“Total”, or in Trumpspeak TOTAL is one of the more frequently used ‘very best words’ in his limited vocabulary. As in TOTAL Loser. Or when he ekes out a win or what might pass for one TOTAL Win, Victory or Success. So, naturally when an appeals court in New York state set aside the massive judgement in the fraud trial he lost he claimed TOTAL VICTORY. One would expect New York’s AG Letecia James to appeal and she’s doing so. However, Trumpty too is appealing the decision! For those of us who paid close attention the reason is only the amount of the settlement was set aside. The conviction on the actual fraud Trump and the Trump Org committed still stands.
If this sounds strange, or complicated I can see why. This article from MSNBC offers some clarity. Think of it this way. You probably are familiar with someone losing a Civil Case and being assigned a financial penalty they have to pay to the plaintiff. It’s fairly common for the amount of damages to get reduced. Sometimes when the award is set by a jury the judge reduces it. In this case the amount of damages was determined by the judge (Arthur Engoron) in the case.
For all Trump’s huffing and puffing and threatening to blow his house down during and after the trial Engoron stood firm. For legal reasons the bond Trump had to put up to stay payment during his appeal topped $460 million which would accrue interest during the process. For those who don’t remember Trump couldn’t come up with a legitimate bond agent that would front the money. Eventually undeserved pity was taken on him and he got the bond reduced to $175 million.
So the appeal and Trump being able to delay paying for his (in this case Civil) crimes has been on appeal. Appeals courts/judges like to flaunt their “August Status” and take their sweet-assed time but last week finally got around to issuing an opinion. It was 323 torturous pages long because in part they couldn’t seem to agree on what the damages should actually be and three different justifications were in the tome. Somehow each of those who wrote an opinion got two others on the five judge panel to go along. From MSNBC’s article:
Appellate Division justices themselves acknowledged the possibility that their jumble of opinions wouldn’t be the last word. Their three separate decisions each had different rationales, none of them garnering a true majority on the five-justice panel. Two of the justices wrote that they only reluctantly joined two others for the purposes of technically rendering a decision, to allow “the option of further review of this matter by the Court of Appeals.”
From the linked article several things seem clear. First, every one of the judges knew theirs wouldn’t be the last word, and that the New York Court of Appeals (what they call their state’s Supreme Court) would see the case. They just wanted to get their part of it over with and pass the buck upstairs. While I’m speculating I doubt you’d disagree the second is that given the rampage Trump is on using the DOJ as his personal legal hit squad they’d prefer not to put their name to any number higher than a dollar in damages. FYI sometimes there have actually been cases where the awarded damages were only a single dollar.
That leads me to the third and most important part of the decision and why AG James is also claiming (partial at least) victory. The ‘mid-level’ appeals court upheld the fraud conviction. Trump did get a significant win with Engoron’s initial damages being set aside (although some level of damages can be restored later) but James’ statement also noted she’d won something significant:
In it, she embraced the Appellate Division’s ruling for affirming that Trump, his company and his sons Eric and Don Jr. “are liable for fraud,” and for upholding limits on the Trumps’ ability to do business in the state. Though James didn’t directly mention the massive money loss, her statement ended by saying her office “will seek appeal to the Court of Appeals and continue to protect the rights and interests of New Yorkers.”
So it’s off to the Court of Appeals who I predict will be in no hurry to hear arguments, much less issue a ruling. Like Melania they will probably ask themselves each day ‘will THIS be the day he dies?” Trump kicking the bucket wouldn’t invalidate the case as unless I’m mistaken the Trump Org (owned by Trump) is on the hook here. I don’t think I’m crazy to think that instead of Trump being the one to use every available tactic to string this out it will be the Court of Appeals. IF he keeps defying Mother Nature and stays among the living perhaps around this time in 2028 we’ll get a ruling. At that point DOJ can start something but won’t be able to finish it. My guess is that in the end that $175 million bond will be what Trump/The Trump Org pays. With interest. A LOT of interest after so many years!
…and that’s a wrap. it’s over and Trump or Trump org or whoever whatever will never pay a dime to NY dead or alive and you know it.