Village Lawyer Socks It To Trump…Again!83 Million Times!

By Arthur Schwartz villageview.nyc 3 Feb, 2024 Donald Trump of Queens is 77 years old. And for his whole life he has slipped and slided and rarely been pinned with a loss (except by Joe Biden, which Trump has convinced perhaps 40% of the US that it was a fake win). But late last month two women, for the second time in two years, beat him, and beat him badly – an $83 million verdict on top of a $5.5 million verdict from last year. It took two women, EJ Carroll, who wouldn’t rest until a 1999 sexual assault was addressed, and until Donald Trump stopped denying that it happened, and her lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, a neighbor of ours right here in Greenwich Village. One cannot but admire the chutzpah of our neighbor. She had already won the landmark case in the Supreme Court as the lawyer for Edie Windsor, another Villager who won the fight for Marriage Equality in the U.S. Supreme Court. (In 2022, the New York City Council designated the corner of Fifth Avenue and Washington Square North, where she lived with her wife Thea for over 40 years, as “Edie Windsor and Thea Spyer Way.”) But she decided to take on Trump —and she kicked his a- – . The Times reported on January 28 about the deposition Roberta took in the EJ Carroll case in 2022, after Trump left the White House. When she asked Trump if he was referring to EJ Carroll when he said that “people who make false accusations of rape should pay dearly,” he said yes. And then he added, “And I think their attorneys too.” During the deposition, Kaplan questioned him about several other women who have accused him of sexual assault, women Trump has characterized as not being his “type.” Growing belligerent, Trump told Kaplan that “you wouldn’t be a choice of mine either, to be honest.” He added: “I wouldn’t in any circumstances have any interest in you.” From all observers Roberta Kaplan always kept her cool, which clearly Trump hated. When he left court and gave a press conference, repeating his defamatory remarks about EJ Carroll, Kaplan came in the next morning and played a tape of his remarks to the jury. And on the last day, when Trump stormed out during her closing arguments, after she said that Trump didn’t think that the rules and laws didn’t apply to him, Roberta calmly kept on going. She ended,” No matter what Donald Trump thinks, and no matter what Donald Trump says, the rules do apply to him.” It’s stuff many of us in the Village say every day. But Roberta Kaplan, a Village Hero, made it count 83 million times. From Greenwich Village With Love. Great job neighbor! Roberta Kaplan.   Photo by Sylvie Rosokoff, CC BY-SA 4.0. https://villageview.nyc/2024/02/03/5646/