BREAKING: Donald Trump Suffers Multiple Losses in Court
Donald Trump suffered two major losses in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York today. Breaking it all down for you.
Today, Donald Trump suffered two major losses in front of two separate judges in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Let’s breakdown both losses and what it means for Trump.
1) E. Jean Carroll v. Donald Trump
In the first major decision, Judge Lewis Kaplan denied Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn a recent jury verdict finding Trump liable for sexually abusing E. Jean Carroll. Donald Trump’s primary argument in his attempt to overturn the jury’s verdict focused on the fact that the New York jury did not find him liable for raping Carroll. Judge Kaplan rejected this argument.
As Judge Kaplan notes, the difference between “sexual abuse” and “rape” under New York law comes down to mere semantics.
Rape, as defined under New York law applies strictly to a limited subset of unlawful conduct, whereas the term “sexual abuse” is much broader and includes actions that many may consider to be “rape” in the conversational sense. Judge Kaplan acknowledges this and asserts that merely because the Jury did not find Trump liable for “rape” under New York law, does not mean that Trump did not rape Carroll in the conversational sense.
In a significant statement, Judge Kaplan asserts that the evidence at trial made clear that Trump did rape Carroll in the common use of the word. The Court went on to explain that the jury’s verdict was neither excessive nor improper based on Trump’s conduct and the evidence
In sum, Judge Kaplan upheld the jury verdict in full, requiring Trump to compensate Carroll for his actions. This decision will likely be appealed by Trump’s attorneys, so while today was a loss for the former President, it was not the end of his legal journey as it pertains to this case.
2) New York v. Donald J. Trump
The second major loss for Donald Trump concerned the criminal case filed by the Manhattan District Attorney related to the hush money payments made by Trump.
In this case, Donald Trump, through his attorneys, attempted to remove his criminal case from New York state court to New York federal court, arguing that the conduct charged in the Manhattan indictment was “within the color of his office” as President of the United States. The specific conduct related to Donald Trump making reimbursement payments to Michael Cohen, during his presidential campaign, as part of a scheme to bury Trump’s affairs.
As noted in Judge Hellerstein’s ruling, Donald Trump failed to show that the charged conducted related to any act performed by or for the President under color of the official acts of a President. Trump further failed to show that he had a colorable federal defense to the indictment. As a result, Judge Hellerstein remanded the case back to New York state court where the case will proceed. However, just like with the Carroll decision discussed above, this decision can also be appealed. Stay tuned for more on this.