Being Factually Accurate

I'm sure you want to be factually accurate, so it's important to note that the first jury specifically found Trump *not* liable for rape. It did, however, find him liable for sexual abuse. That finding is the foundation of the defamation campaign against Trump. If the first jury… https://t.co/hYZhV78TuQ

— Byron York (@ByronYork) January 27, 2024

Let’s be factually accurate. Trump lost the first Carroll suit not because he didn’t testify, but because he did. His deposition was entered into evidence in the trial, and it killed him. Tacopina kept Trump out of court because Trump either would have defiantly (and stupidly) driven the nails into his own coffin, or tried to contradict the deposition, with the same result. He affirmed that deposition in the second trial. He could not have denied it in the first. And he’s always said the event didn’t happen, so it would have been (as it was) “he said/she said.” He said that in his deposition. The first jury just believed Carroll.

Trump answered one question in the second trial, and he affirmed his deposition and all he said there. So they used it again, and now he owes north of $80 million.

The first trial was not the “foundation” of the second. Nor was the “legally proven ‘fact’” the foundation of the second. Collateral estoppel simply moved the case to the question of damages; the liability issue did not need to be retried. Trump had every chance to refute it; he failed. So he couldn’t get another bite at the apple in a liability defense. The only defense he was left with was a challenge to Carroll’s alleged damages. His lawyer chose to challenge the liability issue instead; which was an $80 million mistake.

The second was filed first, but delayed by Trump’s claim of presidential immunity from statements made while he was president. Those statements were the basis of this slander suit, to which were added the statements he made during the trial, about matters already proven true as a matter of law! Finding himself in a hole, Trump kept digging! 

Here we insert an irony alert!🚨. Trump was in this position in the second trial because he claimed immunity, and appealed the denial of that claim.  Delay, delay, delay, right? That bit him in the ass. 

So Trump put himself in this position by claiming immunity (and appealing that ruling), and by his braggadocious deposition. A deposition he affirmed in the second trial.

Trump has no one to blame but himself for how this turned out.

And yes, the trial judge did find Trump's actions to be rape. QED.