Happy Monday and Happy New Year! Donald Trump, AKA Gropey The Clown, AKA the president-elect, AKA the adjudicated rapist who has been accused by at least 22 people of being some kind of nonconsensual pussgrabber, has lost his federal appeal in the E. Jean Carroll case. (This is the second Carroll case, which was heard first, AKA the $5 million one. It’s confusing.) A three-judge panel of the Second US Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan told him that how the district court handled the case was just fine, no, stupid, you aren’t getting a new trial, and pound sand.
Trump’s lawyers Todd Blanche and Emil Bove had argued that the jury should not have been allowed to hear from two other accusers, Jessica Leeds and Natasha Stoynoff, or hear the gross “Access Hollywood” tape, wherein the defendant slobbered about how women let him grab their p-words because he’s a star.
They felt that Leeds’s testimony about how the world’s most famous sex pest grabbed her on an airplane and stuck his hand up her skirt like he had “40 zillion hands” should not have been admitted because of airplane law, because groping on an airplane does not count, and anyway that tape and the alleged gropings happened a long time ago, so Trump was really the victim here.
Also George Conway told Carroll to get a lawyer, how dare he. So Trump should get a new trial, wah wah.
You may recall that the skeevy, rapey sentiments Trump uttered to Billy Bush on that “Access Hollywood” tape were uttered in 2005, but Mister Busyfingers also took it upon himself to reaffirm his previous sentiments around pussgrabbing by stars like himself in his deposition. And he threw in that Carroll’s lawyer wasn’t his type either, not that anybody fucking asked. And that probably contributed to why it took the jury only about three hours to find him liable for sexual abuse and defaming Carroll.
LAWYER ROBERTA KAPLAN: And you say it again, this has become very famous in this video. “I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet, just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab them by the [inaudible] you can do anything.” That’s what you said, correct?
TRUMP: Well, historically, that’s true with stars.
LAWYER: It’s true with stars that they can grab women by the [inaudible]?
TRUMP: Well, if you look over the last million years, I guess that’s been largely true. Not always, but largely true. Unfortunately or fortunately.
LAWYER: And you consider yourself to be a star.
TRUMP: I think you can say that.
It also did not help him that he confused “not his type” Carroll with his former wife, Marla.
Concluded the judge panel:
In each of the three encounters [Leeds, Stoynoff, and Carroll], Mr. Trump engaged in an ordinary conversation with a woman he barely knew, then abruptly lunged at her in a semi-public place and proceeded to kiss and forcefully touch her without her consent. The acts are sufficiently similar to show a pattern or ‘recurring modus operandi.’ … Moreover, the [Access Hollywood] tape was ‘directly corroborative’ of the testimony of Ms. Carroll, Ms. Leeds, and Ms. Stoynoff as to the pattern of behavior each allegedly experienced.
He is definitely a man of patterns, and the pattern is human moray eel.
Blanche and Bove may not be too great at lawyerin’, but Trump has appointed them as US deputy attorney general and principal associate deputy attorney general, respectively. They also brought their crack lawyerin’ to his Florida documents case, his DC federal election subversion case, and his porner peener NY case, wherein he was convicted on those 34 felony counts.
Their signature move is filing craptons of longshot motions to clog the plumbing of justice with a giant fatberg until a favorable judge (or six) comes along to pronounce their client a very special boy who is above the law. And hey, two out of four times, it’s worked, so, congrats on the promotions, I guess.
For his part, the adjudicated forced-finger-banger has been fuming on his failing web site, reposting a photo from PROBOSSMEMES of E. Jean Carroll, reading: “Should a woman go to jail for falsely accusing a man of rape? Retruth if you want justice for Trump.” ABC giving him that $16 million because George Stephanopoulos called him a rapist seems to have hepped up Trump’s taste for screaming, retributive bullshit, so great job there, Bob Iger, or whoever signed off on that one.
Anyway, Trump can still demand a review from the full Second Circuit, and/or demand to talk to the managers at SCOTUS and whine and appeal that he’s Lord Emperor President now, and no rules should ever apply to him, the biggest victim ever. But unless those courts decide to make up reasons to get involved and invent new laws to do favors for him, Carroll will eventually get that money, hopefully in her lifetime.
And he’s still an adjudicated sexual abuser, and everybody knows it, even if millions of people are apparently fine with that.
Four more years of this guy, FUCKING UGH.
OPEN THREAD.
Open Thread Chat Dec. 30. I think it's appropriate that his initials were JC.
https://substack.com/chat/1783367/post/c9b38c74-ec4e-4326-a640-d1859e3083e2
The six year old I babysit had told me before Christmas that if he got a certain toy then he might believe in Santa. He previously had stated in no uncertain terms that Santa did not exist. I asked him what the toy was but had to promise to not tell his parents. It was a toy lightsaber. So when I saw him next I asked had he gotten the lightsaber. He said yes, two of them. I asked if that meant he believed in Santa. He thought for a moment then said no, I don't believe, my dad heard me telling Santa what I wanted. He reasoned that it's just impossible for one man to go all around the world in one night. Six year olds are so dammed logical! But he loved the lightsaber and beat both mom and dad.