Judge has ruled that Donald Trump committed fraud for years while building the real estate empire that catapulted him to fame and the White House.
Judge Arthur Engoron, ruling Tuesday in a civil lawsuit brought by New York’s attorney general, found that the former president and his company deceived banks, insurers and others by massively overvaluing his assets and exaggerating his net worth on paperwork used in making deals and securing financing.
There really should be some DOJ investigation into why the SDNY dropped the case in the first place.
Is he basically just a full-time legal defendant now?
His full-time job is pretending to be a martyr/savior and asking rubes for money.
You reminded me of a video news story from the early 2000s where the news station interviewed a guy, who panhandled while pretending to be a wheelchair bound homeless person in front of Walmart, as a sort of “gotcha” journalism piece. He was totally open and honest about it and was chuckling the entire time. At the end of the piece they asked “so now they we have outed you on tv, how are you going to trick people into giving you money?” He replied, "I’m just going to go over there (while pointing to adjacent stores). “And you think you will get people to give you money?” “Yeah, no one knows who I am and people forget so quickly that it won’t effect me”. (These aren’t exact quotes.)
In a way Trump does the same thing. Everyone forgets his past actions quickly, blames the outcomes on the other party, and just moves on to different allegations he can spin. There’s so much news surrounding him theres little time to actually interpret his actions, and he can just shift gears to another group of downtrodden citizens to swindle if he pisses his supporters off.
He’s creating jobs!
It only counts as creating jobs if you pay your employees
Paid in exposure
(Legal exposure, since even his lawyers are getting prosecuted)
Get with the times! Not paying employees is all the rage these days!
If he had lost in 2016, Trump TV would have stolen Fox’s audience and been the de facto voice of the Republican Party. No indictments. No scrutiny. Hillary would have been in charge during the pandemic and kept the public safe. The Supreme Court would still be a trusted institution (minus Citizens United) running in the political background.
We would have our nice, stable, boring politics back. Hillary would wear a tan pantsuit, and that would be the headline for the next two weeks.
Went to Fox News to find this huge story. Scrolled by 7 non stories to find the headline ‘judge announced ruling on trump case’ with a picture of the judge looking black holding a microphone as if she’s some *political activist,” with no mention that he was found guilty of massive decades long fraud.
Please add screenshot. Don’t want to give traffic to them.
It was the first thing I saw when I went to the website, but their description of it is pretty damn accurate.
FYI the photo you’re referring to is of NY Attorney General Letitia James, not the judge. She looks black because she’s black.
Excellent image-based propaganda, showing Trump clapping which implies he’s celebrating exoneration.
hell yeah
Engoron ordered that some of Trump’s business licenses be rescinded as punishment, making it difficult or impossible for them to do business in New York, and said he would continue to have an independent monitor oversee the Trump Organization’s operations.
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His coffin must be so large to need this many nails
No more than 215
And yet there he is, still going free.
It’s a civil case, so yeah. Only financial penalties and business restrictions can result.
WHY, though? When what he’s accused of are crimes and the plaintiff is the NYS Attorney General, why the fuck is it NOT a criminal case??
Because of the types of laws violated in the case is what defines if it’s a criminal or civil trial. There’s definitely criminal cases that can be brought, but the prosecutors don’t seem to think they’re ready to be brought to trial
So pretty much just getting warmed up at this point?
Am I stupid for feeling skeptical still?
They’re dissolving his NY state based companies, that’s very big
Summary judgement? Nice. Trump’s team didn’t see that coming I bet.
For anyone, like me, who didn’t know what a summary judgement was:
Summary judgment is granted when the facts can be decided upon without needing to go to trial, where the opposing party would lose due to a lack of evidence. If it’s not clear that there is no more evidence, then summary judgment must be denied.
Isn’t this the case where his lawyers screwed up and failed to file paperwork requesting a jury trial, so the judge got to make the ruling on her own?
Letitia James draws first blood.
It’s like throwing a few scraps of bark onto a roaring inferno at this point. I don’t need more reasons to hate this guy more than I already do.
In equally shocking news: Water is wet.
…ahem
*** NO FUCKING SHIT
So why the hell is this a civil suit rather than a criminal one?? Last I checked, bank fraud, insurance fraud, and other fraud are all illegal crimes that are against the law!
They could potentially bring a related criminal suit later. I’m not an attorney, and there are a lot of specific rules about, but the stakes are lower in a civil case (i.e. no prison) and the burden of proof is easier, so you can more easily prove things or get the defense to admit things in a civil case that can sometimes make a criminal case easier.
Even if you can’t cite the civil case from the criminal case, just the fact that the civil case ruled one way gives the prosecution confidence to commit to a criminal case and leverage if they negotiate a settlement.
Fair enough. I’m gonna be pessimistic in stead of completely dismissive about the possibility of him seeing significant consequences, then 😁
I am also confused. Why does the attorney general put forward a civil suit in the first place? Civil court is for parties to seek damages or the other party to do or stop doing actions against contractual obligations.
Or did Trump defraud the city of New York and it is seeking compensation?
Or did Trump defraud the city of New York and it is seeking compensation?
Yeah, some of the “other fraud” is tax fraud, so in a very real and direct sense, he defrauded New York. Still doesn’t make sense for it to be a civil suit rather than a criminal one, though.
Must be nice to be rich and powerful enough for your decades of major crimes to count as civil infractions 😮💨
Not that I don’t agree with you, but I just want to point out that not all cases of breaking the law are criminal. For example, if you run a red light, a cop won’t throw you in jail for it. You’ll get a fine, though.
Of course, what Trump did should put him in jail.
But seeing his empire dismantle must be more devastating to his ego than the possibility of prison.
if you run a red light, a cop won’t throw you in jail for it. You’ll get a fine, though.
Traffic violations such as that are considered civil offences, not criminal ones. Trump keeps being found guilty of federal crimes in civil courts. There’s no way that someone less rich and powerful would get the same treatment.
