Here we go. After all these years and all that abuse, E Jean Carroll is finally getting to take her best shot at Trump. And it’s not like her howitzers aren’t fully loaded.
In addition to Carroll’s own testimony, the judge is also allowing the testimony of two other women who claimed in the same basic time frame of Trump’s predatory behavior. The judge is also allowing the testimony of two close personal friends of Carroll, attesting that she related details of the assault to them in the near aftermath.
But the most salacious piece of evidence, and the one that is already garnering expectations as the highlight of the testimony is the now notorious Access Hollywood video. It’s important enough that Carroll’s own lawyer mentioned it almost immediately after describing Carroll’s own expected testimony, calling it Trump’s playbook.
And of course, the highlight will be the playing of a smarmy Donald, in open court, telling a snickering 14 year old hick Billy Bush, When you’re rich, you can do anything, and in mean anything. You can grab them by the p*ssy, and they’ll let, you can do anything! And that certainly seems to clock pretty closely with what Carroll is accusing Trump of in this case.
Which tends to show predatory sexual conduct with no impulse control, just what Carroll is claiming. But I hope that Carroll’s lawyer is smart enough to play the whole damn video, because from where I’m sitting, there’s another boastful claim about 4-5 minutes that’s even more devastating for Trump.
While Bush is snickering like a kid that you just know is going to have nocturnal emissions that night, Trump brags, Oh, man! There was this woman one time, she was so hot! She was married, but she was so hot, and I wanted her more than anything. So I took her furniture shopping, and I moved on her like a bitch! I gave her every move in the book, but she just didn’t want to put out.
There’s the Trump playbook right there. What Carroll is accusing Trump of. They bumped into each other casually on the first floor of a department store. Trump said something like, Hey! You’re the magazine lady!, to which she responded, Hey! You’re the rich real estate dude! Which bombshells Trump’s defense by showing a previous acquaintance.
But then what did Trump do? He asked her to go shopping with him to pick out a special gift for the woman in his life. Pile on the charm, put the moves on, get her to go into the dressing room under the guise of modeling some lingerie, shove in behind her, lock the door, and yank down her knickers. A classic entrapment technique.
And that’s what makes it so devastating, because it displays a pattern of conduct. It’s the exact same scam he tried on the hot married woman before trying to get her to take a test drive on one of the mattresses. And since Carroll claims that the rape took place in 1996, a full 20 years before the release of the Access Hollywood video, how could Carroll know that this was a standard ploy for Trump? Take ’em shopping, loosen ’em up, and move in for the kill.
To be sure, there are weaknesses in Carroll’s case. For starters her inability to pin down a specific date, or even a specific year. And Trump’s locker room lawyer is going to go full bore victim shaming tomorrow in his cross examination. Which is a dangerous move, since in the days of the Mee Too movement, rapists like Bill Cosby and Harvey Weinstein are starting to find more sympathy for victims. But keep an ear out for that ill advised boast in closing arguments, since it not only establishes a pattern of conduct, gut also of a developed plan. That ain’t good juju.
There are several things to keep in mind. First and perhaps foremost this is not a criminal trial where the standard of proof is “beyond a reasonable doubt.” Instead it’s a civil trial where the standard is “a preponderance of the evidence” and in practical terms if you put a number on in it means a 51% or better chance the accusations are true – or not true. That will mitigate in part the issue of pinpointing the date Trump raped Carroll. And if somehow Trump learns of what I’m writing SUE ME MOTHEF**R for saying by god you DID rape her! And who knows how many other women beside Carroll and your first trophy wife Ivana?
I haven’ seen the witness lists but when it comes to the issue of memory and the lack of a specific date my own higher education and even some personal experience with a different type of trauma allows me to offer some thoughts. Even if in pre-trial motions Trump’s lawyers got limits on expert testimony from psychiatrists these are Trump lawyers we’re talking about. They will open a door big enough to sail an aircraft carrier through to allow for rebuttal witnesses who can offer testimony about trauma and how it affect memory both in the short and long term. Given all she’s been through I wouldn’t for the world ask Dr. Christine Blassey-Ford to repeat her tour de force recitation of how the mind works in response to trauma and memory storage from the Kavanaugh hearings. But others can do so.
(Almost fifty years ago when I was 18 I had an auto accident that I should have died in. In fact had I been wearing my seat belt I would have died that day. Long story as to why. Even the State Trooper who came upon the accident less than a minute after it happened because he’d been driving down the same road almost put me in handcuffs because he didn’t believe I’d been in the crushed car. ONLY a few people who’d see me somehow work my way out of that narrow opening convinced him I wasn’t crazy or trying to interfere with his figuring out what had happened. I experience brief periods of memory loss in that first half hour, and then several hours worth. I remember sitting in an exam room of the ER and seeing the door open and well over three hours later sitting on the couch in our living room. To this day I can’t fill in those blanks. Basically, I can tell you about the accident itself, and that it was in October 1975 but before even the holidays I’d lost the ability to recall the day, and date. Within a year I couldn’t even remember if it was early, mid or late October. So good expert testimony CAN overcome what Trump’s lawyers will throw at Carroll.)
I also think you’re correct Trump’s lawyers will go too far in attacking Carroll and his not being there will make it look even worse for him and his defense case. I also think there’s a chance they will open the door to things the judge might have, from a legal standpoint correctly excluded. Not only will they attack Carroll’s character but try to paint Trump as more of a “decent guy” than we all know he is. Play up a bullsh!t line of defense about baseless accusations of improper sexual conduct and attititudes. What do I mean? Since it doesn’t fit in the pattern of behavior Trump waltzing into the dressing rooms of his beauty pageants to catch naked or near naked contestants to ogle has I’m sure been excluded. But Trump’s lawyers will open the door to such testimony being admitted including his gawking at UNDERAGE teenagers at the “junior” level pageants! Or his sick comments about wanting to f**k his own daughter, Wannabe Princess Ivanka!
If this unfolds that way and I think it will that jury will be so disgusted by Trump he won’t have a prayer. He’ll be seen as the predatory sleazebag he’s always been, and jurors will have no trouble accepting that even if details like exactly when the RAPE happened aren’t clear Carroll’s account of the overall facts will hold up to their scrutiny.
Trump will of course appeal when he loses. Just as he’d hoped Carroll would die before this ever got to trial he’s hoping he’ll outlive her. But she’s one smart gal and I’m sure her will will empower her estate to continue pressing the case through the entire appeal process to ensure Trump pays damages. And that history books will show a court found him guilty of RAPE.
For what it is worth, I was sexually assaulted/abused when I was a preteen by a church group leader on a church camping trip. I can remember very specific details of all that happened, down to what conversation was said, what I was wearing. What he was wearing.
On the other hand, I cannot give you an exact month, year, date. I cannot even tell you where it happened since it was during a camping trip. I don’t think I could even give him a name even though I knew it at the time. Memory is a mysterious thing.
I have only told one person what happened. I believe E Jean Carroll, I don’t care if she forgot certain details, or if she didn’t report it. There are some things you never forget.