Daily Archives: October 3, 2023

The Trump Organization is on trial in New York this week, bringing to a head the fraud case thats been on the docket since 2022, when state Attorney GeneralLetitia Jamesfiled suit against the former presidents real estate company, alleging it had shown a pattern of vastly overinflating the value of its portfolio.

JudgeArthur Engorondeclaredlast week thatDonald Trumpandhis two biggest boys,Eric and Donald Jr.,as well as the Trump Organization committed fraud. Per the ruling, they frothed up their businesses assets and Trumps net worth for the purpose of getting better loan and insurance terms. Engoron found, among other things, that Trump continually overvalued Mar-a-Lago, once by more than 2,300%. One appraisal valued the club, located in Palm Beach, at between $18 and $28 million, while the Trump Organizationcalledit as much as $612 million. Trump also claimed his triplex at Trump Tower was 30,000 square feet. In reality? 11,000 square feet.

As the trial continues this weekEngoron has a few more matters to rule on, as well as potential penaltiesthe Family Trump is circling the wagons. Over on Truth Social, the ex-presidenthascalledEngoron a Deranged, Trump Hating Judge. Ericclaimedon Twitter that the ruling is an attempt to destroy my father and that Mar-a-Lago is actually arguably the most valuable residential property in the country. And Juniorwrote,This is weaponized Blue State Marxist America, & another example of the sheer impossibility of a fairness & impartiality in these areas.

The proceedings have also given the Trump boys their ownon cameracostarring turns.In an old deposition that Letitia Jamess office released on Monday, both Eric and Donald could be seen not recalling certain aspects of the case or business practices. Similar answers to different questions. But like a couple of jazz guys putting their own stamp on ayears-old standard, each had his own specific texture to the tune.

Asked whatheknew about the acronym GAAP, which stands forGenerally Accepted Accounting Principles, Donald Trump Jr. offered the following:

Q: How did you become familiar with that acronym?

A: Probably in Accounting 101 at Wharton.

Q: Okay. What do they teach you about generally accepted accounting principles in Wharton?

A: Well, Im not an accountant, but that they are generally accepted.

Q: [Laughing] Anything else?

A: Thats pretty much what I remember from Accounting 101.

Q: Have you told me everything you know about GAAP? [Laughing]

A: Basically. You know, Im sure I could come up with some creative stuff to kill time, but Id be doing neither of us a favor in terms of educating ourselves.

Q: Thank you. So, fair to say youve never been employed in a position that required you to apply GAAP to your work?

A: No, not that Im aware of.

He smiled. He laughed. He somehow exuded smarm and ignorance simultaneously.

Eric, while similarly stubbled, cut a more halting and yet somehow more natural figure. Take a look.

Whether or not the Trump Org will face all $250 million of potential penalties is currently being decided in New York courtrooms. In the meantime, we can watch all the veneers do the talking.

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The Trump Boys Can't Recall a Thing - Vanity Fair

Former President Donald Trump (center) appears in court Monday in New York. Brendan McDermid/AP hide caption

Former President Donald Trump (center) appears in court Monday in New York.

The first day of a civil business fraud trial against former President Donald Trump wrapped up Monday afternoon.

Although Trump did not have to be present for the start of the trial, he came for a full day of opening remarks and the first witness testimony given by Donald Bender, a Trump Organization consultant.

Trump and other defendants are accused of exaggerating the value of their real estate.

If found guilty, Trump, who said he's "going to court ... to fight for my name and reputation," would have to pay $250 million in damages and be banned from doing business in New York state.

"My message is simple: No matter how powerful you are. No matter how much money you think you may have, no one is above the law," said State Attorney General Letitia James outside the New York Supreme Court ahead of the trial.

This is one of four pending legal cases Trump is facing in New York alone while he is seeking to win another term as president in the 2024 presidential race.

Trump continued to call the allegations a politically motivated "witch hunt" and argued that he should also be protected because his contacts contained a so-called "buyer beware" clause.

He argued people have to do their own due diligence, but either way he doesn't believe anyone suffered over the financial documents.

"What we have is a scam," Trump told reporters ahead of opening statements. "The actual net worth is substantially more. No bank was affected. No bank was hurt."

Bender testified to the processes of the Trump Organization, particularly how the financial statements at the center of the trial, are produced. He said he produced statements based on financial information provided by Trump's executives.

The first big witness is likely to be Allan Weisselberg, former chief financial officer at the Trump Organization. He is a defendant in the case and fairly high up on the list to testify.

Earlier this year Weisselberg was sentenced to five months in prison for financial crimes he committed while working there. Last year he pleaded guilty to 15 counts including grand larceny tax fraud and falsifying business records.

Another recognizable name on the witness list is Michael Cohen, a former Trump lawyer. On Monday, prosecutors played part of a video deposition with Cohen in which he said he was involved with preparing several years' worth of financial documents. He was quoted saying that others in the organization, including Weisselberg, would inflate the numbers to land Trump higher on the Forbes list.

After a three-year investigation, New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a lawsuit in September 2022 claiming Trump and his executive team engaged in fraudulent business practices. This includes allegations the value of Trump's business and the market value of his real estate holdings in New York state and in Florida were inflated in order to land deals, and negotiate with banks and insurers.

The former president tried to at least delay the trial by suing the judge that will be overseeing the trial. But a New York appeals court panel of judges rejected that move earlier last week, allowing the trial to continue as scheduled.

On Sept. 26, New York Judge Arthur Engoron, who is overseeing the trial, issued an order concluding that Trump and his associates including his sons Eric and Donald Jr. did inflate the value of their assets.

Though the judge ruled on some of the major elements of the lawsuit, there remain six other claims that will be argued during the trial. This includes allegations that Trump and his associates broke state law by falsifying documents, conspiring to falsify business records, issuing false business statements and financial statements and committing insurance fraud.

The attorney general of New York is also still seeking roughly $250 million in penalties.

Trump has called the fraud accusations ridiculous and untrue and has accused both the judge and New York attorney general, who are Democrats, of being politically motivated.

In a post on his social media site Truth, Trump said Sunday that the valuations of his property are "FRAUDULENT in pursuit of Election Interference, and worse. THIS WHOLE CASE IS A SHAM!!!"

Christopher Kise, a lawyer for Trump, called the initial ruling that confirmed the fraud allegations outrageous and a miscarriage of justice.

The trial was expected to run from October to December, but with the recent judge order, that could be shorter.

Both teams have a lengthy list of witnesses, though not all will get called. Still, appearing on both lists are the former president himself along with Eric and Donald Trump Jr. The attorney general's team also listed Ivanka Trump.

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Donald Trump business fraud trial began Monday in New York - NPR

The idea of Donald Trump becoming president again is one that no doubt makes millions of people across America, to say nothing of those living abroad, feel like theyre going to shit their pants. (If you only recently got dropped on planet Earth and are wondering why, see: all the alleged law-breaking, the attempted coup-ing, and the threats to rule like a full-on authoritarian, to say nothing of the other assorted crazy.) Indeed, the day the ex-president announced he was officially kicking off a third run for the White House, he likely gave rise to countless fantasies involving a time machine, 2015, and convincing him that only suckers and losers run for president. Or, one in which Vladimir Putin called him up, said something like, Donald, these swamp people dont deserve us, lets run away to Siberia together, and that was the end of that. Or, fuck, maybe one where Trump suddenly found a passion for macram and decided then and there to devote the rest of his life to it. Whatever!

Of course, most people didnt believe there was any actual scenario in which Trump could have been stopped from running for president again. Though, according to a forthcoming biography of FTX cofounder Sam Bankman-Fried, one billionaire in particular very much did!

In an essay by Michael Lewis adapted from his book Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon, published in The Washington Post on Sunday, we learn that in 2022, SBF had a sit-down with Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, the subtext of which was protecting the world from Donald Trump, whom SBF viewed as an existential threat to humanity on par with another pandemic and climate change. And in order to stop said threat from destroying the world, SBF had a plan:

At that moment, Sam was planning to give $15 million to $30 million to McConnell to defeat the Trumpier candidates in the Senate races. On a separate front, he explained to me, as the plane descended into Washington, he was exploring the legality of paying Donald Trump himself not to run for president. His team had somehow created a back channel into the Trump operation and returned with the not terribly earth-shattering news that Donald Trump might indeed have his price: $5 billion. Or so Sam was told by his team.

Assuming this was, in fact, legala big assumption!it would have obviously been a brilliant plan, because it might have actually worked, given Trumps obsession with wealth. Hell, with another $5 billion to his name, he might have actually been able to stop lying about his net worth!

Of course, this did not happen in the end, which may or may not have had to do with a combination of Trump deciding he had to run for president in order to stay out of prison and SBF being charged with fraud and actually going to jail. But imagine how less stressful life would be if it had!

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Sam Bankman-Fried Wanted to Pay Donald Trump Not to Run for ... - Vanity Fair

When former President Trump hysterically called for shoplifters to be shot in a speech last week before California Republicans, we know who he thinks hes talking about: Black and Brown people. We will immediately stop all of the pillaging and theft, Trump said. Very simply: If you rob a store, you can fully expect to be shot as you are leaving that store. Shot!

It continues more than four decades of Trump unapologetically calling for capital punishment or for the accused to be kneecapped way beyond for what crimes usually call for. Those who have a long memory about Trump will recall his full-page ads in New York newspapers 34 years ago calling for the death penalty in after the Central Park rape that wrongfully sent Black and Brown men to prison.

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Now this, as the former president remains the clear front runner for the Republican nomination to return to the White House. Now, the easy thing here is to keep going about his ongoing efforts to place the political mark of the beast on Black and Brown people. But his fascist rant to bring the full weight of lethal federal law enforcement against shoplifters carries a peculiar irony. Trump is so unhinged, he forgot that most shoplifters are White.

Despite the decades of Black people being profiled in stores as possible shoplifters (and being shot and killed, as was John Crawford in 2014 for holding an unboxed pellet gun in the sporting goods section of a Walmart outside Dayton Ohio), much of the loot that leaks out of stores iare in the backpacks and purses of the least profiled.

According to a 2014 study in the American Journal of Psychiatry, 77.5 percent of shoplifters are White, significantly above their 59 percent of the national population. Only 8 percent of shoplifters are Black and only another 8 percent are Latino, well below their shares of the national population. That study said, Shoplifting was significantly more common in individuals with at least some college education, among those with individual incomes over $35,000 and family incomes over $70,000.

Going even farther back, a 1986 Washington Post story on shoplifting in the Washington, D.C. area found that while young Black males were routinely put under heavy surveillance in stores, 71 percent of people arrested for shoplifting were from middle- and upper-income brackets. That story said:

If there was a profile of a shoplifter, it might show a woman from a middle-income group, who has either a high school diploma or college degree. In reality, the statistics show that shoplifting cuts across age, educational and income levels. All available evidence suggests, in fact, that young black males, as a group, between the ages of 18 and 25, pose no greater threat as shoplifters than most groups.

In a 2013 interview on National Public Radio, Rutgers University marketing professor Jerome Williams said, About 70 percent of all the shoplifting in this country is done by whites. And in fact, if you look at store shrinkage or loss, most of the loss is done by employees and not by customers. And in some states where weve looked at the data, what we call the modal group thats most likely to shoplift is white women in their 40s and 50s.

When Trump went off about shooting shoplifters, his audience of California Republicans cheered as if a football team scored a touchdown. That was because in that same speech, he referred to California as a dumping ground. Trump has long used the phrase to refer to Mexico dumping its worst elements into the United States.

The crowd clearly assumed that shoplifters in the crosshairs of another Trump White House would be Brown and Black. The data says otherwise. If Trump really means what he says, hes about to mow down a whole lot of White housewives.

Derrick Z. Jackson is a former Boston Globe columnist and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in commentary.

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Donald Trump Says Shoplifters Should be Shot, but Does He Know Who Most Shoplifters Are? - Yahoo News

Though it was lost in the four-year cyclone that was the presidency of Donald Trump, one of his most immoral acts was to pardon soldiers who were accused of committing war crimes by killing unarmed civilians or prisoners. Military leaders, including his own defense secretary and the secretary of the Army, objected, saying it would undermine good order and discipline. Lawlessness can easily beget lawlessness.

But the American system is ill prepared to deter leaders bent on undermining the rule of law. Checks and balances spread powers across the government, but that isnt enough to temper or stop bad-faith actors looking to subvert the law. According to a new article in The Atlantic, Gen. Mark Milley, upon becoming the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 2019, found himself in a disconcerting situation: trying, and failing, to teach President Trump the difference between appropriate battlefield aggressiveness on the one hand, and war crimes on the other.

Mr. Trump, as General Milley discovered and many Americans already knew, is a man unencumbered by any moral compass. He goes the way he wants to go, legalities and niceties be damned. Last week in a post on his social network, Mr. Trump argued that General Milleys actions would have once been punishable by death.

Most Americans probably didnt notice his screed. Of those who did and were not alarmed, far too many nodded along in agreement. As Josh Barro said in a Times Opinion round table this week about the former presidents recent comments, Trump is and has been unhinged, and thats priced in to the views that many voters have of him.

It is no exaggeration to say that Mr. Trump is running for the presidency on a platform of lawlessness, promising to wield the power of the state against his enemies real or imagined. Today, millions and millions of Americans support him for that reason or despite it.

In a poll released this week, 51 percent of American adults said theyd vote for Mr. Trump over President Biden, including a vast majority of Republicans. And Wednesday nights farcical G.O.P. debate may only increase Mr. Trumps large lead in the primary race.

That advantage over the rest of the Republican field is growing even as prosecutors are finally trying to hold Mr. Trump legally responsible for his misdeeds from the plot to overturn the 2020 election to fraud allegations concerning his real estate empire.

The backlash has been predictable: In the past few months, Mr. Trump has argued that federal laws about classified documents dont apply to him; floated the idea of pardons for his supporters jailed for attacking the Capitol; said that judges with whom he disagrees are unfit to preside over cases against him; and has been accused of threatening to prejudice the jury pool in one case.

A judge decided to shield the identity of jurors for another trial after Trump supporters posted the names, photos and addresses of grand jurors involved in issuing an indictment in that case. Mr. Trump is also pushing for a government shutdown to halt Justice Department investigations, to force a show of loyalty and try to bend our political system to his will even when he is out of office.

All this has accompanied a sharp uptick in the often incoherent statements from the 77-year-old former president, on social media and at his rallies. And while many Americans long ago tuned him out, his most extreme supporters, like Representative Paul Gosar of Arizona, have not. In his newsletter, Mr. Gosar recently wrote that General Milley should be hanged.

As the legal cases against Mr. Trump have picked up, so too have threats against law enforcement authorities, judges, elected officials and others, The Times reported this week. The threats, in turn, are prompting protective measures, a legal effort to curb his angry and sometimes incendiary public statements and renewed concern about the potential for an election campaign in which Mr. Trump has promised retribution to produce violence.

Mr. Trumps targets extend to other Republicans. In a biography out next month, Senator Mitt Romney disclosed that he was spending $5,000 per day on security for himself and his family against threats from Trump supporters.

This combustible combination of heated political rhetoric, unhinged conspiracy theories, anti-government sentiment and a militant gun culture have created fertile ground for political violence. The country is not powerless to stop the spread of lawlessness but it requires addressing those precursors to violence.

Many of those elements swirled around a visit by Mr. Trump this week to a gun store in South Carolina that this summer sold an AR-15-style rifle to a man who later carried out a racist mass shooting at a dollar store. During his visit, Mr. Trump hefted a custom Glock handgun with his face etched onto the handle. Though he said he wanted to buy one of the weapons theyre big sellers! it is unclear if he could legally do so since he is under indictment.

Mr. Trumps whims and erratic online missives should not be dismissed as Trump being Trump. Take his call this month for House Republicans to shut down the government. Mr. Trump egged them on, urging them to settle for nothing less than their full slate of demands, including forcing the Justice Department to end its investigations of him. He called it the last chance to defund these political prosecutions against me and other Patriots.

While a government shutdown wouldnt end the federal prosecutions of Mr. Trump, a Trump presidency could easily do so. After all, there are few moral or legal hurdles left to clear after pardoning war criminals.

There are many nations where citizens live in fear of governments that wield unchecked and arbitrary authority against their enemies, real or imagined. That is the America that Mr. Trump is promising his supporters. When Mr. Trump told supporters I am your retribution, all Americans should take him at his word.

Defeating Mr. Trump at the ballot box is going to require a lot more political courage than it takes to put flashes of honesty in the pages of a memoir. The former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson is the latest in a long line of memoirists, declaring in an interview on Tuesday for her new book that Mr. Trump is the most grave threat we will face to our democracy in our lifetime, and potentially in American history.

True enough. Which is why Americans cant wait until January 2025, and another shelf of memoirs, to hear the truth that so many Republicans have long known.

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. Wed like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And heres our email: letters@nytimes.com.

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Opinion | Donald Trumps Campaign of Violence and Lawlessness - The New York Times

There’s a word for a man who is afraid to show up: coward.

Former President Donald Trump is a coward when it comes to debating his primary opponents.

Don’t get me wrong: Sometimes cowards win. For example, the governor of Arizona refused to debate her opponent last year, and she’s the current governor of Arizona. In politics, as in sports, it doesn’t matter if you win by one or by 1 million.

But in politics, especially presidential politics, courage matters.

A rather large part of Trump’s appeal in 2016 was his seeming fearlessness. He was willing to say things that were not poll-tested. In some cases, conventional wisdom held that his comments would prove disastrous for any candidate to utter them, even if they reflected things that many people were thinking.

Trump’s willingness to speak out, even at the possible cost of offending everyone, was endearing in a very weird way. It’s also what made his rallies must-see television.

Trump is no longer a political novice or “just a businessman.” He is now a politician, because that’s what happens when you become president. And the “aw, shucks, I’m new to all this” attitude doesn’t play for him now the same as it did in 2016. As a politician, Trump didn’t just fall off the turnip truck.

In 2016, when Trump said things that tied the tongues of his primary opponents or even Hillary Clinton, it was both fun and funny. But at a certain point, the president has to be at least a little presidential. So does a former president. Attitude is a poor substitute for substance the second time around.

Trump is far ahead in the polls. The only thing with greater separation between Trump and his competitors are the Republican nominating contests themselves. The argument that Trump doesn’t need to debate because of his current lead is a poor one. Early poll “winners” such as Scott Walker and Howard Dean can tell you how that worked out.

And don’t forget that Trump did skip a 2016 debate. He might have lost the Iowa caucuses as a consequence, as he himself acknowledged afterward.

Trump really isn’t campaigning much at all. He holds occasional rallies, but those aren’t designed to broaden his appeal. They’re mostly just airings of his grievances. Attendees this time around are his devoted faithful, not curious and undecided voters.

And Trump’s currently strong polling in the general election is more a reflection of just how bad at the job President Joe Biden has been. It has nothing to do with the public yearning for Trump or any other Republican.

In the abstract, it is enough right now not to be Biden, especially since Trump isn’t really making much of a case for himself. That won’t remain true for long.

In most of Trump’s campaign speeches and interviews (regardless of the question), he whines about the media and lies about his opponents — mostly Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R). Somehow, DeSantis was closer to Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, during COVID-19 than Trump, even though DeSantis quickly began to ignore Fauci’s decrees, whereas Trump basically turned over his administration to Fauci.

Lying about someone when they’re not there to refute it is easy. Having that person on stage next to you is a whole different ballgame.

Being on stage means having to answer for contradicting your previous stance on abortion. It means having to answer for Fauci. It means having to answer for dozens of personnel decisions that retroactively became “horrible” because the hires ultimately disagreed with you. It means having to explain totalitarian-sounding declarations about using the presidency to unleash government on your political enemies — even if they deserve it on strictly karmic terms — or attacking the First Amendment.

Most importantly, debating means having to articulate specifics about a vision for the future. Thus far, Trump’s argument seems to be that he deserves to be rewarded for previous deeds. While things were certainly better under Trump than they are now, the presidency is not a thank-you card for deeds you did years ago.

Trump shouldn’t debate, his supporters say, because there’s nowhere for him to go but down. That’s not true, though. He could wipe out everyone else, if he prepared and performed well.

That’s what I think he’s really afraid of.

If he doesn’t show up because the others aren’t “legitimate” contenders, then Biden is empowered to do the same. Legitimacy, after all, is in the eye of the beholder.

Biden doesn’t want to be on stage with Trump for largely the same reasons Trump doesn’t want to be on stage with other Republican candidates. If Trump won’t do it, why would Biden? Then it becomes a campaign of two old men hurling personal insults on social media, which is exactly what Democrats want — a rerun of 2020.

President Trump, man up and debate — if only to show the voters you still can.

Derek Hunter is host of the Derek Hunter Podcast and a former staffer for the late Sen. Conrad Burns (R-Mont.).

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Donald Trump is a coward for not debating tonight - The Hill