Trump Won New Hampshire. Next Up: A Pummeling in Court.

Former President Donald Trump won Tuesday’s New Hampshire GOP primary handily, but he won’t get much time to celebrate: He’s about to get rocked by a double-bang of explosive legal judgements over the next two weeks. 

Trump is days away from learning how much he’ll owe writer E. Jean Carroll in a defamation lawsuit over his derisive denials of her claim that he sexually assaulted her decades ago in a Manhattan department store. 

Then, likely next week, he’ll find out how much he has to pay for losing a sweeping civil fraud case brought by the New York Attorney General’s office, which accused him and his family business of fraudulently manipulating the valuations of Trump properties for financial gain. 

The New York AG wants Trump to fork over $370 million, and for the court to effectively drum him out of New York State as a businessman. Carroll’s lawyers want $10 million or more in compensatory damages—along with punitive damages, which could be substantial. Some of Trump’s top allies have been walloped with mega-judgements in recent defamation cases, including $148 million for lawyer Rudy Giuliani and $1.4 billion for conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.  

All this is just the start of a year full of legal jeopardy for Trump, as prosecutors and civil litigators pursue him in courts across the country. Trump also faces 91 criminal counts in four separate jurisdictions, and a pending Supreme Court case that could permit Colorado, Maine, and potentially other states to boot him off the ballot. 

It also raises the curtain on perhaps the strangest election cycle in U.S. history, when Trump’s civil and criminal troubles meld entirely with his political campaign for the White House. Trump has used his tangles with the law to rally Republican support behind him by painting himself as the victim of a witch hunt. Yet that strategy has worked better for him on the campaign trail than in the courtroom—as his victory in New Hampshire, followed by the pair of potentially painful legal events to follow, appear set to illustrate.

Both the fraud case and the defamation suit are about penalties, rather than sorting out the facts. The judge in the fraud case found in December that Trump deceived banks, insurers and others by misrepresenting the value of his assets. In May, a civil jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll in 1999, and then defaming her in 2022, and awarded Carroll $5 million.  

This dynamic leaves Trump with little room to maneuver as he seeks to contain the fallout. He has said he plans to testify in the Carroll case as soon as Wednesday, in what will presumably be his last opportunity to exercise self-defense before mounting appeals. 

There may not be much he can say, however. Judge Lewis A. Kaplan has blocked Trump from claiming that Carroll lied or is merely seeking financial or political gain, due to the previous jury’s ruling. 

Trump could even face legal danger before either of these verdicts come down—if he gets on the stand and then fails to follow the judge’s restrictions on what he can say.

Flaunting the rules could prompt a showdown with a federal judge who is known for coming down hard on shenanigans in his courtroom, and has a track record on the issue of contempt that could prove dangerous to Trump. Judge Kaplan threatened to throw Trump out of court last week after Trump made audible comments to his lawyer while Carroll was testifying. Trump then sparred with the judge, in what could turn out to be a preview of the coming fireworks when Trump testifies.

“I would love it! I would love it!” Trump retorted after the judge raised the possibility of tossing the former president from the courtroom.

Judge Kaplan said Trump did not seem to be able to control himself.

“You can’t, either!” Trump barked. 

How Trump may try to use the moment to persuade the jury to let him off the hook is anyone’s guess—especially when he seems to feel that he can use courtroom conflict to rally his MAGA supporters. 

Trump, of course, has claimed in the past that he planned to testify in a variety of contexts, only to back down at the last moment. 

In the fraud lawsuit, Trump faces another judge with whom he’s had a tempestuous relationship. Judge Arthur Engoron has already found Trump liable for fraud, and now has the sole power to decide the penalty. In addition to a $370 million fine, New York Attorney General Letitia James wants Judge Engoron to place a lifetime ban on Trump working in real estate or serving as a corporate officer or director in New York State. 

Judge Engoron has sparred with Trump as well, and fined Trump twice, totaling $15,000, for violating a gag order prohibiting comments about the judge’s staff. Trump had singled out the judge’s top clerk, who received a torrent of threats. 

The jury in the Carroll case should start deliberating shortly after closing arguments, which could occur by the end of this week. During the last Trump defamation trial, the jury took only three hours to deliver a $5 million judgment. 

Judge Engoron has said he plans to announce his decision by the end of this month.