There is a great saying in Thailand: "Same same but different." In the United States that difference can be very costly.
"ABC News and anchor George Stephanopoulos agreed to pay $15 million toward Donald Trump's future presidential library and $1 million in legal fees to settle a defamation lawsuit." George Stephanopoulos repeatedly said Trump was found guilty of rape. When the guest challenge this George doubled down and that cost ABC $16 million.
Keep in mind this lawsuit was almost impossible for ABC to lose. Trump's legal team would have to prove George knew what he was saying was false. My guess, just like Fox's massive settlement with the voting machine folks, ABC feared discover. One can only imagine what the internal ABC communications would have revealed?
Was Trump found guilty of rape?
Criminally case - NO
Civil case - NO
In the eyes of the public - Depends
The Judge - Same same but different.
I can't believe the Judge actually commented on the specifics of this case. I blogged about this in detail and was shocked. For starters I didn't know civil cases have to comply with the statute of limitations. For this case to be heard New York actually change their law for this and similar cases.
"The lawsuit brought by E. Jean Carroll relied on New York's temporary "look-back window" under the Adult Survivors Act, which completely bypassed the 3-year statute of limitations."
The jury was told "The incident occurred in late 1995 or early 1996." Yes it's true E. Jean Carroll didn't remember the specific date of the assault but she did have two contemporary witnesses: Lisa Birnbach and Carol Martin. No doubt those witnesses provided the jury the needed preponderance of evidence to convict Trump.
Besides the $5 million dollar judgement Trump was found guilty of defamation for refusing to stop saying he didn't assaulted E. Jean Carroll 30 years ago. The court has ordered Trump to pay close to $100 million dollars?
My takeaway, New York temporarily changed the statue of limitations and Donald Trump had to prove something didn't happen 30 years ago. It came down to three people saying it happened versus Trump. The accused was a very unpopular former President that the world knew was going to run again.
Did any other collaborating evidence such as the men in these women's lives recalling the same story exist? How about something written? Many women in the 1990's kept diaries. E. Jean Carroll testified she infact kept a diary but didn't mention the incident because it wasn't a happy incident.
There is a reason the statute of limitation exists. Few of us can accurately remember what happened 3 years ago let alone 30. It's frankly hard to believe the day, month or year wasn't determined during the nine day trial. Clearly, if you don't have to nail down a specific day, month or even year it makes it impossible for the accused to show where they were the night in question. I would say if you can't recall when something happened you can't sue someone.
So why did E. Jean Carroll file this lawsuit? Could it have been to potentially make millions? Could it be notoriety? Could it be to "take out" a potential Presidential candidate who many in the world want to see dead?
How about something as simple as promoting her latest book? Putting a few nuggets in a book and then promoting the book using those nuggets is a tried and true way onto the New York Times Best Seller list. Remember, it was 2019 when we first learned of these allegations... In the promotion of E. Jean Carroll's 5th book.
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FYI The statue of limitations is once again: "For adult sexual assault felonies, the permanent civil statute of limitations is 20 years from the date of the incident. For lower-level general civil claims, it is 3 years."
