As I wrote earlier today, the New York judge today issued a summary judgement for New York Attorney General Letitia James on the fraud issue in her civil lawsuit against Trump, his sons, and the Trump organization. The trial will begin as scheduled on Monday, since there are still six outstanding issues to be determined, such as wire fraud, bank fraud, and insurance fraud, as well as the amount of the damages the Trump organization will have to pay.
But there are a spiders web of hidden land mines in there, waiting to blow his leg off, depending on which way the verdict goes. And the inferences are staggering. Let’s just look at a few of them now.
First of all, in his summary judgement today, the judge ordered that the New York business licenses of Trump, Don Jr., and Eric. It’s not that difficult to get a business license in New York, so you really gotta f*ck up to lose it. But it basically means that neither Trump nor his sons can operate a business in New York. Common sense says that the Trump Organization must be dissolved, and any physical Trump holdings in New York must be sold, since he can no longer run them. But it also opens up a whole can of worms for his other properties.
We’ll ignore Mar-A-Lago for now, since there’s something up about it having been sold, although my understanding is that NY AG James is disputing that sale as trying to shed and hide assets. God alone knows how long that will take to unwind in the courts. Let’s just stick with what we know.
Trump Bedminster is in New Jersey. He has a schlock putt-putt golf resort in Virginia. Trump Doral is in Florida. He has a trashy condo tower in Las Vegas, and who knows what else spread throughout the country. The NY AG’s New York suit is exactly that, it applies only in New York. So what about those other properties.
Well, they all have one thing in common. You’re required to have a business license to operate them. But just like lawyers barred in one state can get visitor privileges to argue a case in another state, I’m betting that the same thing goes for real estate, and he’s been running all of these properties through his company umbrella, using his New York business license. Which is now gone.
How does he operate them? If he was running them from New York on his New York business license, and that’s gone, what does he do now? Considering the fact that he has just been found civilly liable for fraud, and his New York business license has been revoked, can you imagine him going to Florida, or New Jersey, or Nevada or Virginia, and trying to obtain a business license there? Good luck with that one. I don’t know how those properties can do anything but go into receivership to be sold off. If any of you wiser souls have alternatives, please wise me up in the comments. This is driving me nuts.
That being said, even though he’s likely queered up a possible Florida venue by hurting Tinkerbell DeSantis’s feelings, there’s nothing to stop him from going to a Trump friendly state like Texas to set up business and get a business license. But that likely doesn’t help matters any. For one simple reason.
Trump is the self proclaimed King of Debt. And once the receivership supervisor and the forensic accountants start getting accurate estimates of the actual value of Trump’s properties, and start selling them off to pay the lenders, it’s going to turn out that Traitor Tot doesn’t have two nickels to rub together.
But if Trump sets up a new company to start sailing the Caribbean as a real estate pirate, he’s going to need financing. And it’s going to have to be heavy financing, since if he’s found guilty in New York state, he’s looking at a $250 million penalty or more.
Which is where the Kiss of Death kicks in. If Trump and his monkey spawn are convicted in the civil trial, James has asked for two poison pills to kick in. The first would bar any defendant from sitting on the board of any New York company for a minimum of 10 years. And more importantly, it would bar the defendant from applying for a loan from Any New York based bank for a minimum of five years.
I know, I know. Trump is sitting in Texas, who cares about New York banks. OK. Riddle me this, Riddler. Name me a major US bank, one capable of making multimillion dollar business loans that isn’t headquartered in New York? Sweet Jesus, even international banks like Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank have headquarters in New York! It’s the banking capitol of the world. And the penalty in the trial bars him from asking for a loan from a New York based bank for at least five years. I dunno, maybe the bank of Zimbabwe is interested in a sweet deal?
And here’s the critical thing to remember. Trump is charged under New York state laws, and the case is being heard in New York state court. If Trump loses, he can of course appeal, which he has already sworn to do in today’s summary judgement, but only as high as the New York Supreme Court. The US Supreme Court wouldn’t touch this one with fire tongs.
At my age, every day I try to find one thing in the future to live for. Up until now it has been Trump’s first criminal conviction. But after the stunning court decision today, I’ve had to push that back. Now I want to live long enough to see the final resolution of this case, when his sons end up flipping burgers at Wendy’s, and Trump is reduced to a sad, pathetic, broken old man with nothing but past glories to cling on to. Oh yeah, and I want him to live long enough to experience it, too. Hell, I never said that I wasn’t shallow.
Didn’t Trump bring this judgement early on himself by applying for the summary judgement?
And now he’s got it.
That’s karma right there.
The judge denied Trump’s summary judgement. In granting AG James’ summary judgement, he sanctioned most of his lawyers. I think Trump’s goose is cooked in this case. As for financing, MBS from Saudi Arabia, China, and Russia are actively planning to put him back in office. I’m sure they are falling all over themselves to throw money his way. Hell, MBS might just buy his corp. and run them himself. Of course, letting Trump be “the boss”.
The highest court in New York State is the COURT of APPEALS, not the Supreme Court.
It’s the New York Court of Appeal. Not “Appeals.”
I don’t think any major bank is headquartered in New York. the main offices are there but they are all officially chartered in states with laxer banking laws like Delaware and South Dakota. I doubt that the ceo of citi has ever set foot in Sioux falls but I believe that is where the home office is. attached used to have a credit card which I worked for. credit cards have to have an underlying bank. the home office for the bank was in a converted janitors closet in an att building in I think it was Augusta Georgia and a retired elderly lady was paid to sit there eight hours a day watching TV because they had to have someone in the home office. the actual work was done in new York, Jacksonville and salt lake city but the bank was officially headquartered in Georgia because of the banking laws there.
Gee, couldn’t he ask Jared for some of that $2 billion the Saudis gave him?
Didn’t he “save” some of those Secret Documents for sale later on? Seems later on could be right now.
Seeing his ‘businesses’ are being shuttered, will the banks now call in any outstanding loans made to any (or all) of the Trump clan?
They’ll have claims against the assets as creditors, same as in a bankruptcy.