QOTD -- Trump's Art Of The Steal

 

“Today, justice has been served. This is a tremendous victory for this state, this nation, and for everyone who believes that we all must play by the same rules — even former presidents. 

“For years, Donald Trump engaged in massive fraud to falsely inflate his net worth and unjustly enrich himself, his family, and his organization. While he may have authored the ‘Art of the Deal,’ our case revealed that his business was based on the art of the steal.

“When powerful people cheat to get better loans, it comes at the expense of honest and hardworking people. Everyday Americans cannot lie to a bank to get a mortgage to buy a home, and if they did, our government would throw the book at them. There simply cannot be different rules for different people.

“Now, Donald Trump is finally facing accountability for his lying, cheating, and staggering fraud. Because no matter how big, rich, or powerful you think you are, no one is above the law.” -- press release from New York Attorney General Letitia James following the judgement by Judge Arthur Engoron of the New York Supreme Court ordering the Malignant Loser and his co- criminals to pay $463.9 million combined (which includes $100 million in pre- judgement interest that continues to accrue every day until the fine is paid).  For engaging in financial fraud and illegal conduct, the Malignant Loser himself was ordered to pay $355 million and was banned from serving as an officer or director of any New York company for three years.  A breakdown of the penalties is at the link above.

We're forever grateful to AG James for her tenacity, professionalism and honor during the course of the investigation and trial.

(Image: via X/ Twitter)

Trump's Going Out Of Business Fire Sale?

 

The finding by New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron -- that the Malignant Loser committed habitual bank and insurance fraud -- could end up doing the most real world damage to an ego built on grandiose, delusional visions of business success and acumen:

Donald Trump is no longer in business. 

Worse, the self-proclaimed multibillionaire may soon be personally bankrupt as a result, stripped of just about everything because for years he engaged in calculated bank fraud and insurance fraud by inflating the value of his properties, a judge ruled Tuesday.

His gaudy Trump Tower apartment, his golf courses, his Boeing 757 jet and even Mar-a-Lago could all be disposed of by a court-appointed monitor, leaving Trump with not much more than his pensions as a one term president and a television performer...

[Permit us a short burst of schadenfreude... Bwahahahahahaha... That felt good.]  

You may recall when the Malignant Loser was deposed for this case, he pleaded the Fifth Amendment against self- incrimination hundreds of times.  In civil cases, you're allowed to make an adverse inference from the witness's refusal to testify.

In his ruling, Justice Engoron said of the Malignant Loser's fraudulent property valuations, "That is a fantasy world, not the real world."  In our fantasy world, the Malignant Loser is using his pension checks to buy goods in a maximum security prison inmate commissary.

(Photo: Trump and his phallic symbol may soon be parted / Kena Betancur, Getty Images)

New York AG Motion: More Evidence Of Trump Organization Fraud Uncovered

Shoes dropping all over the place:

The New York attorney general's office said late Tuesday it had told a court that its investigators had uncovered evidence that President Donald Trump's company used "fraudulent or misleading" asset valuations to get loans and tax benefits.

Attorney General Letitia James' office detailed its findings in a court motion seeking to force Trump, his daughter Ivanka Trump and his son Donald Trump Jr. to comply with subpoenas seeking their testimony.

The court filing said state authorities haven't yet decided whether to bring a civil lawsuit in connection with the allegations, but that investigators need to question Trump and his two eldest children as part of the probe. [snip]

"As the papers filed today make clear, each of the individuals was directly involved in one or more transactions under review. Earlier this month, the Trumps filed a motion to quash these interviews, and the papers filed today by the Attorney General oppose that motion," her office said.

In the court documents, James' office gave its most detailed accounting yet of its investigation into allegations that Trump's company repeatedly misstated the value of assets to get favorable loan terms or slash its tax burden.

The Trump Organization, it said, had overstated the value of land donations made in New York and California on paperwork submitted to the IRS to justify several million dollars in tax deductions.

The company misreported the size of Trump's Manhattan penthouse, saying it was nearly three times its actual size - a difference in value of about $200 million, James' office said, citing deposition testimony from Trump's longtime financial chief Allen Weisselberg, who was charged last year with tax fraud in a parallel criminal investigation.

Investigators, the court papers said, had "developed significant additional evidence indicating that the Trump Organization used fraudulent or misleading asset valuations to obtain a host of economic benefits, including loans, insurance coverage, and tax deductions."  (our emphasis)

Of course, other than the effort to compel testimony from the Trump Crime Family, most of the facts of the filing are fairly public (the New York Times has published reams about the fraudsters' business dealings, including a Pulitzer Prize winning 5-part series detailing the fraud and evasions).  But it takes on a whole different meaning when a powerful State Attorney General brings those facts up in a detailed legal motion that implicates the Malignant Loser, his unloved oldest son and his daughter/wife.  It's unclear how much, if any, evidence has come from Weisselberg (who has otherwise set himself up as the Trump Crime Family's fall guy), but "additional evidence" beyond what Weisselberg may or may not have provided is in the hands of the investigators (can you say "Michael Cohen"?).

With the January 6 committee closing in on his culpability in the insurrection, the New York AG's investigation heating up, and the Manhattan DA's parallel criminal investigation, the Trump Crime Family's time in the barrel is upon us.  (Lock them up!)

BONUS:  The good news just keeps on coming --

 

If true, this is an encouraging sign of what may be going on behind the scenes at DOJhttps://t.co/xHlPejm2fM

— Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw) January 19, 2022

 

(Photo:  principals in the Trump Crime Family/ Evan Vucci, AP)