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Welcome back, Deadline: Legal Newsletter readers. The quadruply indicted former president won the New Hampshire GOP primary on Tuesday and ended the week being hit with an $83.3 million damages award in the latest E. Jean Carroll defamation trial.
But where’s that immunity ruling? It’s been more than two weeks since the D.C. Circuit panel heard argument Jan. 9 on Donald Trump’s far-fetched claim in the federal election interference case. As I explained here, there could be multiple reasons why it’s taken this long — none of which are particularly satisfying — as the scheduled March trial moves further out of reach with each passing day.
More satisfying for accountability proponents is that $83.3 million award — $65 million of which is punitive damages — in the Carroll trial. This one was solely focused on damages, after a jury last year found Trump civilly liable for sexually assaulting and defaming the writer. The Manhattan jury in that trial awarded Carroll $5 million. After bailing on the first trial, Trump decided to attend this one and even testified — albeit very briefly, as my colleague Katie Phang explains. He has vowed to appeal.
Also on the Trump civil front, we’re awaiting the ruling from Judge Arthur Engoron on the fate of the former president’s business empire — including whether he can do real estate business in New York ever again. Supporting her request for a lifetime ban in the $370 million fraud case, New York Attorney General Letitia James this week cited to Engoron an appellate decision that approved such a ban, from the pharma industry, against another shady businessman: Martin Shkreli.
The D.C. Circuit did act in a Trump matter this week when the full circuit declined to rehear his gag order loss in the election interference case. He had pressed for rehearing of the December panel ruling that upheld (but narrowed) Judge Tanya Chutkan’s restrictions on his speech. The next stop could be the Supreme Court — which wouldn’t have to take an appeal and might not want to, given how Trumpy the high court’s term is already looking. It hears oral arguments on his presidential eligibility on Feb. 8.
Plus, the justices are busy doing things like greenlighting experimental execution methods. On Thursday, the Republican-appointed majority let Alabama use an untested nitrogen gas killing technique. My colleague Jarvis DeBerry opined that the fundamental problem is the death penalty itself. Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s dissent did well to call out the stakes of the case, but the majority couldn’t be bothered to offer a justification. It was the second time this week that the Roberts Court ruled on a crucial matter without explanation, following its 5-4 split against Texas on the state’s southern border defiance.