A tizzy of a dump for a Friday — T-Rump finally getting some longtime-coming comeuppance for being a lying-ass, cruel, shitty asshole (NYT):
Former President Donald J. Trump was ordered by a Manhattan jury on Friday to pay $83.3 million to the writer E. Jean Carroll for defaming her in 2019 after she accused him of a decades-old rape, attacks he continued in social media posts, at news conferences and even in the midst of the trial itself.
Ms. Carroll’s lawyers had argued that a large award was necessary to stop Mr. Trump from continuing to attack her. The nine-member jury responded by awarding Ms. Carroll $65 million in punitive damages, finding that Mr. Trump had acted with malice. On one recent day, he made more than 40 derisive posts about Ms. Carroll on his Truth Social website.
On Friday, the judge, Lewis A. Kaplan, called in the jury shortly after 4:30 p.m., cautioning, “We will have no outbursts.” The verdict was delivered nine minutes later to utter silence in the courtroom.
Mr. Trump had already left for the day when the dollar figures were read aloud. Hearing the numbers, his lawyers slumped in their seats. The jury was dismissed, and Ms. Carroll, 80, embraced her lawyers. Minutes later, she walked out of the courthouse arm in arm with her legal team, beaming for the cameras.
And a possible future:
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) January 26, 2024
Beyond the cash, the menacing tone of the T-Rump still weighs heavy:
Much more important than the 83 million dollar verdict is the recognition from a member of the U.S. judiciary that Trump and his supporters remain a violent threat to ordinary Americans. https://t.co/928xs61QMZ
— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) January 26, 2024
Highlights the horror of the situation right now with the violent, unhinged T-Rump and ordinary people trying to do what’s right — a warning:
Judge Lewis Kaplan had just a few short words to share with the jury moments after they issued a whopping $83.3 million verdict against Donald Trump in the defamation case brought by writer E. Jean Carroll.
“My advice to you is that you never disclose that you were on this jury,” Kaplan said.
That foreboding warning—which sounds more like something you’d expect to hear in a trial against a mob boss rather than a former president—is just one of many extraordinary measures that Kaplan has taken to keep his jury safe. Prior to the trial’s start, Kaplan also decided to keep the jury partially sequestered and fully anonymous, instructing them not to use their real names even with one another.
Trump proved moments after the trial that there’s a good reason for the extra precautions, launching into a social media diatribe in which he claimed he would be attempting to appeal the decision.
“Absolutely ridiculous! I fully disagree with both verdicts, and will be appealing this whole Biden Directed Witch Hunt focused on me and the Republican Party,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “Our Legal System is out of control, and being used as a Political Weapon. They have taken away all First Amendment Rights. THIS IS NOT AMERICA!”
Not the America for you, asshole!
Yet the shit-twit orange turd put the finishing touches to an increasingly already vicious undertow for an entire political party (one of only two here in America) making violence a means to an end — Republicans were on the road well before the T-Rump showed up, but he kicked it into high gear.
Chauncey DeVega, in an interesting essay on the subject at Salon yesterday, notes the causes of an intention-ease of the media:
There are many reasons. Even after almost nine years of Trump’s central role in our political life, many in the mainstream media still believe that “normal” politics and the supposed institutions of democracy will be enough stop Trump and today’s Republican fascists. What follows from that is the naive hope or belief that continuing to cover Trump as a normal candidate, according to obsolete horserace standards of “fairness” and “balance,” will somehow cause our democracy crisis to go away. Coverage of the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary, as Trump’s rivals have fallen away, represented a brief return to familiar and comfortable terrain for the mainstream news media. But there is nothing familiar or comfortable about the Trumpocene era, and that security blanket will shortly be ripped away.
A recent example made pertinent via E. Jean Carroll’s testimony this week at trial (the Guardian):
“The thing that really got me about this was, from the White House, he asked if anyone had any information about me, and if they did, to please come forward as soon as possible, because he wanted the world to know what’s really going on – and that people like me should pay dearly,” she told jurors.
Carroll was presented with some of those threats on the stand. “I hope you die soon. I hope someone really does attack, rape and murder you,” one message stated. Another missive read: “Rape Jean rape jean.”
[…]
The writer said that she got a pit bull that roams leash-less on her property. “He now patrols very eagerly and enthusiastically,” Carroll told the court. Carroll also said she bought bullets for a gun that she inherited from her father.
Asked where she kept the gun, Carroll said: “By my bed.”
Maybe draining his wallet will make T-Rump STFU — doubt it.
Bust the Trump Tower, or not, yet once again here we are…
(Illustration out front: ‘President Trump,’ by Jonathan Bass, found here.)