Hoover Institution Senior Fellow Victor Davis Hanson said Friday on his podcast that President-elect Donald Trump could have a “cause for reversal” in the E. Jean Carroll case, citing the language used by the presiding judge.
In May 2023, a New York jury found Trump liable for sexual battery and defamation, but stopped short of convicting him of rape in the case brought by former Elle magazine writer E. Jean Carroll. On “The Victor Davis Hanson Show,” Hanson discussed ABC’s settlement in Trump’s defamation case against the network, following host George Stephanopoulos’ claim during a live segment of his show that Trump was “liable for rape.”
“Well George Stephanopoulos gave an interview and I think on 11 occasions he said Donald Trump committed rape. In the E. Jean Carroll civil suit, she alleged that she was sexually attacked by him. The jury found that he did not commit rape but that he had committed, there was a likelihood he’d committed sexual assault,” Hanson said.
Court records filed on Dec. 14 show that ABC has been ordered to pay $15 million by Dec. 24 as a “charitable contribution” to Trump’s “presidential foundation and museum.” The former president filed a defamation suit against the network and Stephanopoulos. This, following a March segment in which Stephanopoulos repeatedly questioned Republican South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace about her support of Trump, while claiming the former president was “liable for rape.”
“And the judge [Kaplan], as I remember his name, had misspoken and said, ‘Well’ somebody had corrected him or reminded him that he had never been convicted of rape and he said, ‘What’s the difference?’ something along that line and that I think will be cause for reversal because that’s up on appeal,” Hanson added.
“The judge basically … show[ed] pre-existing prejudice that if the judge knew that the jury had not found or was not considering rape and yet he said publicly that they were indistinguishable, then that’s going to be appealed,” Hanson said.
Following the verdict from Carroll’s May win against Trump, the former president’s team argued to presiding Judge Lewis Kapalan for a new trial, noting how the term “sexual abuse” could be limited by definition, according to The Washington Post. However, Kaplan responded in a filing that while Carroll was unable to prove she was “raped,” the term may not be commonly understood, according to the outlet.
“The finding that Ms. Carroll failed to prove that she was ‘raped’ within the meaning of the New York Penal Law does not mean that she failed to prove that Mr. Trump ‘raped’ her as many people commonly understand the word ‘rape,'” Kaplan wrote.
“Indeed, as the evidence at trial recounted below makes clear, the jury found that Mr. Trump in fact did exactly that,” Kaplan said.
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