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E. Jean Carroll and her attorneys found a way to "shut Donald Trump up" following the former president's loss in Carroll's defamation case against him last week, according to former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner.
Trump was ordered by a New York City jury on Friday to pay Carroll $83.3 million in damages for statements the former president made in 2019 when denying allegations that he sexually assaulted the former Elle columnist in the mid-1990s. The blow arrived after a separate jury in May found the former president liable for sexual assault, as Trump was ordered to pay Carroll $5 million in damages for comments he made about her in 2022.
Throughout the case, even after the May ruling, Trump has been adamant that he is innocent of the allegations brought against him by Carroll, and often took to social media to rag on the plaintiff. Last week, Forbes reported that the former president posted about Carroll more than 40 times in less than one hour, accusing her of making up the story about the sexual assault and calling the defamation suit a "witch hunt."
But as Kirschner pointed out during Wednesday's episode of his Justice Matters podcast, since being ordered to pay Carroll the whopping $83.3 million, Trump has "not defaced Ms. Carroll again."
"Now, I know it's only been about five or six days since the verdict," Kirschner continued. "But still, even that feels like something of a record for Donald Trump."
"So maybe the way to shut Donald Trump up, to stop him from lying about, defaming, and indeed endangering the lives of others, is to aggressively apply the rule of law," added Kirschner, who is an adamant critic of the former president.
Newsweek reached out to Trump's campaign for comment via email late Wednesday night.
While Trump has held back on deliberately attacking Carroll online, the former president has dismissed last week's verdict as "absolutely ridiculous" and has vowed to appeal the jury's decision. In a post to Truth Social shortly after the verdict was rendered on Friday, Trump wrote, "Our Legal System is out of control, and being used as a Political Weapon."
The former president has also taken aim at U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan, who oversaw both defamation cases brought against him by Carroll. Trump called the judge "a Clinton appointed, highly partisan, Trump Hating Judge" in a post to Truth Social on Wednesday, adding that Kaplan is a "bully who denied him due process."
Trump could soon face additional financial damages in a different case. The former president is embroiled in a $370 million lawsuit filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat who has accused the former president of filing false financial statements to obtain more favorable loans and insurance rates. New York State Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron, who has already ruled that Trump engaged in fraud by inflating his net worth on financial documents, is expected to deliver a decision on the case in the coming days.
The former president also faces two federal criminal trials and one election interference case in Georgia. In total, Trump has 91 felony counts against him as he campaigns for a second shot at the White House.
"Donald Trump can't hide behind his lies in court," Kirschner continued during his podcast episode Wednesday. "Donald Trump can't run from the evidence, the evidence that proves what he did. So, friends, I've said this before, once Donald Trump's cases move from the court of public opinion into courts of law, he's done."
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About the writer
Kaitlin Lewis is a Newsweek reporter on the Night Team based in Boston, Massachusetts. Her focus is reporting on national ... Read more