Donald Trump’s legal team appears to have cemented defense their strategy and are now blaming the victim, E. Jean Carroll, in the penalty phase of her defamation and sexual abuse civil case against the ex-president, experts are saying. This portion of the trial is to determine how much Trump must pay Carroll, a journalist who this week on the stand detailed how Trump’s attacks cost her her valuable reputation and her income.
“Attended the E Jean Carroll trial today,” writes former FBI General Counsel and MSNBC legal analyst Andrew Weissmann. He notes that “the Trump defense appears to be Carroll is to blame, since by going public with the sexual assault claim, Trump had to defame her and her reputation suffered only because of her decision to report the assault.”
“Trump defense=war on women,” Weissmann adds.
MSNBC legal analyst Lisa Rubin, also at the trial in Manhattan, adds a detailed explanation.
READ MORE: ‘Jailing and Killing Americans’: Expert Issues Warning on Trump’s Latest Claim
Trump attorney Alina Habba’s “strategy seems to be a variation on a well-known political theme: Are you better off today than you were four years ago?” Rubin reveals.
The answer is a qualified “yes,” but she explains why the question itself is a poor one.
“Carroll earns more money today by posting to her Substack roughly three times a week than she did in 2019, when she wrote her column for Elle once a month for half the salary she had been paid just a couple of years prior,” says Rubin.
“But the attempt to prove the backlash to Carroll’s account predated Trump’s attack fell flat, in large part because the tweets Habba showed were qualitatively different than the violent threats & accusations of paid political work that began with Trump’s 6/21/19 attack,” Rubin writes. “And those threats, as Carroll powerfully testified yesterday and today, have never stopped, ending her world as she knew it. Even beyond the threats, she maintained, more people know her today, but she is also reviled as a liar, a wack job, and a partisan operative.”
Rubin explains that “Habba wanted the jury to doubt Carroll’s credibility because she has (gasp!) written about sex openly and with humor. She’s even written about ‘dominat[ing] men’ and jokingly asked what women should do about the problem of their partner’s penises.”
READ MORE: Brown Bags and Ballots: Viral Videos Capture Chaotic Iowa Caucus System
CNN legal analyst Norm Eisen earlier Thursday surmised damages the jury might require Trump to pay Carroll could be “big.”
“E. Jean Carroll is a powerful witness,” Eisen wrote. “Combine that with Trump’s rude demeanor & asides—big damages award likely coming.”
Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Signorelli offered more insight into damages.
“The jury will hear about how ‘wealthy’ Trump says he is. Punitive damages are in part based on the defendant’s wealth [because] they are meant to punish a wrongdoer and only a large award can do so w/ a well to do defendant.”
He says he’s expecting “an extremely large award.”
MSNBC executive producer Kyle Griffin highlights how much Trump’s actions might cost the ex-president who is an adjudicated rapist.
“Northwestern professor Ashlee Humphreys, who was called as a witness by E. Jean Carroll’s lawyers as an expert on damages, testified it could cost up to $12.1 million for Carroll to repair her reputation with those who likely believed Donald Trump.”