Trump Ordered To Pay Over $80 Million In (Second) Carroll Defamation Case

So Trump has to pay:

$7.3 million for compensatory damages.

$11 million for reputation repair.

$65 million in punitive damages.

Total: $83.3 million.

Carroll accused Trump of having sexually assaulting her in the mid-1990s at a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in Manhattan. While the alleged attack happened decades ago, Carroll sued under New York's Adult Survivors Act, which allows victims to sue for civil damages beyond the statute of limitations.

"I am filing this on behalf of every woman who has ever been harassed, assaulted, silenced, or spoken up only to be shamed, fired, ridiculed and belittled," Carrol said last year.

Notably, the judge in the case (Kaplan), forbade Trump or his attorneys from arguing that he didn't sexually assault Carroll.

The judge reminded the jury to accept the earlier trial's verdict. When he noted the trial established Trump "inserted his finger into her vagina," the former president reportedly jolted from his seat and wore an expression of disgust.

Trump said on the witness stand that he denied Carroll's claims because he "wanted to defend myself," which the judge told the jury to ignore.

In closing arguments for Carroll Friday morning, her attorney argued that Trump acted as if he was above the law by lying, saying that the former president "ignored the other jury verdict as if it never happened," and even repeated the claims at a press conference during the second trial.

"Donald Trump engaged in the very same defamation after the trial," attorney Roberta Kaplan (no relation) said.

Trump then stood up, buttoned his suit jacket, and stormed out of the courtroom.

After Trump stormed out, Judge Kaplan briefly interrupted the closing argument and said:

"The record will reflect that Mr. Trump just rose and walked out of the courtroom."

Fuck It

Prior to Friday's closing arguments, Trump attorney Alina Habba became frustrated after the judge forbade her from including examples of tweets not entered into evidence during the trial.

"No. No. Your honor, I have been—" Habba began to say.

"Ms. Habba, you are on the verge of spending some time in the lockout," replied the judge, cutting her off. "Now sit down."

"Fuck it," Habba muttered upon sitting down.

The jury reached its decision after slightly less than three hours of deliberations.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/trump-ordered-pay-over-80-million-carroll-defamation-case

Ukraine committed ‘genocide’ in Donbass – Putin

Russia’s “geopolitical adversaries” had sought to “exterminate” anyone wanting good relations with Moscow, the president has said

Kiev’s actions in Donbass between 2014 and 2022 were nothing short of “genocide,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday. The post-Maidan coup authorities in Ukraine were determined to “physically” get rid of anyone who still supported the development of good relations with Moscow, he added.

Russia cited the need to protect the people of Donbass from continued persecution by Kiev as one of the major reasons it launched its military operation in February 2022. In the wake of the 2014 Maidan coup, two former Ukrainian territories with predominantly Russian-speaking populations declared their independence from Kiev and created the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics. The post-coup Ukrainian government responded by launching an “anti-terrorist” operation against the two Donbass republics, sparking a protracted conflict that has raged ever since, in one form or another.

Russia initially sought to resolve the issue through the later-derailed Minsk Agreements, which envisaged a special autonomous status for the two republics within Ukraine. Moscow repeatedly accused Kiev of failing to implement the terms of the accords. In 2022, former German chancellor Angela Merkel admitted that the accords brokered by Russia, Germany, and France in 2015 were merely a strategic ploy aimed at buying Ukraine more time to prepare for a conflict with Russia.

”Everything that was happening there… was genocide,” Putin said on Friday, referring to the events that had been unfolding in Donbass between 2014 and 2022. “This cannot be called otherwise,” he said, adding that people were being “exterminated.” He also pointed to the fact that Kiev’s forces continued to fight the Donbass militias after the Minsk Agreements had already been signed.

According to the president, Russia’s “geopolitical adversaries understood that they could not just turn Ukraine upside-down with its Russian-speaking population in the southeast.” The 2014 coup opened the way for the “physical extermination of anyone who was willing to develop normal relations with Russia,” Putin said, adding that “it had become clear that we would not be allowed to build normal relations with our neighbor.”

https://www.rt.com/russia/591346-ukraine-genocide-donbass-putin/