Jonathan Turley, a legal expert and Fox News contributor, commented on former President Trump’s recent mixed ruling in the E. Jean Carroll v. Trump case. Turley shared his comments on “The Story.”
On Tuesday, the jury in the E. Jean Carroll v. Trump case ruled that rape charges had no merit but that former President Trump is liable for sexual abuse and defamation charges and recommended compensation of $5,000,000.
Trump has denied the allegations and intends to appeal the decision.
An excerpt from the transcript of the interview reads:
JONATHAN TURLEY: That dog won’t hunt. If that’s the argument on appeal, then it’s going to be a rather quick appeal. There are other issues here that he might appeal on. Judge Kaplan was really quite yielding on the demands for a witness testimony.
He allowed in a lot of evidence, including the Hollywood access tape and these other witnesses. Obviously, Trump had never been convicted or found guilty, either criminally or civilly in those cases.
So there was a lot of evidence here that the defense could say should not have been brought into the case or should have been handled differently. The problem for President Trump is that this is a mix question of law and fact. There are some legal issues here, like the ones I mentioned about allowing in certain types of testimony.
But when it comes to factual determinations, the court of appeals tends to be leery of overturning those. Jury decisions are really sort of iron plated because you have to show that they were clearly erroneous.
They’re not going to be able to show that here with all this testimony. So the only way to really unravel this is to say that the jury heard things that they shouldn’t have been allowed to hear because they were too prejudicial.
Turley then noted “the biggest problem” Trump faces moving forward:
“The biggest problem for the president, I think at trial, and it’s going to be on appeal, is he decided not to testify. He didn’t even appear in the courtroom.
That not only triggered inferences, but it likely poisoned the well a bit for these jurors. Jurors don’t like it. They don’t like it in criminal or civil cases when the key accused party doesn’t speak to them.
Carroll, 79, had alleged that Trump raped her at the Bergdorf Goodman department store, located near Trump Tower in Manhattan. Carroll could not provide the court with the day, week or month of the reported attack and did not alert customers or the police when the alleged daytime crime occurred.
Trump has called the proceedings part of a coordinated “witch hunt” designed to compromise his bid to win the presidential election in 2024.
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