Manhattan judge wants Trump to stop calling NY attorney general's $250 million fraud case a witch hunt
Laura Italiano
Fri, January 6, 2023 at 6:58 PM MST



New York Attorney General Letitia James and Donald TrumpAssociated Press

• A Manhattan judge Friday denied Trump's latest attempt to dodge NY's fraud accusations.
  
  
• The judge criticized Trump's "frivolous" arguments and dinged Ivanka Trump for claiming ignorance in a deposition.
  
  
• Letitia James' $250 million fraud lawsuit against Trump and his business remains on track for an Oct. 2, 2023 trial.
  

A Manhattan judge on Friday delivered his latest blow to Donald Trump, rejecting what he called the former president's "borderline frivolous" request to dismiss New York's $250 million fraud lawsuit, which seeks to run his business empire out of the state.

In a nine-page decision, New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron kept Attorney General Letitia James' lawsuit on track for an early October trial.

He stopped short of sanctioning Trump's lawyers, as he'd threatened earlier in the week, for filing what he called repeatedly rejected legal arguments — including the claim that James' three-year probe of his business and resulting lawsuit is a "witch hunt."

As early as her 2018 campaign for attorney general, James, a Democrat, had made it clear she disagreed with the then-president's policies, and had promised to investigate and pursue fraud charges against his Manhattan-headquartered golf resort and real estate company, the Trump Organization.

Trump's latest "witch hunt'' argument — raised as part of a motion seeking the lawsuit's dismissal, is invalid, Engoron wrote Friday, because it has already failed before his court, in state appellate court, and before a federal judge last year, as the former president raised it again and again to fight the attorney general's investigatory subpoenas.

In denying the motion to dismiss, Engoron rejected Trump's likewise repeatedly-rejected claims that James does not have the legal standing or capacity to sue him, and that the attorney general's allegations are too old to pursue.

"Reading these arguments was, to quote the baseball sage Lawrence Peter ("Yogi") Berra, 'Deja vu all over again,'" the judge wrote.

The judge also rejected as "wholly unconvincing" Trump's argument that disclaimers attached to the allegedly fraudulent financial statements sent to potential lenders — essentially warning them not to rely on his math — absolve the former president of fraud.

Finally, the judge took a shot at Ivanka Trump, who has served as a Trump Organization vice president and who is named by James as a defendant, as are her brothers Eric Trump and Donald Trump, Jr., both current vice presidents at their father's company.

In rejecting Ivanka Trump's separately filed motion to dismiss the lawsuit, Engoron suggested she had been less than truthful in last year's court-mandated deposition before James' legal staff.

Ivanka Trump had claimed she should be removed from the lawsuit because she had stopped working for her father's business in 2017 and was not accused of personally falsifying or knowing about the falsification of any company business records.

The attorney general's evidence links Ivanka Trump to years' worth of interactions with her father's longtime favorite lender, Deutsche Bank, Engoron countered in his decision. Those interactions including overseeing the financing and subsequent loan compliance for the Trump National Doral golf course in Miami and the Old Post Office in Washington, DC.

"The record establishes that Ms. Trump participated far more in securing the loans than just passively receiving emails," Engoron wrote.

"In her deposition Ms. Trump testified that she does not understand statements of financial condition and that she does not even know if they would include all assets and liabilities," the judge wrote.

"This is despite her communications with Deutsche Bank about SFCs," he wrote.

Ivanka Trump further claimed she couldn't be held legally liable in the attorney general's lawsuit, but that, too, is not the case, Engoron wrote.

"The record demonstrates that Ms. Trump received over $10 million in profits from the sale of the Old Post Office," the judge wrote.

If the request for proposal for the Old Post Office was based on fraudulent statements of Trump's worth, as the attorney general alleges, then the lawsuit could result in her having to forfeit some of those profits, he wrote.

"Once again, Donald Trump's attempts to evade the law have been rejected," James said in a statement.

"We sued Mr. Trump because we found that he engaged in years of extensive financial fraud to enrich himself and cheat the system. Today's decision makes clear that Donald Trump is not above the law and must answer for his actions in court."

"We look forward to receiving a full and proper review of our arguments on appeal," said Trump attorney Alina Habba. Another Trump family did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Read the original article on Business Insider


https://www.yahoo.com/news/manhattan-judge-wants-trump-stop-015855817.html

 

Engoron is awesome!

 

Trump’s Legal Strategy of Annoyance Is No Longer Working

Jose Pagliery
Mon, January 9, 2023 at 2:53 AM MST



Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty
In their desperate attempts to halt the New York attorney general from dealing a death blow to Donald Trump’s family business, the former president’s lawyers keep shopping the same failed arguments in states across the country. And judges are starting to call his legal team out for its bad-faith delay tactics.

Trump’s latest failure in New York state court shows just how far his lawyers are willing to go to appease the former president—and how much potential professional trouble they are willing to put themselves in.

On Friday, a New York state judge refused to dismiss the AG’s $250 million civil case against the Trump Organization for business and tax fraud, saying he was utterly unconvinced by the same lame arguments he’d already shot down.

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Trump’s lawyers keep saying that Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat who is New York’s top law enforcement officer, is merely engaged in a political “witch hunt”—and doesn’t even have the legal right to go after the company for its extensive history of simply making up fake real estate valuations.

Last February, when the matter was still under investigation, Justice Arthur F. Engoron tossed those arguments aside when ordering Trump to testify with investigators. In May, a state appellate court backed him up when it said “the investigation was lawfully initiated at its outset and well founded.”

Inside the Jury Room for the Trump Org Criminal Trial

When the investigation culminated in a financial fraud lawsuit against the company and Trump mounted the same defense, Engoron told them in court in November that he was tired of hearing it.

On Wednesday, he cautioned Trump’s lawyers to stop putting forth the same rejected arguments in an email that warned he was “considering imposing sanctions for frivolous litigation.” On Friday, he finally issued an order rejecting their request to dismiss the case and remarked that “sophisticated defense counsel should have known better.”

“Reading these arguments was, to quote the baseball sage Lawrence Peter (‘Yogi’) Berra, ‘Deja vu all over again,’” he wrote.

The fact that the Trump team comically acknowledged they are representing the former president by having the same arguments “re-presented” prompted Engoron to write that their action “strongly suggests frivolity.”

But he stopped just short of individually punishing the lawyers themselves, including Alina Habba of New Jersey, Christopher M. Kise of Florida, and Clifford S. Robert of Long Island.

Habba in particular has found herself in this judge’s sights, after repeatedly trading barbs with him in court in a manner rarely seen in the profession—frequently interrupting him on the bench, accusing him of unfairly siding against the former president, and making snide remarks about his law clerk.

It’s gotten so heated at times that her own colleagues on Trump’s legal team have quietly criticized her for putting on a show better fitted for nighttime cable news programs than the courtroom. (She has since become one of Trump’s attack dogs on right-wing TV channels like Newsmax and One America News Network.)

Habba did not respond to a request for comment about Engoron’s decision to spare her this time around.

But legal ethics scholars noted that it’s strange for legal proceedings to get this hot—or this ugly.

“It is quite rare. The lawyers have to worry not only about monetary sanctions, which may not be as much of a worry, but also court discipline that can lead to a public censure, license suspension or disbarment,” New York University law school professor Stephen Gillers said.

Trump Org Tax Fraud Verdict: Guilty on All Counts

The first time these Trump legal arguments failed, Trump was trying to dodge a subpoena to testify under oath about the way he’d routinely falsify financial records to inflate the value of his properties—either to snag better bank loans or maximize tax write-offs on donated land. Then, as now, the move was seen as a blatant delay tactic.

“I think the fact that Trump's lawyers are repeating the same claim is a signal to the court that they are acting in bad faith, bringing the claim simply to delay the litigation or to make a political point. Courts do sanction lawyers when they believe the lawyers are abusing the courts in this way,” said Rebecca Roiphe, a New York Law School professor who specializes in professional ethics.

Trump’s lawyers are so desperate to block James’ investigation that they’ve even asked judges outside New York City to intervene, so far to no avail.

In December 2021, Trump resorted to suing James in federal court in upstate New York, hoping that a U.S. district judge would exercise her broad authority to hit the brakes on a state-level investigation. That misadventure went nowhere, and the case was dismissed. U.S. District Judge Brenda K. Sannes ruled that it wasn’t unfair for James, who promised to target Trump as AG while she was running for that political office, to follow through with an investigation after hearing about claims of fraud from an insider.

Trump “failed to produce any evidence that the state proceeding has been conducted in bad faith,” she wrote.

Trump sued James yet again in November, this time in a local state court from his oceanside estate of Mar-a-Lago in faraway Palm Beach County, Florida. The new spin on this lawsuit was that James is unfairly trying to gain information about his revocable trust, which contains his private estate plans for disbursing his riches upon death.

The lawsuit claims that James “abused her position as Attorney General for the State of New York to pursue a relentless, pernicious, public, and unapologetic crusade against President Trump, a resident of Palm Beach County, Florida, with the stated goal of destroying him personally, financially, and politically.”

That didn’t work out either. The lawsuit was transferred to federal court, where the former president struck out when it landed before a judge who’d already become familiar with Trump’s notorious delay tactics and garbage litigation strategy. It didn’t help him that it came just as the Trump Organization was found guilty of tax fraud in a parallel investigation run by the Manhattan District Attorney and James’ office—justifying her own civil investigation of the company.

Judge Blasts Trump Org Lawyers for Delay Tactics

“The Trump Organization has already been found guilty by a New York jury of several counts of tax fraud. To now impede a civil enforcement action by the New York Attorney General would be unprecedented and contrary to the interests of the people of New York,” wrote U.S. District Judge Donald M. Middlebrooks, later adding in a footnote that “this litigation has all the telltale signs of being both vexatious and frivolous.”

Trump’s lawyers now find themselves in the position where they’ll have to finally come up with explanations over why the real estate mogul faked the value of his 11,000 square foot New York City flat at Trump Tower by tripling its size on paper. And among other inexplicable financial games, they’ll also have to defend the way Trump ballooned the value of his forested estate north of the city before he donated it for conservation, pricing it as if it had been a lucrative development project as opposed to the failed land deal it was.

At the moment, Trump and the AG’s investigators are supposed to be answering each other’s legal questions in the run-up to a trial scheduled to start this October. For her part, the attorney general celebrated how Trump’s delay tactics have reached the end of the line.

"Once again, Donald Trump’s attempts to evade the law have been rejected,” she said in a statement on Friday. “We sued Mr. Trump because we found that he engaged in years of extensive financial fraud to enrich himself and cheat the system."

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-legal-strategy-annoyance-no-095359239.html

 

Here's another good example of why the US Court system is fucked up.
A ridiculous frivolous case that hasn't a snowflakes chance in hell of succeeding but still is allowed to wander around different courts getting knock back after knock back but is never told to permanently fuck off....a complete and utter waste of the courts time and resources...

 

And another place we see this is in the right wing tactic of flooding the courts with election denying lawsuits. They are completely frivolous but the courts have to waste their precious time and resources to deal with them. But that is actually the point. Just keep making noise and false accusations about our elections and keep election officials and the courts tied up.

 

Its kind of fun to go back through this thread and look at the people who said we would never see Trump's tax returns and the Manhattan DA was dropping the criminal probe into Trump. Good times.


Trump Org sentenced to pay a $1.6 million tax-fraud fine Friday, but the fraud still yields a profit for Trump
Laura Italiano
Fri, January 13, 2023 at 7:55 AM MST



Former President Donald Trump, left, and the exterior of Trump Tower, where the Trump Organization is headquartered.Justin Sullivan/Getty Images, left. Nicolas Economou/Getty Images, right.

• 
  Trump Org must pay $1.6 million, the maximum fine allowed by law, a Manhattan judge ordered Friday.
  
  
• The fine is Trump Org's penalty for a decade-long tax-fraud scheme it was convicted of last month.
  
  
• Still, the real-estate company saved millions more through the scheme, prosecutors have said.
  

Donald Trump's real-estate and golf-resort empire, the Trump Organization, was hit with a $1.6 million fine in state court in Manhattan on Friday, during the company's sentencing for it's December conviction on payroll-tax fraud.

The fine is the maximum allowed under New York State law, and came with harsh words from a Manhattan prosecutor.

The company "cultivated a pervasive culture of fraud," Assistant District Attorney Joshua Steinglass, one of two lead prosecutors in the case, told the judge in asking successfully for the maximum fine.

As high as it is, the fine is still far less than what the company made in the scheme, according to the prosecution's evidence.

That means that Trump — the company's sole owner and beneficiary — still comes out ahead.

"I want to be very clear, we don't think that is enough," Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said of New York's top fraud fines, which limits criminal tax counts to a maximum of $250,o00 per count, and crimes under the state penal-code counts to only $10,000 per count.

"Our laws in this state need to change in order to capture this type of decade-plus, systemic, egregious fraud," he told reporters.

Trump saved millions in payroll costs over the course of the decade-long scheme, Manhattan prosecutors have repeatedly argued.

He did so by paying a half-dozen favored C-suite executives significant chunks of their salaries in such off-the-books perks as luxury cars and apartments.

Between 2006 and 2017, the company saved a total of $1.76 million by paying perks instead of salary to one executive alone, ex-CFO Allen Weisselberg, Steinglass reminded the judge during Friday's sentencing.

"Because that compensation was unreported" to tax authorities, "Allen Weisselberg kept every dollar," the prosecutor said.

"It would have cost them roughly double to get that same amount of money into Allen Weisselberg's pocket" after taxes, he said.

Steinglass called the scheme "corrupt" and "egregious," and "explicitly sanctioned from the top down," despite defense claims that the Trump family members at the top of the company were in the dark about the scheme.

Speaking at the sentencing, defense lawyer Susan Necheles repeated that the scheme was limited to Weisselberg and other second-tier executives, and said that company will be appealing the conviction.

New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, who had presided over the company's 7-week payroll tax-fraud trial, said little in rendering sentence.

"There's no need to rehash what the prosecution has already stated," he said. But like the prosecution, he expressed skepticism of defense lawyers' continued insistance that the Trump family was not involved in a scheme masterminded by its own C-suite.

"I do think it's interesting that the Trump Organization once again distances itself from the acts of other individuals," Merchan said.

"That's simply not what the evidence showed and not simply not what the jury found."

Weisselberg, the prosecution's less-than-ideal star witness at trial, was sentenced on Tuesday to five months at Rikers Island, where he is being held in a relatively safe section of the notorious city jail complex that's reserved for short-term convicts.

Even Weisselberg took a harder financial hit than Trump, paying up some $2 million in taxes and penalties as part of Tuesday's sentencing.

Despite the limited fine, the sentencing was "historic," Bragg told reporters, and "should serve as a reminder to all in New York — both companies in their corporate form and their executives — that this type of conduct in New York will not be tolerated, and you will be held accountable."

He added that the Trump Organiztion and Weisselberg sentencings "closes this important chapter of our ongoing investigation into the president's businesss."

Read the original article on Business Insider



https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-org-sentenced-pay-1-145546486.html

 

Its kind of fun to go back through this thread and look at the people who said we would never see Trump's tax returns and the Manhattan DA was dropping the criminal probe into Trump. Good times.
​

So first, Mr. Editor, the trial was CIVIL and not CRIMINAL but you already knew that. The CRIMINAL probe is deadended. But you already knew that.

Second, the Trump organization avoided no taxes. The executives did. You see, the issue was not reporting perks, like company cars and kids tuition, as income. Because the state of New York taxes income. Taxes the EMPLOYEE pays, not the employer.

The reason the Trump organization was in court was for not reporting the perks and withholding the estimated taxes from the employees wages.

See how propaganda works? Go back and read stumblers post with this information and you can see the spin.

 

Michael Cohen met with prosecutors — here's what he wanted to tell them

Sarah K. Burris
January 17, 2023



Michael Cohen and Donald Trump (Photo: Screen captures)


If there's one thing Michael Cohen has done since abandoning what he calls the "cult" of Donald Trump, it's to avail himself to any and all law enforcement interested in questions about what he knows regarding any possible illegal behavior.

On Tuesday, Cohen finally met with the office of the Manhattan D.A., which comes after DA Alvin Bragg had decided not to investigate Trump personally when he came into office, despite protest resignations by top prosecutors in the office.

Cohen said that he was in the office for about three hours and that he didn't want to reveal anything about what Bragg asked or he told the DA because it could give ammunition to Donald Trump.

After Bragg won the 17-count case against Trump's two corporations, Bragg reconsidered the individual prosecution of the former president.

"Despite the quick and accurate determination by the jury convicting the Trump Organization on all counts, once again the man behind all the decisions and actions at the company escapes culpability," Cohen told Raw Story in a Dec. 2022 statement after the verdict was read.

Cohen has long argued that there was more than enough for Bragg's office to go after. One key point is the campaign finance violations. Cohen went to prison for, among other things, campaign finance violations. Cohen's campaign finance problems, however, come from the check that he got from Donald Trump to pay off Stormy Daniels so she wouldn't reveal their affair during the 2016 campaign.

IN OTHER NEWS: Matt Schlapp's wife engaged in conspiracy to undermine sexual assault allegation against him

If Cohen was guilty of campaign finance violations, he reasoned that the person under whose direction he committed the campaign violations should also be held accountable.

"The evidence is crystal clear. It was provided not only to the DA.'s office, the attorney general's office, as well as the Southern District of New York, when they were prosecuting me for the campaign finance violation," said Cohen. "It's an amazing thing. He has the affair. He directs me. So, what I did, I did at the direction of and for the benefit of Donald J. Trump. I end up getting charged for it. Not only do we have the Stormy Daniels case of the campaign finance violation, but there's also the Karen McDougal case which was paid for by the National Enquirer's David Pecker and AMI."

Cohen also alleges personal tax fraud against Trump, telling Raw Story in Oct. 2021 that the former president declared the Stormy Daniels hush money payoffs as a business write-off from his taxes.

"But once again, this just becomes the curious case of Alvin Bragg. Where this case going — it would have been great had he stepped forward in this The New York Times article, or gone on television, and announced that we are pursuing this case against Donald Trump for campaign finance violation, as well as misrepresentation on the tax documents," Cohen said in Nov. 2022.

READ MORE: Ex-GOP candidate suspected of hunting Dems told shooter 'to aim lower' for sleeping targets

Cohen previously said that he gave tons of information to New York Attorney General Letitia James in April 2022, as well as the Manhattan DA before Bragg took over.

"I spent countless hours, over 15 sessions — including three while incarcerated. I provided thousands of documents, which coupled with my testimony, would have been a valid basis for an indictment and charge," Cohen said last April.

See commentary from Cohen after his meeting below or at the link here:



https://www.rawstory.com/michael-cohen-spoke-district-attorney/

 

'Next chapter?' Manhattan DA signals Trump himself might finally land under indictment

Travis Gettys
January 18, 2023



PALM BEACH, FLORIDA - Former U.S. President Donald Trump greets people as he arrives for a New Years event at his Mar-a-Lago home on December 31, 2022 in Palm Beach, Florida. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)


Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg may finally have changed his mind about indicting former president Donald Trump.

The recent conviction of the Trump Organization and its chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg gave a glimpse of evidence that could tie the ex-president directly to the tax fraud scheme, such as a memo he signed approving chief operating officer Matthew Calamari’s illegal request to reduce his taxed salary to cover the cost of his untaxed corporate apartment, reported The Daily Beast.

“We now move on to the next chapter,” Bragg said last week after the company was ordered to pay $1.6 million in penalties for tax fraud.

Trump already asserted under oath in another case in 2021 that he personally oversaw Calimari's compensation, and prosecutors have checks he signed to cover tuition at a private school for Weisselberg's grandchildren, whose mother Jennifer Weisselberg has repeatedly told investigators she personally heard Trump discuss the scheme to artificially lower taxed salaries for his executives.

“This case has tentacles,” said Duncan Levin, a former prosecutor who now represents Jennifer Weisselberg and has been communicating with investigators.

The district attorney's office declined to comment on what Bragg meant about another chapter, but former prosecutors from that office say their experience leads them to believe prosecutors will go after Trump.

“For people who want a certain outcome — to go after Trump — it gives hope," said Catherine A. Christian, a former assistant district attorney who investigated financial fraud. "They’re going to be thorough. I’m doubtful he would have said ‘next chapter’ if they weren’t looking."

RELATED: 'I'll grab you': How Alex Jones and Ali Alexander were tapped to lead a march from the Ellipse to the Capitol

“It happens all the time with large, complex investigations,” she added.

Prosecutors had hoped to flip Weisselberg or company controller Jeffrey McConney, who was nearly labeled a hostile witness during the Trump Organization trial, but ultimately were unable to get their full cooperation.

“They didn’t flip, and they failed,” said former Manhattan prosecutor Jeff Chabrowe. “They tried to do everything they could, and in the end, they got a truncated thing here where they went after the organization and Weisselberg, and there's this fine that’s pretty weak.”

https://www.rawstory.com/donald-trump-alvin-bragg-2659272982/

 

And I "might" be the next President.... All this "Might" shit but no one can say for sure.....

 

They won't quit until they get their indictment and their perp walk.

 

If they put half of the effort into legislating than they have trying to get that perp walk, Washington just may function the way it's supposed to....
Alas, they fail to care about America and hasten it's decline....

 

This could get interesting. When Alvin Bragg came in as the new DA the criminal investigation of Trump started by Cy Vance was already well underway and approaching issuing indictments. Bragg put the breaks on that and two proseutors on the case very publicly quit. And Mark Pomerantz was one of them. And there are probably a couple reasons Bragg is worried about Pomerantz's book. One, chances are pretty good Bragg is going to get trashed in it. But two, after the Manhattan DA's office got slam dunk convictions of 17 felonies against Trump Org a Trump indictment looks like a sure thing and he appears to be pursuing it. And there could be some legitimate concerns about hurting his case.

Manhattan DA concerned that upcoming Trump book could hamper investigation
AARON KATERSKY
Wed, January 18, 2023 at 3:53 PM MST


A forthcoming book by a former prosecutor could harm the ongoing criminal investigation into former President Donald Trump and his family real estate company, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said Wednesday.

That investigation led to the recent conviction of the Trump Organization and appeared to accelerate again on Tuesday when Bragg met with Michael Cohen, Trump's former personal attorney, about the hush payment Cohen says he helped arrange to Stormy Daniels, the adult film actress who alleged a long-denied affair with Trump.

MORE: Trump Organization sentenced to maximum fine following tax fraud conviction

The book's author, former prosecutor Mark Pomerantz, was assigned to the Trump case by then-District Attorney Cy Vance. Pomerantz and another senior prosecutor, Carey Dunne, quit last February over their disagreements with Bragg about how the case should proceed.

Pomerantz's publisher, Simon & Schuster, announced last week that the book, entitled "People vs. Donald Trump: An Inside Account," will be released next month.


PHOTO: Donald Trump speaks to the media while departing a polling station after voting in the US midterm elections at Morton and Barbara Mandel in Palm Beach, Florida. (Eva Marie Uzcategui/AFP via Getty Images, FILE)
Bragg's office sent a letter to both Simon & Schuster and Pomerantz, expressing concern that the book could interfere with the ongoing investigation.

"Based on the pre-publication descriptions of his book and the benefit of current knowledge of the matter, but without access to the manuscript, this Office believes there is a meaningful risk that the publication will materially prejudice ongoing criminal investigations and related adjudicative proceedings," read the letter, a copy of which was obtained by ABC News.

The letter was signed by Bragg's general counsel, Leslie Dubeck, and requested 60 days to review the manuscript, which would delay the Feb. 7 publication date.

MORE: Manhattan DA hires former DOJ official who previously investigated Trump Foundation

"The District Attorney's interest here is to protect the integrity of this Office's pending criminal investigations and proceedings regarding the former President," the letter said. "The Office urges Mr. Pomerantz not to take any further steps that would damage an ongoing criminal investigation."

In a statement provided to ABC News, Pomerantz said, "I am confident that all of my actions with respect to the Trump investigation, including the writing of my forthcoming book, are consistent with my legal and ethical obligations."

Representatives for Simon & Schuster told ABC News in a statement, "We stand behind Mark Pomerantz and his book, People vs. Donald Trump, and look forward to sharing this important and timely work with readers when it is published on February 7."

https://www.yahoo.com/gma/manhattan-da-concerned-upcoming-trump-225330990.html

 

Uh oh.
So lets see do we understand.
Trump is investigated. The DA is taking the view that there isn't a criminal case. Two investigators get butt hurt and resign.
The DA takes another look based on information that maybe Trump's ex attorney, who is totally butt hurt about all things Trump, related to him.
The butt hurt investigators have written a tell all book about Trump.
The DA is worried that the investigators book can prejudice the investigation and any trial.

So

Now the question is, will the two investigators some how be stopped from publishing their book and making bank, to, you know, protect Trump's rights?
Or
Will the investigators be allowed to make bank with their book, and if so will the DA continue with the investigation or blame the book on (again) dropping the investigation.

38 investigations
almost 8 years
No criminal indictements for Trump
No convictions
No perp walk

And we begin to understand just how incompetent the investigators really are.

Trump must be laughing his ass off just now.

 

Nothing like getting slapped with a million dollars worth of sanctions to make someone reconsider their legal strategy.

Trump drops $250 million lawsuit against Letitia James after judge's stark warning

Sky Palma
January 20, 2023



Donald Trump delivering a speech at a campaign rally held at the Mohegan Sun Arena. (Evan El-Amin / Shutterstock.com)


Former President Donald Trump has withdrawn his $250 million lawsuit against New York Attorney General Letitia James, ABC News reports.

The withdrawal comes after U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks warned Trump's legal team that the lawsuit was borderline frivolous.

"Plaintiff, PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP, by and through his undersigned counsel and pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 41(a)(1)(A)(i), hereby voluntarily dismisses his claims in this action against Defendant, LETITIA JAMES, without prejudice," the letter said.

The lawsuit sought to shield Trump's revocable trust from James, who is suing the Trump Organization for fraudulent conduct.

IN OTHER NEWS: Legal experts slam Supreme Court report on 'brazenly hackish' Dobbs leak investigation



https://www.rawstory.com/trump-lawsuit-letitia-james-2659286933/

 

Trump questions whether not paying taxes is 'even a crime' as he laments his former CFO Weisselberg's jailing
Alia Shoaib
Sat, January 21, 2023 at 6:36 AM MST



Former president Donald Trump with his former CFO Allen Weisselberg at Trump Tower in 2017.Evan Vucci/AP

• Donald Trump questioned whether his former CFO not paying taxes was "even a crime."
  
  
• Allen Weisselberg, 75, has been sentenced to five months for his role in a Trump Organization tax dodge scheme.
  
  
• Trump said that Weisselberg, who pled guilty, was "a casualty of the greatest Witch Hunt of all time."
  

Former President Donald Trump questioned whether not paying taxes is "even a crime" as he lamented that Allen Weisselberg, the Trump Organization's former CFO, has been jailed.

"He didn't pay taxes on the use of a company car - does anyone? The use of a company apartment - does anyone? Or the Education of his grandchildren - Wow! Are these things really criminal, or even a crime?" Trump wrote on Truth Social on Friday.

Trump said that Weisselberg, who pleaded guilty in August to 15 felony counts, including a scheme to defraud, conspiracy, grand larceny, and criminal tax fraud, was "a casualty of the greatest Witch Hunt of all time."

Weisselberg, 75, was earlier this month sentenced to five months for his role in masterminding a Trump Organization tax dodge scheme.

The scheme saved hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes for him and a small group of other second-tier executives.

The plea deal also requires Weisselberg to pay more than $2 million in back taxes and penalties.

Weisselberg will serve his sentence at New York City's notorious Rikers jail, which depending on good behavior, could be cut down to roughly 100 days, his lawyer has said.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a press statement after the sentencing that Weisselberg "used his high-level position to secure lavish work perks such as a rent-free luxury Manhattan apartment, multiple Mercedes Benz automobiles, and private school tuition for his grandchildren – all without paying required taxes."

Weisselberg was sentenced days before the Trump Organization was hit with a $1.6 million fine during the company's sentencing for its December conviction on payroll-tax fraud.

The former CFO remained loyal to his former employer throughout the trial, continuing to insist that Trump himself did nothing wrong.

Trump also faces a $250 million fraud lawsuit from New York Attorney General Letitia James, as her office alleges that he "falsely inflated his net worth by billions of dollars to further enrich himself and cheat the system."

Read the original article on Business Insider


https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-questions-whether-not-paying-133657890.html

 

Trump used to say only members of the mob and guilty people invoked the 5th amendment. But now its his and his family's favorite answer.

Watch: Trump pleads the Fifth multiple times in newly released video

Brad Reed
January 31, 2023



Donald Trump (Photo: Gage Skidmore/Flickr)


Video deposition obtained by CBS News shows former President Donald Trump invoking his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination while testifying last summer in the New York Attorney General's fraud investigation.

The video shows Trump explaining why he decided to plead the Fifth despite in the past having ridiculed others who have done the same.

"Anyone in my position not taking the Fifth Amendment would be a fool, an absolute fool," Trump said at the start of the deposition. "I respectfully decline to answer the questions under the rights and privileges afforded to every citizen under the United States Constitution."

After Trump repeatedly said he "respectfully declined" to answer prosecutors' questions for a little bit, he soon started simply saying, "same answer" to every question asked.

READ MORE: New York grand jury won't face same limitations that have stalled possible Trump charges in Georgia

By CBS News' count, Trump pled the Fifth roughly 400 times.

Watch the video below or at this link.



https://www.rawstory.com/trump-pleads-fifth-video/

 

New York prosecutors failed to blip Allen Weisselberg before. But he wasn't sitting in Rikers Island with a little slap on the wrist sentence then. Now that he has a taste of prison life that could be fore the rest of his life he might have a change of heart.


Manhattan DA threatens former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg with new charges
JOHN SANTUCCI and AARON KATERSKY
Thu, February 2, 2023 at 6:30 PM MST


The Manhattan district attorney's office has recently threatened to file new criminal charges against former Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.

Weisselberg, 75, is currently serving jail time at New York's Rikers Island after he pleaded guilty to tax fraud in August.

The new charges, the sources said, would involve insurance fraud, a detail first reported by The New York Times.

MORE: Longtime Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg sentenced to 5 months in jail

Prosecutors in Manhattan are using the threat of additional charges to pressure Weisselberg into cooperating with their ongoing criminal investigation into former President Donald Trump and his business, the sources said.

A spokesperson for District Attorney Alvin Bragg declined to comment to ABC News. An attorney for Weisselberg also declined to comment.

Weisselberg testified against the Trump Organization at its criminal trial last year as part of a plea agreement, but he did not implicate the former president in the company's tax fraud.

Insurance fraud was mentioned in New York Attorney General Letitia James' $250 million civil lawsuit that the AG brought in September against Trump, his eldest children, and his business. The lawsuit, which also names Weisselberg and other executives, alleges that the former CFO lied to an insurance company about an appraisal of Trump's real estate portfolio.


PHOTO: Former Trump Organization Executive Allen Weisselberg arrives for a sentencing hearing at Manhattan Criminal Court on Jan. 10, 2023, in New York City. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
Trump has denied wrongdoing and has called James' investigation a politically motivated "witch hunt."

This week, prosecutors began presenting evidence to a grand jury investigating whether Trump played a role in the hush money payment to Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election. Among the initial witnesses, ABC News has previously reported, were former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker and Trump Organization controller Jeff McConney.

Trump has denied knowing about the payment, which was arranged through his then-personal attorney, Michael Cohen.


https://www.yahoo.com/gma/manhattan-da-threatens-former-trump-013014480.html

 

BUT HUNTER BIDEN TAXES!!!! BUT HUNTER BIDEN TAXES!!!! BUT HUNTER BIDEN TAXES!!!!!

Trump has been doing false appraisals 'over, and over, and over again' with little accountability: economics reporter

Sarah K. Burris
February 06, 2023



Donald Trump (Photo by Mandel Ngan for AFP)


Former prosecutor Mark Pomerantz has a tell-all book set to be released at midnight about the case the Manhattan District Attorney's office had on former President Donald Trump and their resistance to move forward with charges.

While former attorney Michael Cohen had sounded the alarm about the hush money payments to Stormy Daniels, New York Times reporter Suzanne Craig told MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace that it seems DA Alvin Bragg also hasn't moved on the false appraisals issue, which Pomerantz highlighted on "60 Minutes" Sunday. Craig seemed confused why that wouldn't be a greater consideration.

"I don't see it. And I kind of keep waiting, but so far we haven't seen them move on the issue of the appraisals, submitting false information to financial institutions in order to get a loan," she explained. "And that's where Mark Pomerantz so far, we've heard him go quite strongly. I can't wait to read the book to see what else potentially is in there. That has been an area of focus for him. He felt it was a pretty slam-dunk case, and then the attorney general of New York bringing a civil case with very similar characteristics to the case that Mark Pomerantz wanted to bring involving the appraisals. But Alvin Bragg has decided he is going to go ahead on the hush money end of it, and so far he hasn't moved again on the appraisals."

Pomerantz told "60 Minutes" that Trump would start with the question of what his net worth needed to be, and move on to craft how it would be collected. Cohen testified that that he was in the room when Trump made that clear to former bookkeeper Allen Weisselberg, who is now in Rikers Island Prison.

IN OTHER NEWS: Jim Jordan’s first hearing mocked over conspiracy theorist witnesses

Craig, Times colleague David Fahrenthold and biographers Tim O'Brien and David Cay Johnston have been among the two major reporters following the money and sounding the alarm about the Trump finances for decades. Craig thinks that all of that information may be enough pressure on Weisselberg to cooperate, particularly now that he's in Rikers.

"Allen Weisselberg is somebody to keep an eye on. He is in Rikers now, and you don't know how that's going to affect him day to day in terms of will he decide he is going to cooperate in a part of an investigation in order to get himself out of that situation that he's in," said Craig. "And I think that's just such a personal decision, you know, that he is going to make one day. A lot of days may pass where it doesn't happen and then he is going to say enough. And that's what Alvin Bragg is counting on."

She noted she was happy to see the valuations from the appraisals were back in the news because it's a story that she and others have been talking about since at least 2018. There was a story on what Trump inherited from his father when he died, and that is what took them down a rabbit hole of financial insanity.

"It centered around appraisals, and for decades, this family has been using appraisals to their advantage," said Craig. "When they need a charitable contribution for a tax return, they go high. When they need a bank they go high. And when there is something involving land going into an estate, they go low. And over and over and over we've seen it.:

She also explained that Trump would likely claim that he relied on the counsel of outside advisers, but it isn't a defense that would necessarily work.

"It is something that will come into play. And that's why in the '60 Minutes' interview, I listened very carefully when Pomerantz was noting areas that Donald Trump had personally signed. They're trying to tie it directly to him. And then there is another third factor that we heard when we were reporting out some of this, which is, even if he relied on professional advice and he argues that, one thing prosecutors will bring up, and you can see this playing out in a courtroom, is Donald Trump is a retail guy. He should know the valuations. He should have a sense of the market. And that will I think work against him in a court."

See the full discussion below or at the link here.

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-long-time-false-appraisals/

 

Fun question for forum members suffering from TDS.

When one sets out to purchase property, borrow against equity in property or pay taxes on property, who or what sets the value of said property?

The bank?
The government?
The property owner?