These monetary judgments against Trump and his supporters are getting crazy
By now you know that on June 29, the Supreme Court inexplicably declined to hear President Trump’s appeal of the $5 million liability award that he’s being required to pay in the civil sexual assault case brought by accuser E. Jean Carroll.
ADDITIONAL READING:
Judge Lewis A. Kaplan ruled Wednesday that the money, held in escrow since 2023 during the appeals process (and now, with earned interest, inflated to $5.8 million), could be released. Trump attorneys said they would continue with appeals, asking the Supreme Court to reconsider. They argued that since Carroll is planning to donate the money to third parties, Trump likely wouldn’t be able to recover it if the ruling is reserved. But late Wednesday, Judge Eunice C. Lee of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected their request to stop the money from being transferred to Carroll. As far as we know, the money is still in the escrow account, and it could take several months for the Supreme Court to reconsider hearing the case.
RELATED: It seems we’ll never hear the end of this ludicrous case: A watchdog group has filed a bar complaint with the New York Supreme Court against Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan. They allege that Kaplan failed to provide transparency to Trump’s attorneys when she knew Carroll provided false information during a deposition, claiming that nobody else was paying her legal fees. Later tax filings showed that a nonprofit bankrolled by leftwing activist billionaire Reid Hoffman made a small donation of about $7 million. Details at the link.
And speaking of unlikely defamation awards, now, there’s this: Hunter Biden has been awarded $1.7 million in his defamation lawsuit against former Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne, who publicly accused him of seeking an $800 million bribe from Iran in 2021. This allegedly would have been paid in exchange for getting his father to release $8 million in frozen Iranian assets and also ease up during nuclear negotiations.
Well, we can’t have comments like that hurting Hunter’s stellar reputation in international business!
Breitbart has details; it seems Byrne lost in a default judgment, as he didn’t show up and his attorney put on no defense. But even though that seems to be the reason why he lost, Hunter’s attorney crowed, “This is a complete vindication for Hunter Biden against the false statements made against him by Patrick Byrne.” Well, that might be an overstatement. Still, anyone who does make such remarks should be able to back them up, and Byrne apparently couldn’t or didn’t bother to.
Neither Byrne nor his attorney (who it seems didn’t have much to do on this case) has had comment.
This morning, Jonathan Turley offers an analysis of the absurdly high damages award granted by this judge, which consists of only $1 in nominal (actual) damages and $1.7 million in punitive damages. This was the way for Hunter’s attorneys to get around the reality that it’s pretty hard to damage Hunter’s reputation! These crafty lawyers earned their money, to be sure, but Turley thinks this ungodly huge judgment is appeal-worthy.
https://jonathanturley.org/2026/07/13/the-absurdity-of-the-hunter-biden-defamation-case/
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Plus, she once wrote a column in a “women’s magazine” that told readers how to cry r$$$ & win🤦🏻♀️ she gives all women a bad name with her nonsense.