Biden Directed Witch Hunt focused on me and the Republican Party.
THIS IS NOT AMERICA!” he claimed, despite there being no evidence that President Joe Biden has directed the Department of Justice to target Mr Trump.
The trial lasted two weeks in a Manhattan federal court, during which Mr Trump’s attorneys aggressively litigated the case while the former president went after Ms Carroll during press conferences and on Truth Social, potentially defaming her further.
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