Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Trump HIT with $83 MILLION Verdict at Federal Trial!!!

Episode Date: January 27, 2024

Legal AF hosts Ben Meiselas and Michael Popok report on the $83 million verdict just issued against Donald Trump in the E Jean Carroll federal defamation trial. Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast The Influence Continuum: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show Burn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 Political Beatdown: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown Lights On with Jessica Denson: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/lights-on-with-jessica-denson On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Those things are just not part of who I am, but I've been coached and I've learned through my advisor that it's not one-size-fits-all. Everyone has their own preferences. Everything that I do with Edward Jones is tailored to who I am. EdWard Jones. We do money differently. Visit EdwardJones.ca slash different. $83 million. That's the headline. An $83 million verdict in the Eugene Carroll federal defamation case against Donald Trump. The jury reached its verdict. Here's how it breaks down.

$7.3 million in compensatory damages outside of the reputational repair damages. Those are like emotional distress damages. 11 million dollars in damages for reputational repair and get this $65 million for punitive damages. We learned moments ago that the jury had reached its verdict. The jury found that by a preponderance of evidence, E. Jean Carroll suffered more than nominal damages as a result of Donald Trump's defamatory statements. At issue

in the case, they then went down on the verdict form to the punitive damages question after finding compensatory and reputational repair damages in the amounts of $7.3 million and $11 million respectively. And then they found $65 million in punitive damages. Michael Popak, this sends a resounding message. We were saying it would be between $50 and $100 million potentially more, but we got an $ million dollar verdict that's gonna sting. It sent a message and as E. Jean Carroll's lawyers told the jury you need to send a message today that can make him stop. What's it going to take? And the jury said 83 million dollars and let's be clear although Donald Trump brags about having all of this money 83 million dollars is going to sting pop up.

Yeah it's exactly what we thought was going to happen they followed almost to a T the reputational damages that E. Jean Carroll's expert. E. Jean Carroll's expert had testified to, I think she was in the 16 to $17 million range. So they gave the jury a target to shoot at, and then they left it to the jury, which is what the jury is supposed to do, in a punitive damage case, case where the rape of E. Jean Carroll had already been established by a judge and a jury,

and this new jury was told that many times during trial about the fact that that is something that they are to assume because the judge and the jury, the prior jury had already found it. The defamation had already been found. And the only thing left for them to do was to determine whether E. Jean Carroll was entitled to more than a dollar worth of damages.

And if so, how much? They had two guideposts to guide them. One, they had the expert testimony of E. Jean Carroll's professional who talked about reputational harm and damage. Same expert that she used in May when she got her $5.2 million judgment because now she's taken 88, almost $89 million off of Donald Trump. And but this one was about, as you said, Ben, as E. Jean Carroll's lawyer, Robbie Kaplan, followed by her colleague, Shane Crowley, told the jury in their double closing

that you need to make Donald Trump pay and pay dearly. And then Shane Crowley in the closing saying, you saw what he's done even in the courtroom today, the disrespect he showed you, the disrespect he showed this trial process in standing up and leaving during my colleagues closing argument those acting out in behaviors that we all did hot takes on I knew because I know juries like the back of my hand you do too from being a trial lawyer that the jury was gonna hate

Donald Trump for his misbehavior during this trial and disrespecting ultimately them because they are the most important thing in that room, not Donald Trump, not the judge, the jury. That's why we rise for the jury. And they were gonna hate Donald Trump's acting out, being disrespectful to Roberta Kaplan while she was doing the closing argument, saying things out loud, Alina Habba doing things

where she teetered on the verge of being taken in the custody and being put in federal detention during the closing and in front of the jury as soon as the jury got into a room and deliberated they were the ones to come up with a number for punitive punishment type damages and all they had because there was no expert for Donald Trump allowed because he screwed up his case so badly they didn't even allow an expert to go on that punitive damage number is based on the amount of Donald Trump's alleged worth.

And I say alleged worth because in the New York Attorney General case up the street, he's both said that his statements of financial conditions were wrong, but that he was worth three or four times that amount. Well, that number, they brought into this particular jury and say, great, he's worth $4 billion. Come up with a number that punishes a 4 billionaire.

And now it's going to go, yes, there's going to be an appeal because there's a presidential immunity issue that's kind of lurking in the background up to the second circuit and maybe up to the Supremes, but he'll have to post a bond, another $83 million and a half bond with the appropriate clerk to stop the enforcement of the judgment. So I'll have to put that out of pocket and sit it in a court. And then the judge, as I said on a new hot take, judge is going to have to consider whether he's also, this is a judge issue, not a jury issue then, whether the judge is going to

impose a permanent injunction, a ban on Donald Trump, continuing to bash Eugene Carroll. The money is one thing, but this judge's work is not done. They're gonna ask for a permanent injunction, and if Donald Trump violates it, it's gonna be contempt, and if he violates it again, it's gonna be criminal contempt and fines, and he can end up in jail one way or the other. Not only that, I think there's going to be multiple other defamation lawsuits that are going to be multiple other defamation lawsuits

that are going to be filed against Donald Trump by Eugene Carroll. And you could look at the Giuliani case as kind of a roadmap for that, right? The same reputational damages expert who was utilized by Ruby Freeman and Shea Moss in their case against Rudy Giuliani where they received a verdict of about $150 million was used in this case by E. Gene Carroll as well. Similarly, after the Giuliani verdict, what happened, Ruby Freeman and Shea Moss

immediately filed another lawsuit, not only for monetary damages, but popock just as you said, injunctive relief and order by a federal judge to preclude and stop in that case, Giuliani from further defaming Ruby Freeman and Shane Moss since he was found liable by a federal jury. There's even a more compelling case for that here

where Donald Trump does it every single day, dozens of times a day. We've now heard from not one, but two juries, a jury in May that found Donald Trump liable for sexual abuse as well as defamation. And then this jury right here that found Donald Trump acted with malice and awarded a massive $83 million judgment. So the next question is really is not if it is when will E. Jean Carroll file this next lawsuit?

Is it going to happen on Monday?? Is it gonna happen on Monday? Is it gonna happen on Tuesday? I think it'll happen next week, Michael Popak. And I think even over the weekend, we can potentially see on this existing ECF docket, some form of temporary restraining order or injunctive relief happen immediately requesting that federal judge Kaplan issue an order

precluding Donald Trump from continuing in this conduct. One final point that I'll make, or I'll just call it a point and a half that I'll make. Number one, wouldn't the ultimate irony be here or perhaps poetic justice if the first case where Donald Trump actually gets sent to prison is violating a restraining order in a civil case because you know He won't be able to help himself and we know Judge Louis Kaplan will send Donald Trump to jail

Immediately if he violates a temporary restraining order number two probably not the bet point in a half So the half probably not the best point and a half. So the half, probably not the best idea for Donald Trump to throw Joe Taka Pina under the bus, who was a real trial lawyer, instead of begging Taka Pina to be the trial lawyer here, because for all of the criticisms deservingly so of Taka Pina, he kept that verdict in a range of $5 million in the first trial, whereas Alina Habba, I mean, look, Trump's conduct is certainly deserving of this judgment and the message that was sent,

but also Alina Habba demonstrated that she is the worst lawyer ever from all aspects of lawyering. Pope Poc, I'm going to give you the final word here. I'll respond to the point and a half, some two points there. I like the way you set that up. There is a very good reason why it went from five to 83 million. And it's not just because of the actual damages.

It's not a runaway jury in the sense that they weren't listening to the evidence. But the jury has eyes and ears. And they watched Donald Trump continue to act out While they weren't aware in real time for instance that he was social media posting against e.g. In carol while he was in the courtroom where somebody of course was ghosting on his behalf They were aware whenever the other side could find out about it about things that he said He just had a video last night where he attacked E. Jean Carroll Called it called it a hoax. I don't know who she is

This is the miscarriage of justice and all of that all the things He's not allowed to say in a courtroom because it's already been found that that would be a perjury if he did that He's if he's able to perjure himself in front of his own followers because they don't care but the justice system cares cares. And so the jury cares, and they found a way to ratchet it up. When I said today, when you and I were all on together at one point, or in separate hot takes, that his acting out in front of the jury, enduring the closing argument, would lead them to punish him. If they, I'm not sure they went for, I don't know if they went from,

I'll do 30 million to 85 million, but that number ratcheted up today because of Donald Trump's misconduct. And say what you want about Joe Tacapino, we were very critical of him in the way he crossed exam and Eugene Carroll and all of that, but he kept Donald Trump away from the courtroom,

which lowered the number by this jury. And now, because the only issue here was punishment level of damage. And then, because the only issue here was punishment level of damage, and then of course the mastery of Roberta Kaplan and Shane Crowley and her team cannot be understated. And we're gonna watch now as the next round of injunction. I'm more interested, frankly, I'll leave it on this.

I'm more interested in the injunction imposed by Judge Lewis Kaplan and the fines and contempt and criminal contempt, maybe jail, that results in I am yet another lawsuit because then you start getting into incremental damages, but maybe punitive damages that are an hinge to anything that's actual and not nominal because now she's gotten 83 plus five, it's 88 million.

At a certain point, they'll start freeriding this because she's not getting enough additional new damage That's not nominal to warrant a putative award But the injunction should scare the crap out of him and we'll follow it one place legal AF of the Midas touch network Next week New York Attorney General civil fraud Case we'll get a decision there as well fraud case, we'll get a decision there as well, which we expect to be between $250 million to $500 million against Donald Trump by Justice Arthur and Goron. So as we've been predicting now for several months on legal AF, by February 1, we could have a judgment there that will have both,

you know, $250 to $500 million in New York. You add this up and we both, you know, 250 to 500 million in New York. You add this up and we said, you know, you're going to be looking at half a billion dollars or more in judgments against Donald Trump, where he's going to have to post bonds if he's going to file appeals. And that's exactly where we are right now. I wanted to-

Hey, Ben, one last last thing is Brett just reminded me We're all doing this together Trump insulted the jury at the very end And and I'm sure they were feeling good about their decision He didn't even respect the jury enough to return to the room When the verdict was announced to be sit there and take the verdict like a man And I'm sure the jury felt good about their decision because they even at the very end he disrespected that jury Yeah, take the verdict like a man. And I'm sure the jury felt good about their decision because they even at the very end, he disrespected that jury. Yeah, take the verdict.

Who demonstrates strength. E. Jean Carroll has demonstrated that. She demonstrated the utmost strength. Her lawyers demonstrated what true power is, what true intelligence is. And Donald Trump, a pathetic loser, too afraid to even be there, throwing stunts, acting like a baby, a loser in all respects,

a loser when it comes to the verdict, a loser in life, and a scared loser who couldn't even sit there and take the verdict. Michael Popak, Ben Mycelis, Legal AF, shout out to Karen Friedman-Egnifolo. Check out our new newsletter, mitestouch.com slash newsletter. It's free to sign up, mitestouch.com slash newsletter.

Sign up right now and make sure you also subscribe to Legal AF on audio. We'll be live tomorrow night, 8 Eastern, 5 Pacific on Legal AF. Thank you so much for watching. Shout out to the Midas Mighty.