Seven
-
VDH:
The E. Jean Carroll case is the most baffling of all five. She, the alleged victim, did not remember even the year in which the purported sexual assault took place, nearly three decades ago. Observers have pointed out dozens of bizarre inconsistencies in her story, some of them seemingly exculpatory of Trump.
It was never clear what the preliminaries were that supposedly (Trump denies meeting her) led both, allegedly, willingly to retreat together to a department store dressing room, where during normal business hours, the alleged assault took place.
Moreover, the sexual assault complaint came forward decades post facto — and only after Trump was running for and then became president.
Carroll eventually sued him for battery, but well after the statute of limitations had expired, thus the case seemed defunct.
Her claims of defamation injuries arise in part from being fired from her advice column job at ELLE magazine.
She claimed that Trump’s sharp denials and ad hominem retorts led her career and reputation to ruin. But the loss of a column for anyone at 76 does not seem such a rare occurrence, and the absence of a salaried job for four years in one’s late seventies does not seem to equate to an $83 million hit.
Notably, the allegation that her dispute with Trump led to her firing was strongly denied by the very magazine that cut her loose.
But then another strange thing happened. In 2022, a new law, "The Adult Survivors Act," was passed by the New York legislature. It also post facto established a twelve-month window (beginning six months from the signing of the bill) that permitted survivors of long ago alleged sexual assaults to suddenly sue their accused long-ago perpetrator — regardless of the previous statute of limitations.
That unexpected opening suddenly gave Carroll’s prior unsuccessful efforts a rebirth. And she quickly refiled with the help of arch-Trump-hating billionaire Hoffman.
Yet the bill may have been introduced with Trump particularly in mind — given the legislator who introduced it, Democratic state Sen. Brad Hoylman-Siga, was known as another Trump antagonist.
More interestingly, Hoylman-Siga had earlier introduced and had passed another Trump-targeted bill. That "TRUST" act empowered particular federal Congressional committees to access New York State's once-sealed tax returns of high-ranking government elected officials — such as Trump.
That bill’s generally agreed subtext was a green light for anti-Trump members of Congress to obtain legal access to Donald J. Trump's tax returns.
So there is an eerie feeling that the New York legislature may have abruptly passed legislation that was aimed at the past conduct of Donald Trump but only after he entered the political arena.