RadixJournal - ＂They Let You Do It＂

00:00:00.000 Hello, everyone, and welcome back to my journal.

00:00:04.780 I am going to talk briefly about the civil case that Donald Trump is involved with.

00:00:14.420 He is being sued by E. Jean Carroll.

00:00:19.940 It's taking place in New York City, and both the plaintiffs and the defense have rested,

00:00:27.220 and the jury is deliberating, so I want to get this in before we know the verdict.

00:00:35.000 I think the verdict might very well be for the plaintiff.

00:00:40.360 That is, Donald Trump is going to be responsible for renouncing his earlier claims against E. Jean Carroll,

00:00:52.300 and he might be responsible for a lot of money.

00:00:56.420 We will see, but I want to talk about why I think this type of case is fraudulent in itself,

00:01:05.700 and that's a more complicated argument, and I want to also talk just about the immediate political fallout from all this,

00:01:16.260 so I will start there.

00:01:18.300 Whatever the verdict is, this case has been an absolute disaster for Donald Trump,

00:01:27.300 personally, for Trump world, etc. 0.99

00:01:31.160 The chickens have finally come home to roost with the grab-em-by-the-pussy tape 0.99

00:01:38.380 that, of course, was revealed in 2016, an October surprise, 0.98

00:01:44.320 and was damaging then, although Trump pulled out a miraculous win.

00:01:49.280 And I think this is a point at which, again, the chickens have come home to roost,

00:01:55.240 that Donald Trump is ultimately having to pay for those comments,

00:02:00.500 because I do think that this is a political case.

00:02:04.640 It's being done by Roberta Kaplan, it's being funded by Reid Hoffman, Netflix fame,

00:02:15.820 and it ultimately derives from what was a political act and not necessarily a criminal act. 0.98

00:02:24.920 That is, it ultimately derives from the grab-em-by-the-pussy tape, 0.94

00:02:28.440 and it doesn't necessarily derive from a crime. 0.95

00:02:32.520 And I think that's the real problem, and that's why I think everyone,

00:02:37.520 no matter how you feel about Trump,

00:02:39.440 I was famously very excited about Trump at one point.

00:02:43.560 I'm much less so now, to say the least.

00:02:48.520 But I think someone should take his defense on this matter,

00:02:54.440 in the sense that this type of case is fraudulent in itself,

00:02:58.600 and could be misused in a whole host of different ways.

00:03:04.800 But anyway, let's get back to the immediate political fallout.

00:03:09.660 Trump never took the stand.

00:03:12.440 You don't have to in a civil matter.

00:03:15.080 And he didn't even show up in court.

00:03:17.980 Again, you don't have to in a civil matter.

00:03:20.460 He did show up via videotape of his deposition,

00:03:24.640 and the highlights that we've seen from that deposition,

00:03:27.880 which I'm sure was hours upon hours,

00:03:30.440 but we're only seeing a few minutes here and there.

00:03:33.140 Anyway, those highlights are disastrous.

00:03:37.360 And I agree that they might be funny on some level,

00:03:44.120 but they are super disastrous.

00:03:47.140 And I think Trump, in many ways, couldn't help himself.

00:03:51.200 He just had to act like an edgelord and say these things.

00:03:56.120 It's part of his personality.

00:03:57.800 It's, in a way, what made him great

00:03:59.420 and what might very well bring him down.

00:04:03.400 So just some highlights of these.

00:04:06.000 He misidentified E. Jean Carroll

00:04:08.660 and his own ex-wife, Marla Maples.

00:04:10.980 So he was shown a photo in this deposition.

00:04:16.820 And he, first off, there was an odd way 0.99

00:04:20.900 in which Trump was either playing dumb 0.99

00:04:22.800 or he's having serious memory issues. 0.99

00:04:25.480 He couldn't quite remember, you know,

00:04:27.400 when he was married to Ivana,

00:04:30.100 when he was married to Marla,

00:04:31.060 when he was married to his current beautiful wife, Melania.

00:04:34.580 And he was shown this photo and he said,

00:04:40.000 oh yeah, that's Marla. 0.99

00:04:42.280 And he was corrected.

00:04:44.540 No, that was, in fact, E. Jean Carroll.

00:04:46.900 And they're different people,

00:04:48.340 but they look fairly similar.

00:04:51.040 So his claim after this accusation was made

00:04:58.440 was basically the same claim

00:05:01.080 that Sorghum of Arkad made, 0.96

00:05:04.100 that is Carl Benjamin,

00:05:05.620 on Twitter at some point,

00:05:07.700 where he said, 0.98

00:05:08.300 I wouldn't even rape you, 1.00

00:05:10.700 which is, I guess, 0.99

00:05:13.880 a backhanded compliment if there ever was one.

00:05:17.360 Very, very much an edgelord comment.

00:05:20.080 And he said that,

00:05:21.320 oh, she's not my type, 1.00

00:05:22.580 so I wouldn't sexually assault her.

00:05:24.480 Well, again, that's a very odd thing to say

00:05:26.880 as opposed to just a blanket denial.

00:05:29.640 No, I didn't do this.

00:05:30.800 That would have been a lot easier,

00:05:32.100 but Trump had to kind of twist it.

00:05:35.540 Well, it seems like she very much was his type.

00:05:38.720 He thought she was Marla Maples, in fact,

00:05:41.560 whom he had a long-term affair with throughout the 80s.

00:05:44.980 It was played out in the tabloids.

00:05:47.320 I can remember as a kid

00:05:48.560 going to the supermarket

00:05:50.140 and seeing People magazine

00:05:51.720 and Trump and Marla and Ivana

00:05:54.740 and all this kind of stuff going on.

00:05:58.120 So that was a huge disaster.

00:06:02.940 The other thing,

00:06:04.120 he said something that was truthful,

00:06:07.980 but obviously doesn't really serve him.

00:06:13.500 And he said that he basically affirmed 0.99

00:06:17.600 the grab him by the pussy tape 1.00

00:06:18.860 because a lot of people listen to that tape 0.99

00:06:22.080 and they said,

00:06:22.840 oh, look, he's confessing to a sexual assault.

00:06:25.040 Well, it was locker room talk in many ways.

00:06:27.740 He was talking very generally.

00:06:29.460 He was not confessing to a specific crime.

00:06:36.320 But there's also this interesting quality to it

00:06:40.920 where it's like, okay, is he being offensive?

00:06:43.480 Yes or no.

00:06:44.020 But is he right or not?

00:06:45.440 Yes or no.

00:06:46.040 And he affirmed this,

00:06:47.460 that for the last million years,

00:06:49.040 if you were a star of some kind,

00:06:51.760 I guess a star in the age of the cavemen,

00:06:54.180 and you were really good at clubbing

00:06:56.580 the other tribe or something,

00:06:58.980 that basically they let you do it.

00:07:01.920 And so it's a comment on female nature 1.00

00:07:04.440 and not just man's nature.

00:07:09.120 All of this might very well be true,

00:07:11.740 but it's just not the thing to say in a deposition.

00:07:16.260 And so I think that also was a disaster.

00:07:20.780 So, again, even if he gets out of this,

00:07:25.320 even if he wins on appeal,

00:07:26.840 I still think this is highly damaging.

00:07:28.860 But I want to talk more about the case itself

00:07:32.740 and why it's fraudulent.

00:07:35.260 And I think it's being,

00:07:37.100 it's not necessarily being misrepresented by the media,

00:07:40.820 but it's being misrepresented in headlines

00:07:42.920 and how people talk about it.

00:07:44.380 So it's often referred to as the Trump rape trial.

00:07:48.840 Well, it's not a rape trial.

00:07:52.720 It is a defamation trial.

00:07:55.480 So we're distanced already by a valence

00:07:58.720 away from the actual alleged crime.

00:08:03.180 The rape, or it sounds a little bit more

00:08:06.760 like a sexual assault to me,

00:08:08.220 but I don't want to split hairs here.

00:08:11.180 But the crime occurred in the mid-90s.

00:08:15.940 Trump's lawyer made something of the fact

00:08:18.120 that E. Jean Carroll couldn't quite remember

00:08:20.560 when it happened.

00:08:21.960 Was it 95 or 96 or something like that?

00:08:24.780 Well, I think that's actually fair.

00:08:26.960 I was in high school in the mid-90s.

00:08:29.740 And, you know, did this event happen senior year?

00:08:32.660 Was it sophomore year?

00:08:33.680 I can't quite remember.

00:08:34.380 I think that's fair.

00:08:36.020 And I also don't think E. Jean Carroll

00:08:40.700 is making it up, actually.

00:08:42.280 And I'll go into more of that a little bit later.

00:08:45.580 But what happened, according to Carroll,

00:08:47.900 and she wrote this in an autobiography,

00:08:51.120 and she actually didn't mention Trump by name,

00:08:54.140 but it acted as a kind of Romana clef.

00:08:57.260 Everyone knew it was Trump and, you know,

00:08:59.620 so on and so forth.

00:09:00.480 So they were at Bergdorf Department Store Fancy Place,

00:09:08.980 and he asked her to help him buy a present.

00:09:15.040 And he said, oh, I want to get this woman a fur cap. 1.00

00:09:19.240 And she said, oh, you should never put an animal

00:09:20.980 on your head, and then maybe we'll do a bodysuit 0.93

00:09:23.120 or something like that.

00:09:23.740 One thing led to another, and Trump pushed her up

00:09:26.920 against the wall and apparently digitally penetrated her. 0.96

00:09:32.920 So I guess you could call this rape on some level.

00:09:38.700 Now, what do I think of this?

00:09:43.160 I think that E. Jean Carroll is, in all likelihood,

00:09:49.260 being truthful.

00:09:50.780 In other words, I believe her.

00:09:53.740 Now, I don't believe all women or something like that. 1.00

00:09:57.220 I think there certainly are many cases of lying

00:10:00.440 to get revenge or so on.

00:10:02.740 But I believe E. Jean Carroll.

00:10:04.380 I think she's a credible person.

00:10:06.380 She strikes me as a rather, you know, 0.58

00:10:10.340 she's exuberant and kind of a goofy woman, 0.82

00:10:14.580 but I almost say that as a compliment.

00:10:17.460 She's kind of the fun girl that you would want to talk to

00:10:21.120 or, you know, be friends with or have at a party.

00:10:23.660 I think she's fairly, I think not fairly,

00:10:26.480 I think she's credible.

00:10:27.520 I don't think she's lying.

00:10:29.240 I think something like this might very well have happened.

00:10:33.560 I tend to believe her.

00:10:35.360 You know, we don't, no one has firm evidence here,

00:10:37.240 but I tend to believe her.

00:10:38.300 I don't think she's on the war path.

00:10:40.400 Now, you could ask,

00:10:44.060 why didn't she go to the police immediately afterwards? 0.83

00:10:49.100 You could ask a lot of questions about that.

00:10:52.380 This wasn't a rape like, you know,

00:10:58.260 you would think of in, say, Central Park

00:11:00.420 where someone grabs you, knocks you over the head

00:11:03.060 and takes you behind the bushes or something like that.

00:11:04.920 It wasn't nearly that violent.

00:11:08.380 Perhaps in the world of Donald Trump,

00:11:12.340 this kind of thing is fairly normal.

00:11:14.960 He certainly makes it seem that way.

00:11:18.080 He's done this to many different women.

00:11:21.480 And maybe E. Jing Curl wasn't quite sure

00:11:27.400 that it was a crime.

00:11:28.920 Maybe she was embarrassed by the whole thing.

00:11:31.040 She didn't want to be scandalized.

00:11:33.620 Maybe she had some mixed feelings herself

00:11:35.920 about the matter.

00:11:37.880 Maybe she felt a little guilty

00:11:41.260 about being aroused by it.

00:11:44.500 And I don't say that

00:11:45.800 to make some kind of edgelord comment.

00:11:48.340 Human sexuality is a very complicated thing.

00:11:52.180 And Freud was right in many ways.

00:11:54.860 We often fear what we desire

00:11:56.780 and we desire what we fear.

00:11:59.720 So maybe she had some ambivalent feelings about this

00:12:02.740 and didn't want to come forward.

00:12:04.220 And then in retrospect, you know, 30 years on,

00:12:08.180 she's able to process it and describe it.

00:12:13.260 Again, I'm not saying this in any way

00:12:15.880 as an insult towards E. Jing Curl.

00:12:18.580 I think it's a very human response.

00:12:25.300 But the fact is,

00:12:27.080 there is no direct evidence of this.

00:12:30.620 There was a legal battle about the dress that she wore. 0.95

00:12:34.300 She claimed she didn't launder it. 0.94

00:12:36.760 And there might have been Trump's DNA

00:12:39.820 left there in some way.

00:12:44.040 I don't even want to go into

00:12:47.200 where that DNA would come from.

00:12:50.820 But there was some deal

00:12:53.420 between the plaintiffs and the defendants

00:12:55.660 where they were like,

00:12:56.680 well, we'll give up Trump's DNA

00:12:59.480 if you show us all of the DNA

00:13:02.780 that's on the dress.

00:13:04.140 And so on.

00:13:05.400 The judge said,

00:13:06.620 well, it's too late for all this.

00:13:08.000 The trial has to go forward.

00:13:09.180 So we, you know,

00:13:10.820 the jury never heard about the dress.

00:13:12.720 We don't get to, you know,

00:13:15.400 reiterate the famous dress

00:13:17.040 that, you know,

00:13:18.060 reminds us of another infamous episode

00:13:21.120 from the 1990s.

00:13:23.220 That is the Bill Clinton,

00:13:24.900 Monica Lewinsky affair.

00:13:28.120 Anyway,

00:13:29.020 we don't have an actual crime.

00:13:33.080 Whatever her reasons,

00:13:34.600 she never,

00:13:35.460 Carol never went to the police.

00:13:36.980 We don't have any really firm evidence.

00:13:40.420 What we do have evidence of 1.00

00:13:42.840 is that Donald Trump is a jerk 1.00

00:13:47.000 and that Donald Trump is the kind of guy 1.00

00:13:50.520 who would do something like this.

00:13:52.960 We also have evidence

00:13:54.560 that E. Jean Carroll

00:13:56.060 is a kind of an interesting lady 0.85

00:13:59.760 and I would say credible witness.

00:14:02.760 So we have evidence of that.

00:14:04.780 Of that, we can be sure.

00:14:07.640 But we don't have any evidence of the crime.

00:14:10.580 And this is the real issue

00:14:12.520 of the civil suit.

00:14:14.060 Again,

00:14:14.680 you could file a civil suit

00:14:16.960 about something that was a crime.

00:14:19.180 For instance,

00:14:19.560 there's a wrongful death civil suit.

00:14:22.960 It's not murder in the criminal sense,

00:14:25.700 but it obviously involves death.

00:14:27.800 You could have a civil suit involving rape.

00:14:29.840 But again,

00:14:30.480 this isn't a civil suit involving rape.

00:14:32.640 The statute of limitations is long past.

00:14:35.700 And again,

00:14:36.420 could you prove

00:14:38.000 that Donald Trump did this

00:14:39.940 beyond a reasonable doubt?

00:14:42.500 There have been some famous rape cases

00:14:44.360 in which the only evidence

00:14:47.160 was the word of the victim.

00:14:50.220 So you could,

00:14:51.740 but I think it's very unlikely.

00:14:54.720 And they're not even trying that.

00:14:56.860 So it's all moot.

00:14:59.100 So we have this layer above

00:15:01.260 the alleged crime

00:15:03.520 that is a civil suit of defamation.

00:15:08.120 Now,

00:15:09.020 there are different standards

00:15:10.460 in civil and criminal cases.

00:15:13.060 As you know,

00:15:14.140 I'm sure in a criminal case,

00:15:15.700 it has to be beyond a reasonable doubt.

00:15:18.120 In other words,

00:15:19.760 he did it.

00:15:20.580 You know,

00:15:22.260 no sensible person

00:15:27.920 could dispute this.

00:15:29.120 We got him dead to rights.

00:15:30.280 That should be the standard

00:15:31.460 for any kind of crime,

00:15:32.980 whether it's a speeding ticket

00:15:34.340 or whether it's murder

00:15:35.320 or a sexual assault

00:15:37.860 like what is being alleged.

00:15:41.020 In a civil trial,

00:15:43.080 the threshold

00:15:44.760 they have to reach

00:15:45.600 is lower.

00:15:47.040 It's more,

00:15:47.840 it's not a reasonable doubt.

00:15:49.100 It's more like,

00:15:50.200 did he probably do this?

00:15:52.740 It's 51%.

00:15:54.280 It's not 99%

00:15:56.120 certainty.

00:15:58.920 So

00:15:59.640 they build

00:16:01.100 a civil case

00:16:02.360 on

00:16:03.280 top

00:16:04.660 of

00:16:05.240 an alleged crime

00:16:06.500 that has never really been proven.

00:16:08.720 And I fear

00:16:09.940 that

00:16:10.880 because of this

00:16:12.500 mixing

00:16:13.580 of the thresholds

00:16:15.520 to reach a verdict

00:16:17.180 that

00:16:18.700 Donald Trump

00:16:19.860 is going to be

00:16:21.840 excuse me,

00:16:24.720 that the jury

00:16:25.400 will find

00:16:26.140 for the plaintiffs

00:16:27.940 on the basis

00:16:29.060 that they are pretty sure

00:16:30.940 that Donald Trump

00:16:31.880 is the type of guy

00:16:33.300 who would do something

00:16:34.180 like this.

00:16:36.700 Now,

00:16:37.320 there's another

00:16:37.960 matter

00:16:39.120 involving this

00:16:40.200 that I think

00:16:40.540 is a little bit

00:16:40.960 less interesting,

00:16:41.780 which is,

00:16:42.200 you know,

00:16:42.460 what kind of defamation

00:16:44.020 has actually occurred,

00:16:46.020 what kind of damages

00:16:47.160 has Carol

00:16:48.140 suffered

00:16:49.180 due to

00:16:50.740 Donald Trump's

00:16:52.000 defaming of her.

00:16:53.660 Now,

00:16:53.880 again,

00:16:54.380 it's not the damages

00:16:55.700 that she suffered

00:16:56.660 due to the alleged crime.

00:16:58.760 It's the damage

00:16:59.340 that she suffered

00:17:00.260 from Donald Trump

00:17:01.440 lying about her.

00:17:02.500 Those are very different things.

00:17:04.740 And we're just

00:17:05.620 mixing these two

00:17:07.300 and mixing the thresholds

00:17:09.740 where I don't think

00:17:11.660 such a case

00:17:13.420 should be allowed

00:17:14.540 to take place.

00:17:16.000 I'm not saying this

00:17:17.500 as a Trump fanboy.

00:17:19.340 I'm saying this

00:17:20.700 as someone

00:17:21.280 who actually cares

00:17:22.280 about how this kind of thing

00:17:23.540 could be used

00:17:24.360 in the future.

00:17:28.300 Let's say

00:17:29.340 that

00:17:30.280 it's not Donald Trump.

00:17:32.480 It's some

00:17:33.700 college guy

00:17:35.280 who

00:17:36.520 is

00:17:38.040 being accused

00:17:39.520 of defaming

00:17:40.380 someone

00:17:41.000 for

00:17:41.960 the fact

00:17:43.120 that he denied 0.82

00:17:43.960 that he raped her.

00:17:45.640 And they have evidence 0.99

00:17:46.580 that,

00:17:46.940 oh yeah,

00:17:47.300 they were at this

00:17:47.880 frat party together.

00:17:48.980 Oh yeah,

00:17:49.400 they were both drinking

00:17:50.520 and he was hitting

00:17:52.300 on her

00:17:52.920 really hard.

00:17:54.940 And

00:17:55.420 when she went

00:17:56.740 out to get

00:17:58.080 something from her car,

00:17:59.680 he followed her.

00:18:01.340 So,

00:18:01.980 hmm, 1.00

00:18:02.480 it looks like he raped her. 1.00

00:18:03.560 He definitely could have done it. 1.00

00:18:04.740 Well,

00:18:05.300 that level of evidence

00:18:07.180 wouldn't really

00:18:08.720 pass mustard.

00:18:10.560 Pass mustard,

00:18:11.700 excuse me.

00:18:12.980 Wouldn't pass mustard

00:18:14.140 in a criminal case.

00:18:19.560 Yet,

00:18:20.480 we are now

00:18:21.660 in a situation

00:18:22.520 where

00:18:23.320 you could basically

00:18:24.720 impugn

00:18:25.740 this man's character

00:18:26.720 and say,

00:18:27.220 well,

00:18:27.680 this is the type

00:18:28.960 of frat boy

00:18:29.960 jock 1.00

00:18:30.640 asshole 1.00

00:18:31.240 who would do 1.00

00:18:33.080 things like this.

00:18:35.500 So,

00:18:35.980 what are you really

00:18:36.800 supposed to do

00:18:37.920 in cases like this

00:18:39.220 other than

00:18:40.260 deny

00:18:41.120 that you committed

00:18:42.080 a crime?

00:18:44.480 I mean,

00:18:44.900 it's,

00:18:45.560 of course,

00:18:46.200 you're going to call

00:18:47.020 someone a liar

00:18:48.280 to some extent

00:18:50.800 if they

00:18:52.800 accuse you

00:18:53.740 of a crime

00:18:54.420 that you didn't commit.

00:18:56.700 So,

00:18:57.460 what exactly

00:18:58.320 are you supposed

00:18:59.360 to do

00:19:00.140 outside of

00:19:01.480 risking

00:19:02.000 a civil trial

00:19:03.820 in which

00:19:04.540 denying

00:19:05.520 a criminal

00:19:06.400 act

00:19:07.000 is

00:19:07.640 in itself

00:19:08.380 defamation?

00:19:10.340 I just think

00:19:11.080 these things

00:19:11.620 are so

00:19:12.360 twisted.

00:19:14.000 The whole

00:19:14.900 reasoning

00:19:15.740 behind this

00:19:16.400 case

00:19:16.800 is so

00:19:18.180 convoluted

00:19:19.180 that I just

00:19:20.040 don't think

00:19:21.080 it should

00:19:22.220 ever

00:19:22.740 have seen

00:19:23.580 the light

00:19:23.920 of day.

00:19:24.320 play.

00:19:31.940 .

00:19:32.560 .

00:19:32.920 .

00:19:33.520 .

00:19:35.860 .

RadixJournal - May 08, 2023

＂They Let You Do It＂

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