At least one of Trump’s four criminal trials is set to begin while the others are now in jeopardy
After five decades of playing fast and loose with the laws of New York, and a plenary of fraud, deception and corruption, legal appeasement seems to be declining and legal accountability seems to be ramping up as the proverbial hens are finally returning home to roost for the former Houdini of white-collar crime, Donald J. Trump.
First, there was the civil judgment of 5 million dollars awarded to the writer E. Jean Carroll by a federal jury of Trump’s peers. Then there was a second judgment of $83.3 million in damages awarded to Carroll by another jury of Trump’s peers for the additional defamatory statements that he continued to make after the first judgment was rendered for denying that he had sexually assaulted Carroll. And then there was the New York civil fraud decision by Judge Arthur Engoron holding Trump and his sons, Eric and Don, Jr. financially liable to the tune of more than $350 million underscoring “the extent of Trump and the Trump Organization’s white-collar malfeasance.” Last week, Judge Engoron turned down a request by Trump’s lawyers to postpone payment.
However, in the case of the historic $454 million judgment, “a figure that is growing by more than $100,000 in interest every day,” Trump sought a stay yesterday in opposition to New York law that requires first forking over the entire amount in damages or putting up a cash bond for the same known in the New York civil court system as an “undertaking.”
Trump also had previously done the same thing with the $83.3 million ruling by a jury in the second E. Jean Carroll defamation lawsuit. Neither of these appeals should go anywhere and the clock is still ticking in each case and soon time will be up before Carroll’s attorneys and then the New York attorney general Letitia James can start seizing the former president’s assets and property.
If he wins, he doesn’t have to pay. We are witnessing a massive gamble. Possibly the biggest gamble in history.
This really isn’t true, they will start seizing assets well before the election. And he would still need to get laws passed that protect him, after the election. Yes, they want to annihilate democracy but let’s don’t pretend they can automatically and immediately do that.
You think they’ll actually do it? Or hold him in contempt? They will continue to be heavily deferential because they don’t want to be the judge that locked up a presidential candidate, and got it wrong (their hypothetical fear not my injected opinion)
The fact that it is even a possibility with a chance of success says more about the general collective American mentality than anything about Trump.
This isn’t about one illegitimate politician
It’s about the general mental state of a nation.
Seems like it happens pretty frequently. It is how the Roman Republic failed when Caesar decided that crossing the Rubicon with a loyal veteran army was better than chains.