St. George And The Dragon 🐉

'Unusual inclusion' in E. Jean Carroll jury instructions helped seal Trump's fate: expert

"Judge Kaplan had an unusual inclusion in his jury instructions, something I’ve never heard a judge do before."https://t.co/D8F7Wxe19N

— Raw Story (@RawStory) January 27, 2024

Pointing out that Trump was likely banking on "jury nullification" from just one juror to avoid a massive penalty, Vance wrote, "Judge Kaplan had an unusual inclusion in his jury instructions, something I’ve never heard a judge do before. He read from the Constitution. He talked about 'we the people' and the establishment of a justice system. And he referred to the history of the Southern District of New York, where federal courts have been in existence since 1789." 

Calling Kaplan's appeal to the jurors "low-key" that should in no way lead to be included in an expected Trump appeal, she added it was "nonetheless out of the ordinary, reinforced the importance of the court system and its integrity in the minds of the jurors before they deliberated." 

"That is a reasonable counterbalance to the chaos Trump tries to insert into judicial proceedings and was perhaps the final element of Judge Kaplan’s careful control of his courtroom, which prevented a dissent into theatrics and prevented the trial from becoming just another campaign venue," she suggested.

All due praise to Judge Kaplan, but the “Trump bubble” is real, and Trump supporters aren’t the only ones living in it.

Trump is a very litigious person; but how often has he appeared in court, or gone to trial? 60+ cases launched by him or his supporters to overturn the 2020 election, and Trump never appeared before a judge for one of them. We don’t, in other words, have a track record for Trump before judges and juries, but we all know what it is like and how it, alternatively, should be. Why? Because of the long NYS fraud case.

Trump testified there, and stormed out of the courtroom on the regular, and made a dog’s breakfast of his case, but he got to rant and rave and tout le Twitter decided he “won”, well, something, and it was Trump!, so, it should never happen again. And it didn’t in Kaplan’s court, so St. George finally slew the dragon!

Yeah, no. 

Trump’s stunts probably cost him this case. Certainly the jury spent little time discussing anything more than: “How much?” 

Judge Engoron let Trump have his say because Engoron was the only one listening. He listened, and knew what he was listening to. Kaplan had a jury to protect. Juries are vital, and sacrosanct. They are protected from bullshit and nonsense and irrelevancy in the name of fairness and due process. Engoron had no jury to protect, so Trump was shouting into an empty room. Kaplan ruled a federal courtroom in a courthouse where Trump had to leave the grounds to find a TeeVee camera, and where, like as not, he couldn’t find a spot where the Secret Service would let him stand and deliver. So Trump could only go back to Trump Tower, or get on his plane.

Kaplan is not the aberration, nor is Engoron. They are both the rule. Change the facts, change the outcome. And whatever facts Trump learned from being litigious, are failing him now. Even his critics, who bought into his myth of invincibility, are struggling to see that. But Trump is playing with the big boys now. And he just got beaten like a drum by an 80 year old woman and her female lawyer. Schadenfreude, bay-bee!

It’s a sign of things to come. He faces jury trials from here on out. Criminal trials, so he’ll have to sit still for them, and stay in his seat, and impress the jurors with his mature demeanor and stoic behavior, and his ability to listen calmly.

This is how the legal system works. And he’s toast.