President Donald Trump has blasted Bill Clinton-appointed Judge Lewis Kaplan following the recent ruling in the E. Jean Carroll defamation lawsuit.
Trump has vowed to appeal the shocking, politically motivated ruling.
In case you missed it, the jury handed Carroll a massive reward on Friday.
The Associated Press reported:
A jury awarded $83.3 million to E. Jean Carroll on Friday in a stinging and expensive rebuke to former President Donald Trump for his continued social media attacks against the longtime advice columnist over her claims that he sexually assaulted her in a Manhattan department store.
Now, Trump is promising to appeal the case.
It appears that partisan Judge Kaplan is likely to be a big focus of Trump’s legal team.
Not long after the jury’s decision, Trump took to social media to make it clear that he will be appealing the ruling.
“Absolutely ridiculous!” Trump wrote.
“I fully disagree with both verdicts, and will be appealing this whole Biden Directed Witch Hunt focused on me and the Republican Party.”
He added, “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!”
Then, in a subsequent post, Trump wrote:
“There is no longer Justice in America.
“Our Judicial System is Broken and Unfair!”
Trump has maintained his innocence.
He has insisted that, contrary to what Carroll has claimed, he did not sexually assault her.
Trump, instead, has argued that Carroll made the claim to sell her book.
He maintains that he has never even met Carrol, who is part of a larger effort by the Democrats to upend his presidential campaign.
Carroll has provided no evidence to support the allegations and is unable to provide a date of when the alleged assault took place.
Trump has yet to file his appeal, so we do not know exactly what his legal team is going to argue.
However, based on public comments that have been made by both Trump and his legal team, it is probably safe to predict that at least some of their arguments will concern Kaplan and his alleged mishandling of the case.
Alina Habba, Trump’s attorney, for example, said the following after the jury awarded Carroll $83 million:
“We were stripped of every defense – every single defense – before we walked in there, and I am proud to stand with President Trump because he showed up, he stood up, he took the stand, and he faced this judge.”
Similar statements have been made by Trump.
Trump has especially emphasized the potentially exonerating evidence that Kaplan refused to allow the jury to see.
It appears that the appeal will also likely focus on alleged conflicts of interest that Kaplan has, including the allegation that the judge had previously mentored Carroll’s lawyer – something that Trump’s legal team says that it was unaware of until recently.
The next question will be whether or not Trump can get a fair hearing on appeal.
Time will tell.
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