Irish Examiner view: Trump faces his biggest legal battles

Trump has, for years, portrayed himself as a self-made mogul who can bend the justice system in his favour. While criminal cases (he faces four) might not bring down the House of Trump, the civil actions against him could well do. Picture: Yuki Iwamura/AP

Last week, Donald Trump fell into an $83.3m (€77m) hole. That was the amount a New York jury awarded journalist E Jean Carroll in her defamation action against the former US president and presumptive Republican nominee for this November’s election.

The hole was actually $88.3m if you include the $5m Ms Carroll was awarded in her first defamation action against Trump. And in the coming weeks on Trump’s seemingly endless legal carousel, he might find himself down to the tune of another couple of hundred million from a fraud case brought by New York attorney general Letitia James.