Yet another unforced error by Donald Trump
There’s a good reason why it’s a truism in both criminal and civil law that the defendant should keep his or her mouth shut. Above all they should never talk to the press. Violations of this maxim seldom end well.
For example, recall that the distinctive bloody footprints at the South Bundy Drive, OJ Simpson murder scene, were identified as the spoor of Bruno Magli shoes, and like the idiot he was, Simpson famously volunteered the observation, “I would have never worn those ugly ass shoes.” A public photograph later materialised precisely of — you guessed it — OJ Simpson wearing “those ugly ass shoes.”
If you have a moron for a client, such revelations are not infrequent free gifts to the prosecution. And while in Simpson’s case that revelation came too late for his ineptly prosecuted murder trial, that unforced error (among other things) cost him a thirty-three million dollar judgement in his civil trial.
But few criminal or civil clients in the history of jurisprudence are stupider than Donald John Trump, and none of them have ever been given more opportunities to exhibit their stupidity. With 91 criminal counts across four indictments in four jurisdictions, you’d think the last thing Trump would want is to get himself in more legal hot water.
Nope, not our Donald! Trump’s got more legal woes than Johann Sebastian Bach had children, and it seems there’s always room for one more. After facing the prospect of a $370m fine and potential collapse of his real estate empire in New York last week, Trump also has to contend with yet another costly legal battle in Manhattan. On Tuesday, Trump will once again be on trial over writer E Jean Carroll’s rape claims against him — his second such proceeding in less than a year.
This new trial will not relitigate the question of whether or not Trump raped E Jean Carroll. That particular ship has already sailed, and the unquestioned point that Trump is a rapist has already been established as a judicial fact. We have already, legally speaking, established what Trump is. We are now merely haggling over the price.
Trump’s history of unforced errors are as common in this case as they are in all his other criminal and civil cases. For example, when Carroll factually stated in her memoir that Trump raped her in a Berdorf Goodman dressing room in New York in the 90s, Trump proclaimed “I’ve never met this person in my life.” A photo of the rapist Trump laughing with Carroll at a private gathering quickly came to light, of course.
When Trump lost the $5m defamation suit Carroll brought against him last year, Trump continued to defame her in public and in his third rate social media platform “Truth” Social. To this day he continues to mention her in a disparaging way. His conduct will not play well on Tuesday. He is expected to lose this case.
In fact, with anyone else, this case would probably be an easy win. Not for Trump. One British legal expert puts it this way. “If it was literally anyone else [i.e. Trump], I think [E Jean Carroll] would probably lose. Because of the fact that it’s him, and I think the fact that he has a hard time being personable to people, in what otherwise would be a completely winning case for any other man in this situation, that burden that otherwise would be on E Jean Carroll is now on him to defend himself.”
Why is this so? “He’s unlike any other client I could ever advise,” the expert said. And if Trump attends Carroll’s trial like he says he will, his complete absence of normal human traits of warmth and compassion will undoubtedly destroy what little chance he has.
“I think his presence in the courtroom would probably hurt him because I think he has such a machismo aura about him, and he’ll be very stern the entire time,” the industry veteran said. “In any other situation, I would say E Jean Carroll would have a 2% success rate and in this case, Trump has a 2% success rate.” If there’s anyone in the world who can whittle that 2% lead down to 1% it’s Trump. Trump is the unchallenged master of marginal losses.
There can be little doubt that, given Trump’s bizarre proclivity for sticking his stupid foot in his stupid mouth, more free gifts to opposing counsel in the form of ill-advised public utterances await. It’s hard to imagine a more definitive embodiment of the Dunning Kruger effect than perpetual defendant and rapist Donald John Trump. 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.