Victor Davis Hanson, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, said on his podcast Friday that President-elect Donald Trump has “cause for a reversal” in the E. Jean Carroll case, citing the presiding judge’s language. He said it was possible.
In May 2023, a New York jury found Trump liable for sexual assault and defamation, but did not convict him of rape in a lawsuit brought by former Elle magazine reporter E. Jean Carroll. There wasn’t. On “The Victor Davis Hanson Show,” Hanson spoke out about Trump’s accusations against the show after host George Stephanopoulos claimed during a live broadcast that Trump was “responsible for rape.” Discussed ABC’s settlement in defamation suit.
“I think George Stephanopoulos said in an interview 11 times that Donald Trump committed rape. E. Jean Carroll’s civil suit claims she was sexually assaulted by him. “The jury found that he did not commit rape, but that he may have committed sexual assault,” Hanson said.
According to court records filed on Dec. 14, ABC was ordered to pay $15 million by Dec. 24 in “charitable contributions” to President Trump’s “Presidential Foundation and Museum.” The former president filed a defamation lawsuit against the network and Mr. Stephanopoulos. This followed a March show in which Stephanopoulos repeatedly asked Republican South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace about her support for Trump and claimed the former president was “responsible for rape.” (Related: MSNBC legal analyst Fanny Willis reveals what could happen next after being booted from Trump case)
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“And the judge [Kaplan]I remember his name, but he misspoke and said, “Well,” someone corrected him or reminded him that he was never convicted of rape, but he… I said, “What’s the difference?” Something along those lines, and it’s on appeal, I think would cause a reversal,” Hanson added.
“Judges basically…put on a show.”[ed] There is a pre-existing bias that if a judge knows that the jury did not find or considered rape and then says publicly that he cannot tell the difference between the two, that will be appealed.” he said.
Following Carroll’s victory over Trump in May, the former president’s team asked Chief Justice Louis Capalan to reconsider the term, pointing out how the term “sexual abuse” is limited by definition. He argued for a hearing. According to In the Washington Post. However, Kaplan responded in her filing that although Carroll could not prove that she was “raped,” the term may not be commonly understood, the outlet said.
“The finding that we were unable to prove that Ms. Carol was ‘raped’ within the meaning of New York criminal law means that Mr. “This does not mean that she could not prove that she ‘raped’ him,” Kaplan wrote.
“Indeed, as the trial evidence detailed below makes clear, the jury found that Mr. Trump did, in fact, do just that,” Kaplan said.
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