MSNBC’s Katie Phang says there’s one important takeaway from Wednesday’s second defamation ruling against Donald Trump in federal court.
Phang, in a dispatch from outside a Lower Manhattan courtroom, told “The ReidOut” that if the notion the twice-impeached and four-times indicted former president is a liar wasn’t stamped into concrete before Judge Lewis Kaplan’s ruling, it is now.
“It just goes to show that Donald Trump is a proven liar,” a fired-up Phang said. “And when you have this many criminal cases pending, and your credibility as a criminal defendant may come into play, either because other defendants say that you have done something or you yourself are crazy enough to take the stand, which Donald Trump says he’s willing to do, if you already have findings that he’s a liar — it may not be admissible in your criminal trial, but trust me, in the court of public opinion, with the potential jury pool — they know he’s a liar.”
On Wednesday, Kaplan ruled that Trump was liable in E. Jean Carroll’s second defamation lawsuit against him, ordering the trial to the damages phase over Trump’s 2019 comments in which he said her sexual-assault allegations against him were “totally false” because he had never met her and she wasn’t his “type.” The ruling follows a jury’s findings in May of liability for sexual abuse and defamation, after which Trump was hit with $5 million in damages. That case stemmed from accusations he sexually assaulted her decades ago and October comments he made on social media that her claims of sexual assault were a “complete con job” and “a Hoax and a lie.”
Another important aspect of Wednesday’s ruling, Phang said, countered Trump’s assertion that Carroll “got some money, so whatever she gets in January from me, it’s got to be a set-off from what the award ends up being. And the judge said, ‘No dice.’”
“There is nothing that prohibits E. Jean Carroll from being able to get more money,” Phang added.
Trump has appealed the first Carroll lawsuit, and his attorney, Alina Habba, said in a statement that the result of that appeal could void Wednesday’s ruling.
“We remain very confident that the Carroll II verdict will be overturned on appeal, which will render this decision moot,” Habba said. “We also anticipate that the Second Circuit will stay this trial as it considers the meritorious defenses that have been raised by President Trump.”
Watch video of Phang’s full MSNBC dispatch below.