Hello and welcome to Spectator Out Loud.

Each week we ask a few of our writers to read their piece from the magazine Aloud.

I'm Max Jeffrey.

On today's episode, Lionel Shriver says Donald Trump can't get a fair trial. Angus Colwell talks to the

Gen Ziers who would fight for Britain. Matthew Paris argues in favour of assisted dying. Toby Young

tells the story of the time where he was nearly killed on his gap year, and Harry Mount looks at the grim

life of a Roman legionary. First up, Lionel Shriver.

I'm an unlikely defender of Donald Trump. Politically, he's not my boy. Most of the former

president's hyperbolic rants make me cringe. Yet last week, I had to agree with D.T. that a jury's award of

83.3 million of his assets to E. Gene Carroll for defamation was absolutely ridiculous.

Keeping track of all the cases against Trump can be challenging, so let's review.

In 2019, while Trump was still president, Carol went public with the accusation that back in 1995,

or was it 1996, he raped her in the lingerie dressing room of Manhattan's upscale clothing retailer,

Bergdorf Goodman.

Trump denied that the encounter had ever occurred and claimed he'd never met the woman.

She was totally lying.

And besides, she was not his type.

Previously, an advice columnist for Elle magazine, Carol sued Trump for defamation, the case soon

getting bogged down by appeals.

In 2022, Carol sued Trump in civil court.

When she continued to publicly allude to the rape,

Trump filed a defamation countersuit. The same hardly neutral judge threw the countersuit out

...