Trump lost his first trial. However, the civil lawsuit was not the only procedure that the ex-president had to face.Image: AP / Evan Vucci
Analyse
A jury in New York has ruled against the ex-president. The myth of invincibility has thus been scratched.
Philipp Löpfe / watson.ch
The latest polls speak for Donald Trump. His lead over his intra-party rival Ron DeSantis has grown to 36 percentage points. In a direct duel against Joe Biden, he leads by 6 percentage points. So why should he care about a verdict in a civil trial that found him guilty of sexual assault? Especially since he can shell out the five million dollars in damages he has to pay out of petty cash.
To change his own legendary quote slightly: Trump could rape a woman on the street, more precisely: Fifth Avenue in New York, his fans would still stand by him. The ex-president reacted to the jury’s verdict in the usual manner: all a political witch hunt by his opponents and a bad joke.
And yet: For the first time, a court has not only ruled against Trump, it has done so in a way that cannot be surpassed in terms of clarity. The jury reached its verdict after just two hours of deliberation – a process that normally takes days if not weeks – and Trump was pilloried not only as a misogynist macho but as a “sex offender”. The ex-president’s Houdini ploy to finally free himself from even the most hopeless cases didn’t work this time.
Teflon Trump is history, and the ex-president has himself to blame. His own past caught up with him. In the legendary “Access Hollywood” video, the supermacho boasts that as a star he can grab women between the legs with impunity. He provoked an outcry from women and the MeToo movement. Thanks to this movement, a law was passed in New York that allows women to sue for rape through civil channels, even after the criminal record has long expired.
This in turn has enabled Trump’s plaintiff, journalist E. Jean Carroll, to drag the ex-president to court and emerge victorious.
Trumps Klägerin E. Jean Caroll.Bild: FR171797 AP / Brittainy Newman
“Access Hollywood” also played a key role in the process itself. Carroll’s attorney was able to cross-examine Trump. The video recording of it – the ex-president stayed away from the trial – was played to the jury, and Trump showed himself at his worst. Here is a snippet:
Ask: “When you’re a star, you can do anything. You can grab women’s pussy. That’s what you said. Is that true?”
Trump: “From a historical perspective, this is true.”
Ask: “So it’s true that a star can grab a woman’s pussy?”
Trump: “Well, for the past few million years that has been mostly true. Not always, but most of the time.”
Ask: “And you think you’re a star?”
Trump: “I think you can say that.”
These testimonies had a devastating effect on the jury. The fact that Trump contemptuously insulted his plaintiff as “not my type” while simultaneously mistaking her for his second wife in a photo didn’t really help him either.
Should Trump actually be named Republican presidential candidate again, his misogynist behavior in the actual elections could be his undoing. Without the votes of the independent voters in the suburbs, he cannot win the nomination even if Joe Biden is currently in a low mood.
Legally, however, the defeat does not harm Trump. It was a civil process with no criminal consequences. However, Trump already has such an accusation on his hands. It’s about his hush money payments to the porn star Stormy Daniels. With a probability bordering on certainty, at least two more charges will be added.
Will probably soon indict Trump as well: Fani Willis, district attorney in Georgia.Photo: AP / Brynn Anderson
In the state of Georgia, District Attorney Fani Willis has already warned police that they should prepare special security measures between July and September. A clear indication that lawsuits will rain down. It is about attempted electoral manipulation – “Find me the 11,780 votes,” Trump asked the Secretary of State in a legendary phone call – and the creation of an alternative list of electoral votes.
Because an indictment against Trump has yet to be made before the primary elections begin next year, it is very likely that special counsel Jack Smith will also sue the ex-president later this summer. It’s about Trump’s role in the storming of the Capitol. Smith has already managed to interview ex-President Mike Pence as a witness. The special investigator is also examining the matter with the illegally hoarded secret documents.
Trump survived the Russia affair, two impeachment trials and scandals so numerous that most of them have already been forgotten. But now the ex-president is not facing a “winter of dissatisfaction”, but a summer in which he can hardly relax on the golf course. Instead, he will be forced to concoct new defense strategies with his lawyers.
This will not only cost him a lot of money, but also political capital. Or as even the conservative Wall Street Journal warns:
“More legal challenges may lie ahead for Mr. Trump. Grand Old Party voters must therefore decide whether it is actually worth continuing to support Trump and potentially exposing the country to four more years of Oval Office chaos. “
