JFC

This is a snippet* of what the jury in Trump's rape case saw:

They shouldn't need more than 10 minutes to deliberate.

Let me be clear: That isn’t legal confirmation that Trump raped Carroll. But it shows that he’d rather boast about being a “star,” and the “fortunate” sexual prerogatives of stardom, than find a way to sound like less of a sexual predator.

[...]

Technically, of course, Trump was confessing to sexual assault, which is defined as any sexual contact without consent. We knew it then; we know it now. So it was fascinating, if stomach-turning, to see Trump’s response when Kaplan asked him about the tape in his deposition.

[...]

It’s not the only time in the deposition Trump came off as a misogynist ogre. He reiterated several times his key defense: He couldn’t have raped Carroll because she wasn’t his “type.” He went out of his way to insult Kaplan the same way: “You wouldn’t be a choice of mine, either, to be honest,” he told the prominent feminist lawyer. “I wouldn’t in any circumstances have any interest in you.”

  The Nation

She must have been heartbroken to hear that. God, what a despicable piece of scum that man is.

Even so, Kaplan had his number on that front, too. She showed him a picture of Carroll from the mid-1990s, and he mistakenly identified her as his second wife, Marla Maples. “That’s Marla, yeah. That’s my wife.” “I take it the three women you’ve married are all your type?” Kaplan asked him. “Yeah,” he replied.

Again: not proof that he raped Carroll, just proof that in the mid-1990s the writer was attractive enough to be his “type.” If not his second wife.

Bizarrely, he also claimed that in an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, Carroll said that she “loved” the rape he didn’t commit, that she found it “sexy.” In fact, Carroll told Cooper that “the word ‘rape’ carries so many sexual connotations. This was not—this was not sexual. It just hurt,” adding, “I think most people think of rape as being sexy.” Trump’s comments reminded me of O.J. Simpson’s book, If I Did It, in which Simpson put forth a “hypothetical” description of how he killed his wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ron Goldman.

If Trump raped Carroll, she would have “loved” it and found it “sexy.” What a narcissistic monster.

[...]

His rambling, offensive, grievance-filled set of replies to Kaplan’s self-composed questioning showed us the man many of us have come to despise, self-righteous but with the self-awareness of a brick.

Bingo.

His lead attorney, Joe Tacopina, has done no better. During his at times vicious cross-examination of Carroll, in which she was eloquent and emotional, he made the landmark mistakes of a bad litigator. At times, he asked questions he didn’t know the answer to. And rather than fashioning queries that would require a simple yes or no from the journalist, he let her repeat her story of Trump’s vicious assault in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room many times over. When the jury goes to deliberate, likely next week, they will have those details well-established in their memories.

Meanwhile, Trump claimed that he was cutting short a trip to Ireland on Thursday in order to return to testify in the trial. When reporters asked Tacopina if that were true, he replied with a terse “no.”

To be fair, I think Trump said "probably". I also think it's not believable.

Either way, we’re supposed to hear closing arguments from both attorneys early next week.

Trump will only face financial damages if he loses the case, and it’s not certain Carroll would see any of that money, since he always finds a way to stiff people. But it would be a victory for her and for all the women who’ve accused Trump of assault if the jury holds Trump accountable.

A victory for all Americans if Trump is, for the first time in his life, held accountable.

And why is he in Ireland at this particular time?  To be out of the country while the rape trial is in the news?  To avoid being served in a larger, criminal case that may be coming any minute from DOJ?  Just when will he return to the US?  Or will he at all?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

*UPDATE 05/06/2023 01:23 pm: