Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Supreme Court PREPARES TO REJECT Trump’s Request

Episode Date: January 1, 2025

The Supreme Court is unlikely to bail out Trump and save him from E Jean Carroll’s two judgments totaling almost $100 million dollars for sex assault, defamation and punitive damages, as they have sat on the sidelines and not taken up his appeal of the Second Circuit’s immunity decision last December. Michael Popok explains how the Second Circuit’s decision this week to uphold E Jean’s first $5 million dollar jury verdict against Trump most certainly means that Trump will be forced to pay the remaining $90 million dollars to her also, with no Supreme Court bailout in sight. Let Rocket Money reach your financial goals faster by going to https://rocketmoney.com/legalaf Visit https://meidastouch.com for more! Support the MeidasTouch Network: https://patreon.com/meidastouch Add the MeidasTouch Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-meidastouch-podcast/id1510240831 Buy MeidasTouch Merch: https://store.meidastouch.com Follow MeidasTouch on Twitter: https://twitter.com/meidastouch Follow MeidasTouch on Facebook: https://facebook.com/meidastouch Follow MeidasTouch on Instagram: https://instagram.com/meidastouch Follow MeidasTouch on TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@meidastouch Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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that MGM dot com for terms and conditions must be 19 years of age or older to wager Ontario only please play responsibly if you have any questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you please contact Connex Ontario A devastating loss against Donald Trump yesterday has not been properly reported about what it means for a future $83 million case against him brought by the same plaintiff who was victimized by him. So says two federal juries, the E. Jean Carroll case lives on. We've got the new reporting, yes, that she won the $5 million case that was tried first. But what does it mean

that the appellate court ruled in her favor? What does it mean for the larger $83 million case a second jury awarded her for defamation and impugnitive damages after Donald Trump testified in that case? I'm gonna clear it all up right here on Legal AF and the Midas Touch Network. I'm Michael Popock. Let's dive in.

The case of E. Jean Carroll being victimized and sexually abused by Donald Trump found itself in two separate cases. One case was originally filed based on statements of defamation made by Donald Trump while he was still president of the United States in 2017, where he denied the allegations made by E. Jean Carroll that she was sexually assaulted in a dressing room of a New York department store directly across the street from Trump Tower back in 1996. That formed the basis of the first filing. The first filing we refer to as Carol 1.

That case was not tried first. That case was tried second because after New York passed the Adult Survivors Act, allowing people like E. Jean Carroll and others who were sexually abused to go after the people that tormented them and sue them with a one-year window of statute of limitations, she filed a second case based on the statements that he made after he was president in 2020 where he also defamed her and denied that he had sexually assaulted her. That case we call Carol 2. The Carol 2 case was tried first.

That's where the confusion comes in. Carol Toot case about statements made by Donald Trump after he was president was tried to one jury in New York and a nine-zero jury, six men and three women, ruled against Donald Trump and they found for her found that she had been sexually assaulted. They were this close to finding that she was also raped under New York law but couldn't conclude what was inserted inside of her, so they went with sexual assault. That, so says Louis Kaplan in his, as he presided over that case. They, in that particular case, Donald Trump in Carol 2, the first trial, Donald Trump did not testify.

Alina Haba was the lead lawyer. She did terribly. But they did show a video deposition of Donald Trump, which obviously swayed the jury for E. Jean Carroll, who also testified. They awarded her $5 million, $2.02 million for the sexual assault, $2.98 million for defamation. Then there was a second case, which was about the first case that was filed, Carol 1, about the same sexual assault now proven by one jury, therefore it became what's called law

of the case or race judicata, that issue had already been resolved. And then we go to the defamation that Donald Trump made against E. Jean Carroll while he was president. That implicated some argument of immunity, that Donald Trump had immunity from suit because while he was president he was allowed to defame apparently, E. Jean Carroll. That issue went up to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York, led by Alina Haba. And last December, a year ago, the court ruled against Donald Trump and Alina Haba

and found immunity, if it were to apply at all, had been waived by Donald Trump and Alina Haba because they didn't raise it in time because you have to raise it or waive it and they found waiver. Now Donald Trump took an appeal to the United States Supreme Court to try to reverse the Second Circuit's opinion to find that immunity applied and therefore he couldn't be sued related to these issues, but the Supreme Court has not taken up that appeal. I mean we check the docket every day during this term to see if they're during their caucus on Tuesdays whether they decided to take up that case or not,

but they have not, leaving undisturbed the ruling by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. What does that mean? That means that that case went forward and was tried and there was no immunity defense. And the Supreme Court has sat by idly and watched it happen. In the second trial, Donald Trump decided he was going to testify. And how did that work out for him? Not well. The new jury, a second jury, ruled against Donald Trump. They were already instructed that the sexual assault had been proven.

And they needed to go to defamation and punitive damages related to the statements he made while he was president. That jury, after hearing from Donald Trump, after hearing from others, including E. Jean Carroll again, awarded E. Jean Carroll $83 million. First jury, $5 million. Second jury, Donald Trump testifying $83 million. Now, after all of that happened, Donald Trump took an appeal of the $5 million case, Carole 2, that was tried first. Got it? About statements he made after he was president. So no immunity issue. And that's what we just reported that the Second Circuit

Court of Appeals, the same Second Circuit, but a different three-judge panel because appellate courts operate under generally three-judge panels that are randomly assigned. And just because the case involves something that had already been argued doesn't mean you ever get that three-judge panel back. You get a new randomly assigned three-judge panel. It could be some overlap occasionally, but a new three-judge panel said no, denied. Appeal denied that Lewis Kaplan did not as a judge, as the gatekeeper, as the person that makes the decisions in a jury trial, did not make reversible errors about evidence to be presented to the jury. Donald Trump jumped up and down in both trials about the testimony of at least two witnesses,

right? A People Magazine reporter who says she was sexually assaulted by Donald Trump after he shut the door at Mar-a-Lago after an interview she was doing about his new one-year marriage to Melania and the birth of Barron. He attacked her, abused her, and said and, you know, and touched her sexually and inappropriately and violently. And then there was another person who testified about Donald Trump groping her sexually, trying to stick his hand up her skirt and touching her breast on a plane while he was in first class apparently. Donald Trump hated that, hated the fact that the Access Hollywood recording came in where

he was bragging to Billy Bush, the reporter, off mic that he could grab a woman by her P word, her genitalia and get away with it because he was a celebrity. He hated all of that coming in. But ultimately, after looking at all of that evidence and looking at the issues of how the judge decided which evidence would come in and which evidence wouldn't, they sided with Lewis Kaplan, finding that he has broad discretion as all trial judges do to let in evidence or to exclude evidence.

And he did it right. And that there was no reversible error. It's what we call at best, it was harmless error. See, I'll talk to you now as a trial lawyer. There's no such thing as a perfect trial. You're not entitled to a perfect trial. There's never been a perfect trial. I've never put, even the trials I've won have never been perfect. You're not entitled to a perfect trial. There's never been a perfect trial. I've never put, even the trials I've won have never been perfect.

You're not entitled to that. You're entitled under due process to a fair and impartial jury. You're entitled to have not error-free, but reversible error-free trial. And the Second Circuit said that's what happened. Now what does that mean for E. Jean Carroll? What does that mean for the $83 million judgment that the Supreme Court looks like is not bailing out Donald Trump about? Well, on the $5 million, he can take another appeal to the United States Supreme Court,

but based on them not being that interested in the $83 million judgment, I don't think they're going to be interested at all at activities of Donald Trump after he was president and some decisions by a trial judge about whether evidence should come in or not. So the chances of that being accepted by the Supreme Court are probably less than 1%, which means the $5 million is going to be going to E. Jean Carroll, I believe, in the next 90 days or so. There was a bond, a cash bond posted by Donald Trump, cash deposited into a court registry. That will go right over to E. Jean Carroll. The start of a new year is the perfect time to get organized, set goals,

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Now the $83 million, he has already taken his appeal. The appeal is, the Supreme Court has not taken up the appeal of Donald Trump. So as far as I'm concerned, they should start the collection process for the $83 million. He is going to lose, now he can appeal on the, because the immunity issue is not going to work, he can appeal on any other errors he believes that that Lewis Kaplan made in the trial, same judge in the second case for $83 million, but he's gonna raise the same issues, evidence issues and certain witnesses shouldn't have been allowed and

Donald Trump should have been allowed to testify longer or whatever he's going to argue. You see the writing on the wall. Yes, it will be a new three-judge panel of the Second Circuit, but they're going to rule the same way. That's my prediction. He's going to owe that $83 million that's been running with interest for over almost two years. owe that $83 million that's been running with interest for over almost two years. So E. Jean Carroll is gonna get that too. Now could this United States Supreme Court try to bail out Donald Trump on the immunity issue

and find he's immune because it's within their definition of immunity on a civil case because it was part of his official conduct to attack E. Jean Carroll and say she was a hoaxster, that she was trying to shake down artists, that she wasn't his type and the rest. They could try, but they haven't yet. They haven't yet. I think they're already trying to put the genie back in the bottle for what bad things

they did during the immunity decision in the summer as it relates to crimes. So I believe, and I'm telling you straight here, that now that I've straightened out the kinks, right? Carol won, which was tried second, for $83 million is gonna end up being paid over to E.G. Carroll. There's a bond that's been in place by a bonding company, Assurity, to ensure that Donald Trump makes that payment.

Same with the cash bond. She's gonna get, I think with interest, almost $100 million through her lawyer, Robbie Kaplan, in 2025. It's a hard rain falling on Donald Trump between now and his inauguration. I know he thinks he was gonna take some sort of victory lap between now and then,

but with the Second Circuit ruling against him, the Second Circuit gonna rule against him on the next $83 million. Judge Mershon about to make a decision could be any day now, any minute now. I think just after the new year, we're going to see Judge Mershon issue his ruling in the New York State Supreme Court about sentencing Donald Trump to the 34 felony counts and the like. And the 11th Circuit potentially ruling about the Mar-a-Lago case and whether the special prosecutor, special counsel, and that indictment should have been dismissed or not, it's going to be a hard rain falling on Donald Trump between now and the day of

the inauguration. The biggest event that's going to happen in Washington, the one with the most pageantry, with the most crying, with the most solemnity, with the most dignitaries, is not going to be the inauguration. It's going to be Jimmy Carter laying in state inside of the Capitol in a state funeral on the 9th of January. And I know Donald Trump's ego is going to hate it. He's going to start counting the crowd size again between Jimmy Carter's funeral and his inauguration. That's a patriot. That's somebody we should respect. I mean,

let's be frank. Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime that I did not refer to as my president. Even if I didn't agree with the politics of somebody like George Bush one or George Bush two or Reagan. They were my president until they were no longer my president because I believed in the institution of the presidency, in the office of the presidency. I'm a scholar of American history. My major was in the American presidency in college. All right. I have always had a soft spot for the presidency until the always had a soft spot for the presidency until the last, until the occupant before Biden and the one it's about to enter office. That's not my president.

There's no other way to put it. He has disdain for the office of the presidency. He took a crap on its legacy. He doesn't deserve to be in office. And therefore I can't recognize him as my president, as patriotic as I am. And that's okay. To be in opposition, to be in opposition, I still have a deep love for our country and a deep belief that united together, right, we, we can hold Donald Trump and others accountable from elected office and the federal judiciary

on down by binding together in audiences like this, staying enlightened, staying united for 2025. That's my pledge to you that on Legal AF and on the Midas Touch Network, it will now be my full-time job. My full-time job is going to be working with the Midas Touch Network and Legal AF and all things related to that. Because it's that important since the election. It changed my mind about my own future and the shape of my own future. And so I'm here to tell you that right now. I am committed to you because you're committed to Legal AF and the Midas Touch Network. And we'll continue to follow the intricacies of cases like this one so that you understand

them. First, I got to understand them and then I can explain them to you and analyze them with my 34 years of legal experience and training in courtrooms and courthouses just like the ones I report on. So until my next Legal AF reporting, till my next PO-POK Live here on the Midas Touch Network Tuesdays at 8 p.m. I'm Michael Popok and I'm reporting.

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