Byron York
@ByronYork
As you can see from discussion of the Trump-Stephanopoulos defamation settlement, Judge Lewis Kaplan's post-verdict effort to redefine the result of the E. Jean Carroll case has proven extremely valuable to Trump adversaries who claim that Trump is a "rapist." The jury specifically found that Carroll did not prove that Trump raped her, even by the low standards in effect at the trial. You can look at the verdict form the jurors checked "No" on the rape question. Instead, the jury found that Trump "sexually abused" Carroll. You'd think that would be enough for Resistance types; they can accurately say that Trump was found liable for sexually abusing E. Jean Carroll. But no they want to call it rape.
That's where Judge Kaplan came in. When Trump's lawyers asked for a new trial, Kaplan denied the motion and used the occasion to express his opinion that the jury had, in fact, found Trump liable for rape. To make his case, Kaplan had to cast far and wide for definitions of rape that fit his purposes. He argued that the jury had "implicitly" found that Trump raped Carroll if one judges the question by: 1) the definition of rape in http://Dictionary.com; 2) the definition of rape in the Uniform Code of Military Justice; 3) the definition of rape accepted by the American Psychological Association; and 4) the definition of rape used in federal crime reporting statistics. Unfortunately for Kaplan, none of those standards was in effect in New York law, under which the case was brought and tried.
Nevertheless, Kaplan concluded that, "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.' Indeed, as the evidence at trial recounted below makes clear, the jury found that Mr. Trump did exactly that."
For Resistance warriors, and their allies in the media, that was the money quote. See? Trump raped E. Jean Carroll! Judge Kaplan says http://Dictionary.com says so!
It was a stunning declaration. When the verdict form asked "Did Ms. Carroll prove, by a preponderance of the evidence, that Mr. Trump raped Ms. Carroll?" the jury answered "No." How can one be clearer than that? And the jury reached its conclusion by following Judge Kaplan's own instructions. And then, after the verdict, the judge tried to upend the whole thing.
By the way, Kaplan's statement did not receive a huge amount of media attention. But a short time later, aquasi-opinion writer at the Washington Post published an "analysis" with the headline "Judge clarifies: Yes, Trump was found to have raped E. Jean Carroll." And that was enough for the anti-Trump world. Look around today, and almost all of them cite the Post article as proof that Trump raped Carroll.
One of the believers, apparently, was ABC's George Stephanopoulos. And now that ABC and Stephanopoulos have settled a defamation suit by agreeing to give $15 million to a future Trump Presidential Library, plus pay $1 million of Trump's legal costs, you're seeing a lot of anti-Trump types claim that Stephanopoulos was right when he repeatedly said on ABC that Trump had been found liable for raping Carroll. Just look at what Judge Kaplan said and read the Washington Post article, they argue.
But the facts remain the facts. The jury, acting on Judge Kaplan's instructions, specifically found that Carroll had not proven Trump raped her. The jury decided the case. Whatever Kaplan said in a motion afterward does not change the jury's verdict. Still, the judge did a great favor to Resistance world by lending his name and authority to one of the anti-Trump left's favorite talking points.
For more discussion of the case, see here: https://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/598604/carroll-v-trump-the-rape-case-that-started-at-a-resistance-party/
https://x.com/ByronYork/status/1868304035683414267