The past several years have been filled with horrible news from the U.S., but this past Wednesday, September 21st was one of the most positive days in recent memory. Here's why:
1. Letitia James, the Attorney General of New York State, has filed a civil lawsuit against Donald Trump, his business, and his children alleging fraud. Basically, for over a decade, Trump's business has been applying for loans in New York by overvaluing the properties it has used on its applications in order to get much better terms for its loans. This is illegal--it is called bank fraud. Then Trump undervalued his properties when filing his tax returns in order to reduce his taxes by millions of dollars. This is illegal--it is called tax fraud. Ms. James, in her press conference on Wednesday, released details of the suit, which clearly documents over 200 instances where the Trump Organization engaged in these practices.
If the suit is successful, Trump will not be able to buy property or get bank loans for 5 years, will have to pay a $250,000,000 fine, and essentially will not be allowed to do any business in New York. Banks who have loaned money to Trump in the past will be allowed to demand all their unpaid loans back all at once. Essentially Trump's illegally-operated business empire will be seriously damaged, even possibly destroyed.
A couple of months ago, Trump was called into to testify to give information to Ms. James in this case, but refused to answer 440 of her questions, citing the 5th Amendment of the Constitution and its right against incriminating one's self. Hmm. When you refuse to answer questions, saying you will incriminate yourself if you answer the question truthfully, that seems to indicate that you are guilty. In a civil, non-criminal case, Ms. James can use this refusal to answer question in her arguments to a jury, telling them they can use this refusal as an inference of Trump's guilt. Yikes, Trump's business empire is in serious trouble.
2. Also on Wednesday, the 11th Court of Appeals said that the Top-Secret, highly-classified documents that the FBI gathered from Trump's home are not Trump's property as he claims. The court said the FBI can use these documents immediately to determine if Trump should be charged with crimes for stealing documents and storing them at his Florida club, Mar-a-Lago. No more delays. The Justice Department can now continue its investigation.
3. A judge loyal to Trump, and not the law, tried to delay this classified documents case against Trump by wrongly appointing a "special master" to review documents and determine which ones should be given back to Trump. Fortunately, the "special master" she hired shot down all of the Trump legal team's ridiculous arguments and said the government has a right to exclude top-secret documents from this process.
4. Donald Trump, irritated by these legal losses, went on Fox "News" network that evening to argue government abuse of his rights. Trump said all the documents were his personal property (a false statement, btw). Furthermore, he said none of the documents were classified because when he was President he had the power to "declassify them in my mind." Hmm. How that works no one seems to know. Though, Trump's equally insane MAGA followers might find that explanation reasonable, even some of Trump's most-loyal supporters in Congress have admitted that this explanation borders on madness. (Besides, don't you know, stupid Donald, that if you, as President, could declassify documents, just by doing the act in your head, President Biden, can re-classify them in his head just as easily, if you use your crazy reasoning. And he's probably already done so. :) ) Anyway, this bizarre claim has shredded what little credibility Trump might have possessed with this issue with any sane person beyond his cult of mindless and frightening followers.
The January 6 Congressional Committee continues to move forward gathering evidence to potentially lead to charges against Trump for knowingly attempting to overthrow the government, the Atlanta Grand Jury is gathering more evidence in its case against Trump for electoral fraud. And one of Trump's alleged rape victims E. Jean Carroll (over 20 women have accused him of sexual assault) can now sue him for his sexual abuse because a new law in the state of New York has erased the statute of limitation for victims of sexual assault, so they can now sue their accusers even though the usual time for filing cases has expired.
So, as this week comes to a conclusion, it's the first time I feel slightly optimistic in saying that Donald Trump just might face some justice for once in his life. But only slightly, because it's f***** up America we are talking about, after all.
Comments
Post a Comment