Trump is facing 91 criminal charges in 4 cases- 34 felony counts related to hush money payments to Stormy Daniel in the New York Supreme Court; 40 felony counts for hoarding classified documents and impeding efforts to retrieve them in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida (not as bio a deal as it should be because there is a MAGAt judge who isn’t taking anything about the case seriously other than how to let Trump off); 4 felony counts for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election in U.S. District Court for DC; and 13 felony counts for his election interference in tGeorgia in front of the Fulton County Superior Court.
There is also a civil case— not criminal— that New York Attorney General Leticia James has brought against the Trump Organization. This one alleges that Trump and his businesses engaged in a decade-long scheme to inflate Trump's net worth in order to get more favorable loan terms and insurance premiums, while deflating his value to pay less taxes. Even though this isn’t a criminal case, it could be very serious from Trump. If James is successful, he could be ordered to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in fines and restitution and be barred from doing business in New York. He could even lose Trump Tower and other properties. In fact, during an interview yesterday on MSNBC, Republican lawyer and Trump for George Conway predicted that Judge Engoron— who already ruled that Trump and the Trump Organization are guilty of fraud— could give his businesses “a death blow… He’s already been found to have committed fraud, that his books and records, that his statements of financial condition are false. And the judge has already ruled that there was no triable issue of fact on whether or not they were false. And as a result, the judge ordered that Trump and the Trump Organization, the ability to do business in the state of New York should be invalidated. And that puts him out of business, which means he’s gonna have to liquidate everything– including places like Mar-a-Lago, which are owned by New York LLCs. But then the question of how much of the proceeds of those sales, when he has to be put out of business go to the state of New York. And that’s what this is about.” Leticia James has asked for a quarter billion dollars. Luckily for Trump, there’s no prison time attached to that case.
But the most serious and dangerous charges against Trump are the ones related to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. These charges include conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy against rights and obstruction of an official proceeding. If convicted on these charges, he could face up to 20 years in prison and be barred from holding public office again.
During the Monday interview with Jen Psaki, Conway also mentioned that the court cases are taking a deep psychological toll. “You can see it. He’s making mistakes. He’s babbling incoherently even more than usual, This is striking… He was the mogul, he was the mogul with The Apprentice, and he’s been that in New York for 50 years. And now it’s coming crashing down.”
During a CNN interview on Monday, former Trump attorney Ty Cobb predicted Trump will, at the very least, go to jail for violating one of his gag orders. The judge in the NY case has only been fining Trump. Cobb noted that “That’s in a civil case. That’s not as consequential as Judge Chutkan’s case. I think she’ll come in with a much heavier penalty, and ultimately, I think he’ll spend a night or a weekend in jail. I think it’ll take that to stop him… As the court has explained, the First Amendment rights of participants in criminal proceedings must yield, when necessary, to the orderly administration of justice— a principle reflected in Supreme Court precedent.”
Morning Joe still takes Chris Christie seriously and when they had him on yesterday. He told them that Mark Meadows, “was Velcro to Trump’s hip for the entire 2020 campaign and all the post-campaign nonsense… So [Meadows’ immunity deal] is deadly, it’s done. He’s going to be convicted… It’s over… I want Republican voters to understand this— what’s going to be happening in March? He’s going to be sitting in a courtroom in Washington, D.C., with Mark Meadows 20 feet away from him, saying, ‘He committed crimes in front of me on my watch.’”
That all sounds pretty dire, right? But there’s more. Today is day 3 in a weeklong hearing in Denver about whether or not the 14th Amendment disqualifies Trump from being on the ballot for inciting a violent mob to attack the Capitol on January 6, 2021 “to stop the peaceful transfer of power under our Constitution.” Similar suits have been filed in New Hampshire and Michigan and the California legislature has asked the Attorney General to determine whether or not Trump is eligible to be on the GOP primary ballot. Any case that rules against trump will be going straight to the Supreme Court.
Does nobody else see the ultimate irony here? trump and family would still be committing crimes and defrauding investors and the state of NY et al ... if only he'd stayed in his lane and not descended that escalator and become the nazi jesus.
The statement about trump's reign of crime and terror maybe being coming to an end? Perhaps.
But the more profound statement is that he's had a 60-year run of crime (following a similar run for his pappy)... AT ALL!!!
What makes a shithole?
Is it a place where morons and grifters, like that entire family, can thrive and prosper on the backs of the hapless citizens?
Is it that place that then decides the head moron…
And kicking him off the ballot would be great. But what would the Supreme Court do?
The only “good” thing lately is we are inching towards accountability for this evil TFG. The pace had better pick up. It feels like we are reaching a crescendo of horror with Republicans and a trial and conviction could really help.