Donald Trump is going on trial
Now that New York City has seen Criminal Trump, the “city that never sleeps” is about to play host to another novelty. Rapist Trump. Rapist Trump is about to stand trial for rape starting on Tuesday.
To be sure, this time it is to be a civil, not criminal, litigation. It’s one of the ignominies of the American criminal justice system that there exists a thing known as the statute of limitations for sexual assault and rape. Were it otherwise, a lot of people would be in prison for life where they belong right now, including Bill Cosby. Possibly including Rapist Trump himself.
On Thursday, Rapist Trump was rebuked by the judge in his looming civil rape trial over a request for jurors to be told that if the former president did not testify, it would be “out of concern” that his presence would adversely affect New York City.
Rapist Trump and his team of shysters could teach Susan Collins a thing or two about shamming “concern.” Imagine it yourself, Insurrectionist Trump being “concerned” about any civil unrest that his presence might accidentally cause. Irony, it should be noted, is truly dead.
The rebuke was in response to a letter the federal judge Lewis A Kaplan received on Wednesday from Trump’s lawyer, Joe Tacopina. In the letter Tacopina said jurors should be told: “While no litigant is required to appear at a civil trial, the absence of the defendant in this matter, by design, avoids the logistical burdens that his presence, as the former president, would cause the courthouse and New York City.”
The case concerns a rape that occurred in the changing rooms of a New York department store, Bergdorf Goodman, in the mid-1990s. It’s a claim writer E Jean Carroll first alleged against Donald Trump in 2019. Trump isn’t being sued for rape per se, but for the typically Trumpian slander he committed against Ms Carroll for her having alleged it in the first place.
Were it a criminal trial we already know enough to be convinced beyond a reasonable doubt of Trump’s guilt. E Jean Carroll still has the original dress she was raped in. The dress contains the DNA of her male assailant. Donald Trump could end the case tomorrow by volunteering his DNA to disprove that the DNA on the dress is his. Trump refuses to submit his DNA. There can only be one conceivable reason for this: he knows the DNA is his. Quod erat demonstrandum, as my calculus teacher used to say.
Even so, Trump denies raping Carroll that day, infamously pointing out that “she’s not my type.” Thus, Trump only rapes women that are his type, by his very own admission.
In any event, Trump is not concerned about the safety or comfort of the people of New York. He doesn’t want to attend the trial because he can’t be bothered. Presumably such a thing is beneath him. But he also wants to have the judge instruct the jury that his absence is not to be held against him.
This hubris of Rapist Trump is staggering. I look forward to his losing this case. I hope he loses all the civil and criminal cases that currently loom against him until he is not only financially and criminally destroyed, but permanently locked up. And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe.
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.