Trump faces ‘two-edged sword’ from defamation defeat

A jury in New York said that Donald Trump has to pay $83. 3 million to E Jean Carroll, a writer who he denied assaulting. Legal experts are saying that the award is a message to the ex-president to stop spreading bad things about her. But, will it be successful.

Last year Ms Carroll won a court case against Mr Trump. The jury found him legally responsible for sexually abusing and defaming her, and she was awarded $5m in damages.

The result of the first case didn’t stop the ex-president from saying that Ms. Carroll’s story was not true. He even personally attacked the writer and said he had never met her.

After paying a lot of money for legal fees on Friday, he didn’t insult the former Elle columnist in his online response. Instead, he called the case a “Biden Directed Witch Hunt”.

Mr Trump is facing four criminal charges and may have to pay a lot of money in a New York trial about fraud. He says the cases against him are only happening because of politics.

According to Grant Reeher, a professor at Syracuse University, his legal problems have had both positive and negative effects on his election campaign.

“It has made most people think less of him, but it has made his supporters even more passionate and convinced some Republicans to stay loyal to him,” Professor Reeher said to the media.

“Trump sees his legal problems as a sign of being treated unfairly and as a sign of loyalty to his supporters. ”

But he said that it is not clear how Mr. Trump’s “witch hunt” message will affect the general election, even though it may help him in the Republican primary.

Recent surveys show that Mr. Trump and President Joe Biden are in a close competition, and Mr. Trump is even winning in some situations, if they were to run against each other again in the future.

Professor Reeher said that this tells us a lot about Biden and the Democrats, just as it does about Trump. He was referring to the president’s low job approval ratings and worries about his age.

Even if Mr. Trump truly feels he was treated unfairly by Ms. Carroll, and many of his supporters agree, the verdict on Friday shows how the nine people on the jury felt about his actions.

During the trial, Ms Carroll’s lawyers said that Mr Trump was still saying bad things about her, even outside of court.

In the final part of the trial, they asked the seven men and two women jurors to give a punishment that will make the person stop doing bad things.

This is a lot of money. “This is a huge amount of money,” said Dmitriy Shakhnevich, a lawyer and teacher at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

The jury thinks that this man is rich and won’t stop unless he is hurt financially.

MsCarroll was given $83 million. $65 million of that money is a punishment for the other party. A prize for punishment money “depends on how bad the behavior was,” Prof Shakhnevich said.

Conservative lawyer John Yoo said on Fox News: “The main idea of this is. ” We want to tell Donald Trump to be quiet.

“I can’t believe his lawyers haven’t been able to tell him: run for president, talk about unfair justice, but don’t talk about this. ”

The former president wants to appeal, but experts think he probably won’t win.

“The amount of punitive damages is not much higher than the compensatory damages, so it shouldn’t cause any concerns. I think it will stay the same,” said RonNell Andersen Jones, a professor at the University of Utah.

Professor Jones mentioned that Mr. Trump’s response on the internet, where he targeted Mr. Biden and the legal system without repeating false claims about Ms. Carroll, could show that the consequences may discourage further harmful actions.

University of Richmond law professor Carl Tobias said that the Republicans’ bad behavior during the trial might have made their case weaker.

Prof Tobias said that Trump did not show respect to the judge, the jurors, the other lawyer, specifically Carroll, and the legal process during the civil trial.

It’s very unlikely that the Supreme Court will agree to hear an appeal, he said. The justices hardly ever look at cases like this.

Mitch Epner, a former federal prosecutor, said that Mr. Trump has been able to avoid paying any money to Ms. Carroll by giving a deposit to the court while he is appealing the case.

Mr Epner thinks that Mr Trump will also have to pay a lot of money or put up a bond if he wants to appeal the decision.

He said that if this doesn’t happen, Ms Carroll could take control of the things the former president owns, including his properties.

But even though Mr. Trump won big in the first two Republican primary contests in Iowa and New Hampshire, it doesn’t look like Friday’s decision will stop him from winning the party’s presidential nomination.

“The first test will be in South Carolina,” said Brian Crowley, an experienced political expert. He was talking about the Republican primary vote on 24 February.

“With the polls showing that he is currently winning against Nikki Haley, she can use this decision to make people think that Trump has too many problems that could make him lose against Biden in the election. “