Before the civil trial of Donald Trump over author E. Jean Carroll’s accusations that he sexually assaulted her and defamed her, Newsmax did its best to bolster Trump’s side of the story by attacking the victim. An April 28 article claimed that Carroll “admitted to sexually harassing the late Roger Ailes,” and a May 3 wire article noted Trump’s denials of attacking her in a video deposition. An April 27 column by Debra Saunders also attacked Carroll: “If Carroll’s accusation is true, she should have spoken out at the time and called the police instantly. … Instead, she waited until 2019 when she was hawking her memoir.” As the trial itself was going on, Trump sycophant Dick Morris went on Newsmax TV to declare that “What Trump needs to do is to defame her a little bit more.”
When a jury found Trump guilty of sexual abuse and defamation and ordered him to pay her $5 million, Newsmax published only a May 9 wire article about it. This was followed two days later by a wire article noting Trump’s appeal of the verdict. A May 14 article by Sandy Fitzgerald repeated a TV appearance by a Trump defender who blamed the jury:
Former President Donald Trump has a solid appeal case against a federal jury’s findings in the E. Jean Carroll rape and defamation case, as an appeals court is likely to be less politically motivated, America First legal board member and former acting U.S. Attorney General Matthew Whitaker told Newsmax on Sunday.
Trump has difficulties in New York City in getting a fair jury trial, Whitaker told Newsmax’s “Wake Up America,” noting that with a civil trial, findings are based on whether the jurors believe there was more than a 50% chance a defendant had acted wrongly.
“I think it’s important that a court that is a little bit away from the emotions of the trial courtroom hears what the evidence is and looks to make sure that the law was applied appropriately,” said Whitaker.
A May 11 article by Jeffrey Rodack quoted evangelist Franklin Graham complaining that the verdict “was another attempt to “tarnish” the former president,” while a May 16 article by Rodack touted how “President Donald Trump continues to receive strong support from women voters, despite a jury finding him liable for sexually abusing E. Jean Carroll.”
And then there was a May 12 column by Paul du Quenoy claiming that Trump was being victimized by Trump:
Carroll admitted that she did not scream, seek medical attention, report the alleged assault to the police, or, until she published her book in 2019, discuss it with anyone other than her two witnesses, who also have no record of it other than their own hearsay, even though a significant part of Carroll’s career involves writing a romance advice column for Elle magazine.
No party to the case could account for the absence of security measures or sales staff during the alleged incident at Bergdorf’s, which normally has both in abundance and is hardly the sort of place that would look favorably upon a man accompanying a woman alone into one of its dressing rooms.
[…]It is no coincidence, however, that Trump described the proceedings with considerable understatement as a “very unfair trial” and immediately announced his intention to appeal.
In the meantime, he should consider a defamation suit of his own against Carroll.
After all, in addition to her court complaint, which is legally privileged, for some four years now she has loudly and publicly claimed that Trump “raped” her, only to have even a biased jury in a biased court find that allegation to be not credible.
Regardless of the results, this latest “circus,” as Trump’s lawyer Joe Tacopina describes it, is unlikely to derail Trump’s steady march back to the nomination in a country weary of seeing its institutions of justice weaponized by a fading professional-managerial caste terrified of losing power.
Quenoy’s column was prefaced by an disclaimer stating that “The following does not constitute a legal opinion by Newsmax.