NY Attorney General files suit against Trump criminal gang
The New York attorney general on Wednesday accused Donald Trump and his family members of lying to lenders and insurers about assets under the real estate holdings of the Trump Organization.
Letitia James said that with the help of his children and others at the Trump organization, the former president gave fraudulent statements of his net worth “to obtain and satisfy loans, get insurance benefits, and pay lower taxes.”
“Claiming money you do not have does not amount to the Art of the Deal, it’s the Art of the Steal,” James said at one point.
Harry Litman, a formr federal attorney, said that Trump has tried to settle with New York, but the attorney general rebuffed him. “She really holds all the cards at this point. Trumps can’t go to trial. They will need to appeal to her sense of tempered justice.”
“We have to assume that the odds of Trump’s going to jail, as satisfying as it would be to many Americans, are far smaller than the odds of a criminal conviction. What that means is this potentially ruinous civil action—coupled with criminal referral to the feds—counts as a killer blow,” he also said.
“The New York AG has a lot of leverage in this lawsuit because Trump (and his son Eric) took the Fifth hundreds of times,” said former U.S. Attorney Renato Mariotti. “That was smart to do, but it means they’re screwed in this civil case. A jury would likely be instructed to presume their answers would have hurt Trump.”
Main Street Law’s Tristan Snell noted, “Just the very fact that Trump *could* be barred from taking on any new loans might have the result of him not being able to get any new loans.”
Already Trump was dealing with banks that were uncomfortable lending to him, forcing him to seek out financial support from Deutsche Bank.
James’ office requested that the former president pay at least $250 million in penalties, and that his family be banned from running businesses in the state.
She also urged that Trump along with his children Donald Trump Jr, Eric Trump and Ivanka Trump be barred from purchasing property in the state for five years.
“The NY AG case could trigger a credit crisis for Trump, forcing him to sell properties to get cash, rather than relying on more debt,” said Snell.
“Someone is setting an all-time record for one man’s involvement in civil suits, criminal investigations and other pending legal matters,” added former ethics czar Richard Painter, who served for George W. Bush’s administration.
There were many examples of inflated assets from New York to Florida, but there was a question about other assets that may not have been included.
“But did you include the $450 million of classified information in the basement?” joked former FBI official Pete Strzok, having the last laugh.
Trump wanted a special master to look at the classified documents he stole — it’s not working out well for him
On the morning after the latest major test of Donald Trump’s attempt to slow down the DOJ’s investigation of the classified documents he took with him to his Mar-a-Lago resort, Politico’s political analyst Josh Gerstein claimed the former president’s attorneys seemed to be grasping for a defense under withering grilling under special master Raymond Dearie.
Appearing on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” early Wednesday morning, Gerstein was joined by former U.S. Attorney Chuck Rosenberg, and neither saw much that happened that would make Trump happy.
Speaking with co-host Mika Brzezinski, Gerstein — who was in the courtroom — said it appeared the former president’s legal representatives appeared to be “back on their heels” as they struggled to address Dearie’s questions.
“Josh, break down what happened in court yesterday,” the MSNBC host prompted. “What exactly is their defense to what the judge now is requesting, requiring and asking for? Which is basics?”
“Well, Mika you know, it seemed the judge called this hearing with the intention of kind of putting the Trump legal team on their heels a little bit, and making it clear he was going to drive the timing of this process and they were going to have to come forward, as you discussed with Chuck, with evidence if they’re going to keep pushing this claim about declassification,” he reported.
“It seemed to me sitting there in the courtroom with Judge Dearie, he was very soft-spoken, but he would offer these kind of almost caustic rebuttals sometimes to what the Trump lawyers said,” he added. “It seemed like defense lawyers in a case that hasn’t been filed. right? No criminal charges. At this point, they have two options open to defend Trump. One is sort of an ignorance defense, maybe he didn’t know exactly what documents were down there at Mar-a-Lago and therefore, he couldn’t be responsible for that. And the other is this declassification claim.”
“Which defense they want to use would depend on what charges the government brings, ” he continued. “If it’s a charge about classified information, maybe they would try a declassification defense. But if it’s just going to be a claim that caused lies to be told to the U.S. government or obstruction of justice, they might want to go in a different direction saying he didn’t really know what he had; there’s a lot of news clippings and memorabilia, and maybe something classified in those boxes but he’s a busy guy.”
“They just don’t want to pick now which defense they want to use, and they made that abundantly clear in the courtroom yesterday,” he summed up.