A new video ad released by the Biden campaign and distributed extensively this week rips former President Donald Trump for some of his legal troubles, including his recent felony criminal conviction in New York City and his civil proceedings originating with claims from writer E. Jean Carroll of sexual assault.
Though Trump himself has tried apparently seizing on a jury holding back from deeming him liable for “rape” as defined in relevant law, the judge said that the jury’s still supportive findings amounted to holding him liable for sexual assault. The difference was apparently technical rather than something more substantive.
“It has been determined already that Mr. Trump did sexually assault Ms. Carroll,” said the judge, Lewis Kaplan. Trump’s civil proceedings from Carroll’s claims left him with financial penalties of nearly $90 million, which are currently covered with a bond as apparent legal appeals move forward. The bond is a little larger than the originally instituted amount of the underlying penalties.
“In the courtroom, we see Donald Trump for who he is,” says the new ad from Biden’s campaign. “He’s been convicted of 34 felonies. Found liable for sexual assault. And he committed financial fraud. Meanwhile, Joe Biden’s been working. Lowering health care costs and making big corporations pay their fair share. This election is between a convicted criminal who’s only out for himself and a president who’s fighting for your family.”
The New York Times, meanwhile, faced intensive criticism for saying that a new ad from Biden’s campaign “paints” Trump as a felon, as though there’s perhaps some uncertainty about the status. There’s not. Trump was, in fact, convicted by a jury of dozens of felony criminal offenses after prosecutors accused him of the falsification of business records in connection to hush money from before the 2016 presidential election for Stormy Daniels.
