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| Denys Amaral is the creator of the Trump
witch picture. |
(6 minute read)
Got the goods
New York
Attorney General Letitia James has filed a civil suit against all the various
Trump enterprises.[1] It’s quite the read. If it were a book Trump Republicans would be
banning it. The filing is a culmination
of a years-long effort. The case is
going to go on for years more.
What an undertaking it has been,
too. You know there’s a point in the
movie “Erin Brockovich” where the lawyer realizes that they need the resources
of a bigger firm because of the size of their case. Same thing happened in the Better Call Saul franchise
where Jimmy has to hook up with a bigger outfit. I can’t imagine the team that AG James put
together to handle this. The finances
are a quagmire in a labyrinth hidden in a fog.
It's no witch hunt either.[2] She’s got the goods. In great detail. I see why Trump offered to settle. He, along with his family, are going to spend
millions fighting this. Trump may be a
Chatty Cathy[3]
in public but he’s 5th Amendment pleading mob boss magician in court.[4]
From FindLaw:
“Finally, it's
important to note that the protections you have in criminal prosecutions when
taking the fifth do not apply in a civil case. A jury is free to make an
adverse inference if you plead the fifth in a civil trial. For example, if you
are suing another driver after being injured in a car crash, and you refuse to
answer whether you had been drinking, the jury is free to assume you refuse to
answer because you had, in fact, been drinking prior to getting behind the
wheel.”
One of my
favorite parts is where Trump lied about the size of his penthouse. It’s approximately 11,000 sq feet in
size. It takes up 3 entire floors. Ever the braggart, Trump claimed in legal
filings that it was 30,000 sq ft in size and placed an inflated value on top of
that. He lied on top of the lie.
It’s just so
Trumpian.
Ever Trump.
The case
made against Trump and Company provides some insight as to why he ran the
government the way he did. It was how he
did business. He lied. He lied often. He lied to make money. It worked.
At page 74, paragraph 260 in the filing there was an admonishment to not
put communications in writing. His tax
attorney told people to avoid email and communicate via phone. They wanted to avoid leaving a paper trail as
much as possible.
Trump used different schemes, like
the Brand Premium scheme, the Fixed Assets scheme and Membership Deposit Scheme,
to “adjust” values more to their liking regardless of legality.[5]
One part of
the document really jumped out to me.
One of Trump’s lawyers was advised the following regarding a scheme that
they had used in land donated for tax purposes:[6]
In January 2015, the donation of
the easement to the Palos Verdes Peninsula Land Conservancy was publicly
disclosed. Ms. Dillion advised against the press conference for a host of
reasons, including a desire to avoid drawing undue scrutiny to the transaction.
On January 14, 2015, she wrote to an in-house lawyer at the Trump Organization:
“Remind him that the larger the value and the more he makes of it, then he is
telling the world how large a tax deduction he is taking for it. In this case,
this is tantamount to the US taxpayers paying Donald Trump to keep his driving
range and use it for exactly what he is already using it for - and some could
argue that as long as he is operating the golf course, he would continue to
keep the driving range - effectively, the US taxpayers are paying him to do
what he would already do anyway, and perhaps this isn’t the best use of
taxpayer dollars. Bottom line - the more publicity this gets, the more we
invite scrutiny. This may cause renewed interest in the issue.”
What
did Trump do? He held a press conference! He doesn’t seem to be capable of keeping his
mouth shut except for when he’s under oath.
Then he has trouble remembering details or pleads the 5th like
a criminal.
The larger issue is that when the
government is defrauded, or the tax system manipulated it is taxpayers that
pick up the cost. Trump isn’t the only
billionaire doing this. Corporations do
it as well. They create money out of
thin air with all these complicated financial tools that have been created over
the years for the sole purpose of taking care of the wealthy.
Trump loves to create his own wealth
out of the thin air allowed by whim. In
2013 when he was bidding on the Buffalo Bills football team, even though his
own financial statement said that he was worth $5.1 billion dollars he claimed
that he was worth $8 billion.[7]
He is ever Trump.
Surprise! Surprise! Surprise!
Aaaaannnd
the search warrant executed by the FBI at Mar a Lago turned up tax information
that evidently hadn’t been turned over when subpoenaed by the New York AG.[8] It also seemed surprising to me when key
players were listed in the filing as defendants Ivanka Trump wasn’t mentioned
in the paragraph referenced with those committing long term fraudulent conduct
were listed.[9] Not a big deal. Just seemed like an anomaly. She was mentioned throughout the filing and
was listed as being a defendant at the beginning. She was also mentioned in the
“Prayer for Relief.”[10]
The first Cause
of Action (charge) starts at page 200 and goes on with a total of 7 Causes of
Action ending at page 212. It’s quite a
list.
It isn’t pretty.
Without joy
None of
this will be settled by 2024 let alone 2022.
There will be mountains of paperwork filed. This is a civil case. Even though AG James has made criminal
referrals that doesn’t mean they will happen.
There are just so many resources available and cases like this tie up
LOTs of lawyers, time and money.
Perhaps
more than the monetary judgement that AG James is looking for she is asking for
the Trump Organization to cease doing business on its own. She has asked for the Trump family to have
their licenses to do business in New York pulled for 5 years. One corrupt man can drag down a lot of
people.
You know,
for me at least, there really isn’t any joy derived from a filing like
this. Trump was President of the United
States, after all. I suppose it was
inevitable that this would eventually happen after a couple of hundred years,
along with a President not accepting that he lost, having the peaceful transfer
interrupted, and a coup attempt. We are
on the cusp of losing all that has been gained through generations of blood
sweat and toil.
It’s sad.
[1]
https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/22670328/not_assigned_people_of_the_state_of_v_people_of_the_state_of_summons___complaint_1.pdf
[2]
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/witch%20hunt
[3]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatty_Cathy
[4]
https://www.findlaw.com/legalblogs/law-and-life/is-pleading-the-fifth-an-admission-of-guilt/#:~:text=What%20Pleading%20the%20Fifth%20Means,one%2C%20at%20least%20not%20legally
[5]
NYSCEF DOC. NO. 1, Page 138, Paragraph 510
[6]
NYSCEF DOC. NO. 1, Page 133, Paragraph 494
[7]
NYSCEF DOC. NO. 1, Page 177, Paragraph 670
[8]
NYSCEF DOC. NO. 1, Page 198, Paragraph 747
[9]
NYSCEF DOC. NO. 1, Page 200, Paragraph 758
[10]
NYSCEF DOC. NO. 1, Page 213, VI
