Rosie O’Donnell has never been one to let a grudge die quietly, but this time the grudge got a passport. After three separate U.S. circuit courts rejected her complaints against Donald Trump, Rosie apparently decided American judges just didn’t get it. So she took her case overseas. The result? The European Union Court of Civil Justice dismissed her 18-page complaint without prejudice, and the judges didn’t exactly do it politely.
According to people familiar with the ruling, the panel described the filing as “absolutely baseless” and went a step further, suggesting that Rosie and her team of attorneys “should be ashamed of themselves.” That’s not language you usually hear from a courtroom in Brussels. Europeans are famous for being polite about almost everything. Apparently not this.
“We read all eighteen pages,” one court staffer reportedly joked. “Twice. We were hoping it would get better. It didn’t. Case dismissed.”
For those keeping score at home, that’s three American circuit courts and one European court that have now looked at Rosie’s grievances and said, more or less, “No thank you.” Somewhere, a fax machine in Ireland is breathing a sigh of relief.
That’s because, as it turns out, the UK and Irish courts were also spared from having to deal with her complaints. Whether that’s because Rosie ran out of steam, ran out of lawyers, or simply ran out of countries willing to take her calls remains unclear.
Rosie has spent the better part of a decade making Trump the main character of her life. She’s posted about him, joked about him, cried about him, and moved to Ireland partly because of him. Now she’s sued about him on two continents. At some point, even her biggest fans have to ask whether this is a legal strategy or a very expensive form of therapy.
Alex Bruno, a retired paralegal from Queens who says he has followed the saga “like a soap opera,” summed it up neatly. “She keeps filing, they keep tossing it. It’s like watching someone try to return a sweater without a receipt at every store in the mall.”
Legal experts say a dismissal without prejudice technically means Rosie could try again. Most of those experts also say, off the record, that they really hope she doesn’t. Courts have caseloads. Real people are waiting on real decisions. And the judges in Europe seem to have made their feelings perfectly clear.
Her attorneys have not commented publicly, which might be the smartest legal move anyone on her team has made all year.
As for Rosie, don’t expect her to back down. If history is any guide, she’ll be back on social media within the week, declaring victory, blaming the system, and probably drafting complaint number nineteen.
The laughter, it seems, will be coming along for the ride.