Trump's Crimes & Investigations

[indy]

Jenna Ellis becomes the latest to take a plea deal.

[goldenvalley]

Twitter/X has posts saying that Mark Meadows has been granted immunity by the Special Counsel.  I won't call them reliable tweets so I don't post them, but if true, that's a big deal.  

[AnBr]

Ex-Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis pleads guilty in Georgia election interference case

If I knew then what I know now, I would have declined to represent Donald Trump in these post-election challenges. I look back on this full experience with deep remorse.

You mean that if you knew you'd get caught.

[indy]

Oct 24, 2023 21:41:12 GMT goldenvalley said:

Twitter/X has posts saying that Mark Meadows has been granted immunity by the Special Counsel.  I won't call them reliable tweets so I don't post them, but if true, that's a big deal.  

ABC news confirms it: abcnews.go.com/US/chief-staff-mark-meadows-granted-immunity-tells-special/story?id=104231281

[jackd]

Now to get Eastman and maybe we'll get Trump.

[goldenvalley]

Oct 24, 2023 23:28:26 GMT jackd said:

Now to get Eastman and maybe we'll get Trump.

I still want to get Stone, Bannon, Flynn, Lin Wood...there's a bunch of them who haven't been charged (or who have been but Trump pardoned them)

[goldenvalley]

I wish this civil fraud trial in New York was televised.  I need a reason to sit in front of the tv eating popcorn.

A Manhattan judge ordered Donald J. Trump to the witness stand Wednesday, creating the spectacle of a former president called to account, before finding that Mr. Trump had attacked a court clerk and fining him $10,000.

The judge, Arthur F. Engoron, who is presiding over Mr. Trump’s civil fraud trial, issued the punishment after finding that Mr. Trump earlier in the day had violated an order that prevents him from attacking court staff. Mr. Trump said that his comments had referred not to Justice Engoron’s law clerk, whom he had previously attacked, but to his own former lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, a witness.

From the stand, Mr. Trump, wearing a navy suit and limiting the duration of his usual monologues, said that while he had not been speaking about the clerk, Allison Greenfield, he thought she was “maybe unfair, and I think she’s very biased against me.”

Mr. Trump left the stand after about three minutes. Justice Engoron said that he had not found the former president credible and levied the fine.

And from Twitter/X land:

[AnBr]

[goldenvalley]

Here's something that didn't make it into the 1/6 Committee Report because nothing came of the attempt but it's an illuminating view of how the former president's people try to carry out his wishes after he lost the election. This comes out of a book written by Jonathan Karl and excerpted in Vanity Fair. It involves Johnny McEntee, the body man and head of personnel (!?!) First, dump the existing Secretary of Defense, then install some toady, then hire some former colonel that they saw on Fox News.  Then try to withdraw the US troops from Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Germany, and all of Africa.  Fortunately there is a process for such momentous orders...which wasn't followed.   And fortunately, there were enough officials still present in the administration to point it out.  

The absurdity of the situation was captured in McEntee’s interview with the January 6 Committee:

Q: Is it typical for the Presidential Personnel Office to draft orders concerning troop withdrawal?

McEntee: Probably not typical, no.

Because they were so out of their depth, McEntee and his assistant ended up reaching out to Macgregor again—they didn’t know how to arrange the document they were working on. “I was called on the phone by one of McEntee’s staffers who was having trouble formatting the order and getting the language straight,” Macgregor recalled. The retired colonel told the thirty-year-old staffer to open a cabinet, find an old presidential decision memorandum, and copy it.

Easy enough. The duo wrote up the order, had the president sign it, and sent it over to Kash Patel, the new acting defense secretary’s chief of staff.

Chaos ensued.

Upon receiving the order from his chief of staff, Christopher Miller called Joint Chiefs chairman Mark Milley to his office to discuss next steps. After reading the order, Milley told the January 6 Committee, he looked at Patel, who had just started working at the Pentagon three days earlier.

“Who gave the president the military advice for this?” Milley asked him. “Did you do this?”

“No,” Patel answered. “I had nothing to do with it.”

Milley turned to the acting defense secretary. “Did you give the President military advice on this?” he asked.

“No. Not me,” Miller answered.

“Okay, well, we’ve got to go over and see the president,” Milley said, noting his job required him to provide military advice to the commander in chief. “I’ve got duties to do here, constitutional duties. I’ve got to make sure he’s properly advised.”

And with that, Miller and Milley went to the White House to see Robert O’Brien, Trump’s national security advisor.

“Robert, where’s this coming from?” Milley asked O’Brien. “Is this true?”

“I’ve never seen it before,” O’Brien told him.

They were joined in the meeting by retired lieutenant general Keith Kellogg, the national security advisor to Vice President Pence. “Something is really wrong here,” Kellogg said, reading through the order. “This doesn’t look right.”

“You’re telling me that thing is forged?” Milley responded in disbelief. “That’s a forged piece of paper directing a military operation by the president of the United States? That’s forged, Keith?”

Yeah he actually signed it but when told it was null and void because it didn't go through proper protocol he dropped the idea.  

We won't be saved by people who know and follow protocol in the next Trump Administration.  There won't be any such people in it.

[goldenvalley]

Looks like the Special Counsel is getting to the Supreme Court before the defendant does.  There is a petition for cert filed with the Supreme Court on the issue of immunity before the full appellate panel has heard it. Who knows if the Court will hear it. 

[goldenvalley]

Looks like Trump lawyers won't be having a relaxing Christmas.  Between the immunity case briefings due just before and after Christmas and whatever Trump's lawyers will file over the Colorado ruling to try to keep him on the primary ballot there, they're going to be pulling all nighters over this coming weekend.

[pnwguy]

Dec 21, 2023 1:38:01 GMT goldenvalley said:

Looks like Trump lawyers won't be having a relaxing Christmas.  Between the immunity case briefings due just before and after Christmas and whatever Trump's lawyers will file over the Colorado ruling to try to keep him on the primary ballot there, they're going to be pulling all nighters over this coming weekend.

Then perhaps they can all hang out at Rudy's place for the holidays to enjoy a festive time as brethren-in-MAGAmania.  "See how well it pays!"

[andydp]

Dec 22, 2023 16:55:35 GMT pnwguy said:

Dec 21, 2023 1:38:01 GMT goldenvalley said:

Looks like Trump lawyers won't be having a relaxing Christmas.  Between the immunity case briefings due just before and after Christmas and whatever Trump's lawyers will file over the Colorado ruling to try to keep him on the primary ballot there, they're going to be pulling all nighters over this coming weekend.

Then perhaps they can all hang out at Rudy's place for the holidays to enjoy a festive time as brethren-in-MAGAmania.  "See how well it pays!"

Can anyone see this coming ?  Pres Trump pardons Rudy in this latest round, but will not to help him financially.

[goldenvalley]

Let's catch up.  

Trump is searching for someone or some entity to issue a bond for the $454 M plus interest judgment so he can appeal the civil case on fraud in seeking loans and paying taxes.  So far 30 entities have turned him down because he doesn't have enough cash. He's looking for judge somewhere to allow him to post only a $100 M bond.

But maybe he'll get an infusion of cash if his Truth Social media company were to merge with another company.  

When former president Donald Trump’s Trump Media & Technology Group and its proposed merger partner, Digital World Acquisition, announced last month a shareholder vote on their long-delayed deal, it marked a final step for the owner of Truth Social to become a public company potentially worth billions of dollars — most of which is owned by Trump himself.

But in the lead-up to Friday’s vote, both companies have been rocked by legal warfare. Their leaders, past and present, have traded heated accusations of deception and impropriety across four lawsuits in three states. And the cases threaten to erode Trump’s grasp on a stake in the post-merger company potentially worth hundreds of millions of dollars — a possible financial lifeline, given that he owes more than $500 million in legal fines.

In the meantime the New York Atty General has taken the initial steps to assert liens on Trump property. Judgement is already entered in New York City where Trump Tower and other buildings are.  There is now a filing in neighboring Westchester County where a big piece of property is.  It's a long process. 

Trump doesn't want to sell his properties because he won't get a good price...he still thinks he is a real estate mogul.

Stay tuned to the next exciting episode of Trump legal difficulties.

[indy]

I think there is a genuine question as to what he really owns. That is, which of these properties are in his name or in the name of a company he controls. I'm of the opinion it is pretty much a house of cards and James will be seizing pretty much everything he actually owns himself. Of those, of course there are the debt holders to contend with so I don't believe he will even be able to satisfy the judgement with things he actually owns. After that, they will have to go after the less substantial assets, a number of which are just leasing arrangements or brand management deals. For example he doesn't own Trump tower, just some leasehold arrangements. How these types of assets will unwind legally is something I don't have any clue about. She will certainly target the low-hanging fruit first though.

Florida may end up protecting him from getting Mar-a-Lago seized, which is something I personally would really like to see. That and his golf courses, if he actually owns them.

[jackd]

Wasn't the New York judgment against his companies as well as him, personally? If so, the assets of the new merger company may be exposed to some extent.

[goldenvalley]

Mar 22, 2024 15:05:09 GMT jackd said:

Wasn't the New York judgment against his companies as well as him, personally? If so, the assets of the new merger company may be exposed to some extent.

Good point.

Josh Marshall at TPM had this to say about Trump’s ownership of buildings:

“…But as a friend reminded me yesterday evening, Trump doesn’t own Trump Tower.

I’m a bit embarrassed to admit I had to be reminded of this since I actually spent a decent amount of time during the Trump years teaching myself how Trump’s businesses work. But here we are. It would be deeply unfair if Letitia James seized Trump Tower. But Donald Trump doesn’t own it. Like, how unfair would that be to the people who actually own it who have nothing to do with Donald Trump?

At one level this is entirely obvious if you think about it. Trump Tower is owned by the people who own the apartment units. It’s not just apartment units of course. And … well, a lot of those are owned by foreigners trying to hide money in the U.S. But I digress. What he actually owns at Trump Tower is “the parking garage, the valet booth, room-service kitchens, lobby bathrooms, a restaurant space, and one unit.”

That’s his apartment, the size of which he dramatically exaggerated, plus a bunch of stuff of relatively minor value (compared to the notional value of the building) which probably anchors the service contract for the building but which is also probably next to impossible to untangle from the building. What I do remember is that Trump actually owns very few of his buildings. His basic model is that he goes to a city, lines up money to build the building (not infrequently from some utter shade-meister, especially when it’s overseas), essentially licenses his name to operation, builds it and then gets what amounts to an ongoing residual in the form of some kind of servicing contract tied to the structure. You sell the units to a mix of people who are wowed by the Trump name and others from Russia and Saudi who want to park their money through a blind LLC. And basically everyone’s happy. But a lot of the flashy stuff can’t be seized because it’s not his.

Obviously that’s not fraud. That’s just his being in the licensing business rather than a real estate guy. And there’s no real secret to that. Where it probably becomes more meaningful is that what he does own is by design deeply intertwined with the real stuff that other people own and in a way that is probably at least some level of headache to untangle. Think of it as the ownership stake equivalent of the latent chicken pox virus those of us over 40 still have in our bodies or maybe the cold sore virus most people have deep, deep, deep in the nerve tissue in the facial muscles around their mouth: almost infinitesimally small, generally of negligible importance unless you have a flare up but also all but impossible to uproot and get rid of.

One way or another it’s not where the money is. So as David notes, James isn’t focused on Trump Tower. She’s filing papers to seize a Trump golf course and one of his private estates in Westchester. Of course, this doesn’t get into the issue of Trump’s pervasive fraudulent over-valuation of all his assets as loan collateral that got him into this mess in the first place.

The stuff he actually owns owns is the stuff James is going after — golf courses, big houses, stuff like that. He has a few days before his 30 day grace period ends and she can start taking stuff.”

[indy]

Yeah, I don't know for sure obviously but I don't think he OR his companies really own half a billion worth of real property (that is, total asset market value less the debt tied to them). The judgement was indeed against his businesses as well and the court appointed a special master to oversee them early on in order to keep him from hiding or disposing of anything related to them. Late last week the court additionally ordered that Trump must reveal to the special master any bond arrangements he makes to meet the requirement for the appeal, including divulging who is providing it. That may chill any sort of arrangement he might have otherwise made.

It's all fairly interesting because he inherited, according to sources I've seen around half a billion from his father. I don't remember exactly what year dollars it was but something like 1990? Anyway, it appears to me that he has lost lost quite a bit of that already.

[jackd]

Today's New York Times has an article detailing the complications of trying to seize the properties. Among other things are all of the prior interests taking precedence.

[indy]

I haven't seen the article, but I see all kinds of weird things in the papers that cause question marks to appear over my head. Arguments over the value of the 40 wall street (the so-called Trump Building), for example. Trump doesn't own the building, however, he just leases the ground floor. The only interesting question about the building is how much income it generates for him, not its market value (except, I imagine, to the Germans who actually do own it). I haven't seen any informed speculation on it though.

I have no idea if they can, but it would be pretty funny if they eventually end up garnishing his 'wages'.

[goldenvalley]

The appellate court reduced the required bond to $175 M.  No opinion issued, just the order.

Oh and it turns out that the Yass guy who owns a big portion of TikTok also owns a big portion of the company that merged with Trump's media company on Friday.  There is a caveat.  Reporting of such things happens only periodically so maybe it divested before the merger...won't know for sure for a while but it is quite a coincidence, yes?

Jeff Yass, the billionaire Wall Street financier and Republican megadonor who is a major investor in the parent company of TikTok, was also the biggest institutional shareholder of the shell company that recently merged with former President Donald J. Trump’s social media company.

A December regulatory filing showed that Mr. Yass’s trading firm, Susquehanna International Group, owned about 2 percent of Digital World Acquisition Corp., which merged with Trump Media & Technology Group on Friday. That stake, of about 605,000 shares, was worth about $22 million based on Digital World’s last closing share price.

It’s unclear if Susquehanna still owns those shares, because big investors disclose their holdings to regulators only periodically. But if it did retain its stake, Mr. Yass’s firm would become one of Trump Media’s larger institutional shareholders when it begins trading this week following the merger.

Rich dudes, and those who play rich dudes on The Apprentice, get what they want most of the time.

[goldenvalley]

So the trial on the interference with elections by buying off women who can talk about the former president's infidelities and harm his election chances is underway.  I wish I could hear the testimony of the first witness, something Pecker who was running the company that owned the National Enquirer.  I'd like to hear how a rich dude gets people to help him cover his tracks while running for the highest office in the land.   

[andydp]

Prospective Trump juror:

I wouldn’t believe him if his tongue was notarized.

CAVEAT: Do not have any proof this is true. Sounds great though.

[AnBr]

www.nytimes.com/2024/05/16/us/justice-alito-upside-down-flag.html

[goldenvalley]

May 17, 2024 22:26:37 GMT AnBr said:

www.nytimes.com/2024/05/16/us/justice-alito-upside-down-flag.html

He blamed his wife's spat with a neighbor for it?  I do buy the idea that he didn't notice.  My dear husband wouldn't notice something like that.  I could change all the furniture in our front room which we don't use much but walk by it all the time and it would be a week before he noticed it.