Donald Trump has taken to Truth Social demanding presidents be granted immunity from prosecution after he was ordered to pay $83.3 million to E Jean Carroll.
Just over 24 hours on from her win, Carroll is already planning on how she will spend the massive windfall and is vowing to ‘do good’ with the millions.
Her lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, believes the former president will be forced to pay up in full – even if means him selling one of his properties or taking out a loan.
Trump’s anger spewed out onto his Truth Social platform on Saturday night as he posted and angry rant in upper case letters.
‘IF IMMUNITY IS NOT GRANTED TO A PRESIDENT, EVERY PRESIDENT THAT LEAVES OFFICE WILL BE IMMEDIATELY INDICTED BY THE OPPOSING PARTY. WITHOUT COMPLETE IMMUNITY, A PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES WOULD NOT BE ABLE TO PROPERLY FUNCTION!’ Trump wrote.
Former President Donald Trump, facing an $83.3 million defamation lawsuit loss to E. Jean Carroll, is now pushing for presidential immunity from prosecution
In a social media post, Trump argued that without immunity, ex-presidents would be immediately indicted by the opposing party, hampering their abilities
Following Friday’s verdict, Trump launched a new attack on social media: ‘Our Legal System is out of control, and being used as a Political Weapon.’
Trump was in Nevada on Saturday holding a campaign rally where he largely avoided talking about the verdict delivered by a jury on Friday afternoon, however he used his four court cases to further his presidential cause.
‘I’m being indicted for you’, he told the audience at the sports park Big League Dreams Las Vegas, in what is a point of honor for the likely Republican nominee during his campaign rallys.
‘Look at yesterday, look at all this crap that’s going on, but we keep marching forward, we just keep going and somehow it all works out,’ he said.
A woman cheers as Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event on Saturday in Las Vegas
As to whether E. Jean Carroll will ever receive the full amount being awarded, her attorney Roberta Kaplan believes Judge Lewis Kaplan [not related] will ultimately force Trump to pay up.
‘Completely she’ll see this money. So the kinds of ratios that the courts get concerned about are ratios over 6 to 1. Here we’re well within that range,’ lawyer Roberta Kaplan said on CNN.
‘Here compensatory damages are $18 million. So $65 million punitive with 18 million compensatory is not that big of a ratio. And I can’t imagine the court having any problem with it,’ she explained.
‘I think he’s going to have to pay. And whether it requires him to sell something or to put a lien on something to get a loan, that’s his problem, not ours. He’s going to pay. And Judge Kaplan, through judgement enforcement mechanisms will make sure that he pays. And indeed, even to take the appeal, he’s going to have to at least put up a bond of 20% of the amount,’ Kaplan went on.
Carroll’s lawyer Roberta Kaplan believes Trump will be compelled to pay, possibly by selling properties or by taking out a loan
E. Jean Carroll plans to use the money awarded for a positive cause. She is seen leaving a Manhattan federal court at the conclusion of her defamation suit on Friday
‘He cares about money,’ Kaplan said. ‘And this is a lot of money to Donald Trump. And I don’t think he wants another judgment at the same amount.’
It may take as long as a year before any of the money comes through, but Carroll, 80, is already planning on how she will spend her damages.
‘I’m not going to waste a cent of this. We’re going to do something good with it,’ she told the New York Times, joking that she would be pampering her dogs.
‘I’m going to be able to buy some premium dog food now,’ she said. ‘You know, me and the dogs are going to get along just fine in our hovel but we’re going to do something great with this money.’
Trump did not target Carroll directly in either his Nevada rally, Saturday’s Truth Social posting or and Friday’s declaration that ‘Our Legal System is out of control.’
However, Carroll is being cautious when asked if the matter is finished once and for all.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump looks on as his attorney delivers closing arguments during E. Jean Carroll’s second civil trial
E. Jean Carroll hugs her team after the verdict was read at the conclusion of the civil trial where she accused former president of raping her decades ago
‘I can’t possibly guess what Donald Trump will ever do or not do. Can’t make a guess,’ she told the Times.
One day on from her win, Carroll said that it is only now that the reality is sinking in.
‘It was so overpowering yesterday. I couldn’t feel the elation. This morning, around 8 or 9, having my first cup of tea, is when I truly felt calm enough to feel what we had accomplished,’ she said.
Carroll says the verdict is one for women as a whole.
‘This win, more than any other thing, when we needed it the most — after we lost the rights over our own bodies in many states — we put out our flag in the ground on this one. Women won this one. I think it bodes well for the future.’
Carroll alleged how Trump had raped her in the 1990s detailing how he had attacked her in the dressing room of a department store.
At the culmination of Friday’s trial, the jury took just three hours of deliberation to reach n Friday to strip away some of that power
‘I was terrified — for weeks ahead,’ Carroll said, but somehow she was able to calm herself.
‘When you’ve actually faced the man, he’s just a man with no clothes on. It’s the people around him that are giving him the power.’
Trump blasted the verdict minutes after the jury hit him with an $83.3 million damage award
The defamation trial concluded in dramatic fashion on Friday, as a jury awarded Carroll $60 million more in damages than she was anticipating.
Last year, a civil court jury found Trump liable of sexually abusing Carroll in a Manhattan department store.
After she wrote about the alleged encounter in 2019, Trump, who by then had been elected president, told reporters he had no idea who Carroll was, that her accusation was ‘totally false’ and that she motivated by a desire to sell books.
Carroll thensued Trump for defamation in 2019, saying his statements about her were false and damaged her reputation.
It was these subsequent comments the motivated her decision to sue Trump for defamation.
She also sued over things he had said about her after leaving the White House.
Trump was not criminally charged. The civil verdict, however, has led many to mistakenly believe he was convicted of sexually assaulting Carroll.
Donald Trump is seen leaving the court on Friday before the verdict was announced
E. Jean Carroll, in white, is seen with her friends and legal team leaving the court in Manhattan on Friday evening
Trump has vowed to appeal, but will ultimately have to pay Carroll, legal experts believe
Trump was ordered to pay the sum as he accused Carroll of lying when she accused him of sexually assaulting her, and has consistently insisted that he never even met her.
The huge damages handed down on Friday came as a surprise even to Carroll, who broke down in tears and embraced her legal team as she won tens of millions more than expected.
Carroll, and her lawyers Kaplan and Shawn Crowley, glanced excitedly at each other as the judge queried what the ‘m’ on the jury’s verdict form signified.
‘Million,’ the foreman replied.
She and her legal team then composed themselves as the judge wrapped up the proceedings – while Trump’s legal team looked stunned and stoney-faced.
The former president has already vowed to appeal the verdict and called the case a ‘Biden Directed Witch Hunt.’
Donald Trump’s defense attorney Alina Habba said she was ‘proud’ to defend the former president as tore into the justice system following the $83.3million E. Jean Carroll verdict
Taking to Truth Social after the verdict, Trump declared that the trial was evidence that there is ‘no longer Justice in America.’
He derided the ruling as ‘absolutely ridiculous’, adding: ‘Our Judicial System is Broken and Unfair!’
‘I fully disagree with both verdicts, and will be appealing this whole Biden Directed Witch Hunt focused on me and the Republican Party,’ he continued.
‘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!’ He did not provide evidence that President Biden directed Carroll’s decision to seek monetary damages after Trump called her a liar and a ‘whack job.’
He followed up with another furious post later Friday evening. ‘There is no longer Justice in America. Our Judicial System is Broken and Unfair!’ he posted.
As her client tore into the verdict from a runway, Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba issued a scathing rebuke of the trial from the steps of the courthouse, tearing into the justice system that she sees as being ‘weaponized.’
‘I’m not having any second thoughts representing President Trump’, Habba told journalists in an impassioned speech as she walked out of Manhattan Federal Court, moments after the damages were read out in court.
‘It is the proudest thing I could ever do,’ she added. ‘I have sat on trial after trial for months in this state… and now we see what you get in New York.
‘I am so proud to stand with President President Trump. But I am not proud to stand with what I saw in that courtroom.
‘Before I walked into court, that judge decided that every single defense President Trump had, we were not allowed to raise in front of the jury.
‘It is in writing and I encourage the journalists, the real journalists to take a minute to look at his orders.’