{"id":902,"date":"2026-05-29T19:08:56","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T19:08:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/propertyrelocationusa.com\/?p=902"},"modified":"2026-05-29T19:08:56","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T19:08:56","slug":"trumps-revenge-obsession-just-took-an-atrocious-turn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/propertyrelocationusa.com\/?p=902","title":{"rendered":"Trump’s revenge obsession just took an atrocious turn"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Friends,<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s Department of Injustice<\/del> Justice has opened a criminal investigation into writer E. Jean Carroll.<\/p>\n

Read more Trump\u2019s power \u2018essentially\u2019 finished after \u2018shooting himself in the foot\u2019: GOP staffer<\/a><\/p>\n

First, some background:<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 2022, Carroll alleged that a chance encounter with Trump in at Bergdorf Goodman’s Fifth Avenue store in Manhattan in the mid-1990s ended violently \u2014 that Trump slammed her against a dressing room wall, pulled down her tights, and forced himself into her.<\/p>\n

In May 2023 a federal jury in New York unanimously found that Trump was liable for sexually abusing Carroll. The judge in that trial clarified that Trump didn\u2019t just \u201csexually abuse\u201d her. He \u201craped\u201d her:<\/p>\n

The finding of sexual abuse \u201cdoes not mean that she failed to prove that Mr. Trump \u2018raped\u2019 her as many people commonly understand the word \u2018rape.\u201d Indeed, as the evidence at trial recounted below makes clear, the jury found that Mr. Trump in fact did exactly that.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(When Trump sued ABC News over George Stephanopoulos\u2019s assertion that Trump had raped Carroll, ABC chose to give in and pay Trump $16 million rather than rely on the judge\u2019s clarification.)<\/p>\n

The jury also found that Trump had defamed Carroll by saying she had lied about the assault. The jury awarded Carroll $5 million.<\/p>\n

Trump appealed, but the verdict was upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. A three-judge panel unanimously rejected Trump\u2019s request for a new trial, concluding that he had \u201cnot demonstrated that the district court erred in any of the challenged rulings.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Last November, Trump asked the Supreme Court to overturn the ruling. It has yet to decide whether to hear the case.)<\/p>\n

After the verdict, Trump denied he had assaulted Carroll and called her claims “a complete con job,” a \u201cHoax and a lie,\u201d and saying she was not his “type.”<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s comments caused Carroll to charge Trump with defaming her once again. After this second trial, a unanimous jury awarded Carroll $83.3 million.<\/p>\n

The verdict included $65 million in punitive damages. The jury found that Trump had acted with malice<\/em> in defaming Carroll a second time. Her lawyers had argued that a large verdict was necessary to \u201cmake him stop\u201d his attacks on her \u2014 which he continued at news conferences, in social media posts and during the trial itself.<\/p>\n

The $83.3 million verdict was upheld by a Second Circuit appeals court in a unanimous three-judge ruling, in which the judges found that Trump \u201cnever wavered or relented in his public attacks\u201d on Carroll, and that she was subjected to public harassment as a result of his statements, including death threats and threats of physical injury.<\/p>\n

Trump has vowed to appeal this case to the Supreme Court as well.<\/p>\n

And <\/strong>now<\/strong><\/em> Trump is using the Justice Department as another cudgel against the woman he sexually abused.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The mainstream media is characterizing this as \u201cthe latest chapter\u201d in Trump\u2019s retribution campaign carried out by the Justice Department \u2014 following the department\u2019s criminal investigations of former FBI director James Comey, New York Attorney General Letitia James, and other Trump opponents.<\/p>\n

Read more Trump has been investing in UFC as he promotes White House event: report<\/a><\/p>\n

Wrong. This investigation marks a dangerous escalation of Trump\u2019s use of the Justice Department for personal vendettas.<\/p>\n

In going after Carroll, Trump is no longer simply weaponizing the Department against people he considers political enemies. Carroll has never been a politician; she\u2019s never served in a president\u2019s administration; she\u2019s never been a prosecutor. She\u2019s a private citizen whom a jury unanimously found Trump had sexually abused, and two juries unanimously found he had defamed.<\/p>\n

Hell, if Trump can use his Justice Department to criminally investigate private citizens who have held him civilly accountable for past brutality, there\u2019s no logical end to his potential vindictiveness. Any of us who has tried to hold him accountable, in any way, could be next.<\/p>\n

A criminal investigation isn\u2019t a party invitation. It\u2019s hugely costly to the people targeted, time-consuming, often grueling and anxiety-provoking.<\/p>\n

The Justice Department\u2019s trumped-up criminal investigation is looking into whether Carroll committed criminal perjury when she said in a 2022 deposition before her first civil lawsuit against Trump that she hadn\u2019t had outside help in funding it \u2014 although some of her legal bills were paid by a nonprofit financed by Reid Hoffman (a major Democratic donor and founder of LinkedIn, who may also be the target of a criminal investigation).<\/p>\n

But this issue was already considered, and dismissed, in Trump\u2019s appeal of that first verdict \u2014 in which Trump\u2019s lawyers accused Carroll of concealing financial support from Hoffman, and her lawyers argued in response that Hoffman\u2019s financial support was irrelevant to Carroll\u2019s legal claims and that she had nothing to do with obtaining the outside funding.<\/p>\n

The appellate court found that she had \u201cplausibly \u2026 forgotten about the limited outside funding counsel obtained,\u201d and that \u201cCarroll simply was not involved in the matter of who was or was not funding her litigation costs.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Trump\u2019s Justice Department to now launch a criminal investigation of Carroll on the same claim his lawyers made years ago, which was dismissed by an appellate court, is a transparent abuse of justice, harassment of a private citizen, and violation of the rule of law.<\/p>\n

Even worse, Todd Blanche, Trump\u2019s Acting Attorney General, was the lawyer who represented Trump in Trump\u2019s appeals of Carroll\u2019s verdicts, and who made the very argument that the appellate court rejected and the Justice Department is now turning into a criminal investigation.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Although Blanche is said to have recused himself from the probe because of his prior representation of Trump in Carroll\u2019s cases, his fingerprints are all over it. Blanche is desperate for Trump to promote him to full Attorney General and, to this end, has been even more accommodating of Trump\u2019s thirst for revenge than his predecessor, Pam Bondi. Moreover, officials from Department headquarters have been involved in the decision to investigate Carroll \u2014 officials who directly report to Blanche.<\/p>\n

Friends, I was an attorney in the Justice Department soon after Richard Nixon had tried to turn it against his enemies and Nixon Attorney General John Mitchell had gone to jail for his role in Watergate. I was fortunate enough to work for Edward Levi, Gerald Ford\u2019s Attorney General, who sought to insulate the Department from any similar abuses in the future, and regain the public\u2019s trust in our system of justice. President Ford supported Levi\u2019s efforts. Levi\u2019s successors, Griffin Bell and Benjamin Civiletti, continued Levi\u2019s work to depoliticize \u2014 and professionalize \u2014 the Department, with the support of Jimmy Carter.<\/p>\n

The next President and Attorney General must rededicate themselves and the Justice Department to the same principles.<\/p>\n

Read more \u2018He is already so radioactive\u2019: Blanche damaged by Bondi testimony<\/a><\/p>\n

Nixon\u2019s Justice Department was bad. Trump\u2019s is far worse, and more dangerous.<\/p>\n