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I think that is why Trump is not being criminally charged, but the defamation that he is being charged for is recent.
Do you think that's still improper, that if the matter of fact which the defamation centers on is outside SoL, the court shouldn't be allowed to say whether or not recent statements were defamatory?
Given that civil courts have a lower evidentiary burden to begin with, I don't think this naturally follows.
I addressed this in my initial comment, but I'll work it out a bit further here.
Statements of personal innocence, and defending your friends' innocence, should never be punishable in and of themselves. "I did not rape her" should not be construed as defamation.
Statements that impugn someone's character unnecessarily can probably still be defamatory, but because truth is an absolute defense to libel and the truth of the matter is somewhat impossible to prove, it should probably be limited to cases where the defamation is extreme.
I disagree, and find the civil vs criminal distinction cold comfort. The civil courts ultimately have power of discovery to upend your life, the verdicts will be enforced by the courts and ultimately by men with guns, they create "facts" that can't be contradicted later.
For the present case, on balance I don't think Trump should face any liability for defamation in this case. It does meet the legal standards involved and procedures were followed, and he could easily escape liability by simply...cutting it out with the nonsense. But it is inappropriate to punish someone for protesting their innocence.
I agree, but I really, really don't think that's a fair summary of what is being charged as defamation here.
I am going to just admit up front that I have not taken time to hunt down every speech and Truthbomb (or w/e they're called) or other public statement Trump has made about this which was cited as defamatory and judge them myself. If you have, you can pull rank here.
But my impression from summaries I've seen is that it was much more of an attack on her character and motives and person, made repeatedly and as part of stump speeches and campaign rhetoric and as political strategy, on a way that painted her as a political actor and possibly part of a conspiracy, in away that turned his supporters against her in ways that upended her life in major ways, and made her feel/be unsafe.
Just saying that you are innocent shouldn't be defamation, but that doesn't mean you can't do other things to defame someone at the same time as you claim your innocence.
I've followed the story very shallowly, I read Carroll's original short story (it's very engaging) and I browsed articles in the WSJ and NYT in between since.
Maybe what trump said is worse than I think? But my impression is that while he has put his finger into the fan blade over and over, it hasn't crossed the line as I would draw it. Unfortunately I don't get to draw those lines.
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