Donald Trump has placed himself at further risk of losing control of properties such as his Mar-a-Lago resort following his testimony in the New York civil fraud trial, according to an attorney.
Speaking on a podcast hosted by Mary Trump, niece and frequent critic of the former president, Joe Gallina suggested things “could not have gone worse” for Trump after he answered questions under oath about his financial statements on Monday.
Trump is accused by New York Attorney General Letitia James of filing fraudulent financial records for years which inflated the value of his properties and assets in order to obtain favorable bank loans and tax breaks. Trump denies all wrongdoing in connection to James’ $250 million lawsuit.
Judge Arthur Engoron, who is overseeing the civil trial in New York, has already ruled that Trump had committed fraud by misrepresenting the value of his properties for years. The civil trial is now considering six remaining allegations in James’ lawsuit, as well as the size of the penalty.
Yeah, for the scale he’s done, they’d already be in jail. Ditto for the disgraceful court conduct.
However, he’s a former president and is running again. Which hasn’t happened before. Sure they have been governors at least as bad as him* but they were either never caught or never tried to run for president.
*See the Govenor of Virginia that gave Washington the conflicting, illegal orders that started the Seven Years War(aka French Indian war. Who was so openly corrupt the other colonies refused to do business with Virginia because he’d pocket the money.
Should running for office really matter? If you break the law and everybody shrugs at it, that sends a message that the law doesn’t matter, or that it’s a two tiered system, that only applies to us pleebs.
We all know the law is a two tiered system, and we’ve known for a while, but to be so open about it really breaks trust in our institutions, which is the crux of the issue. Institutions are a social contract, and it’s being brazenly broken right now.
Once a social contract is broken, and trust in the system isn’t there, you’re in danger of the whole system collapsing.
Don’t believe me? You can look at the CIA/FBI reports on this very subject. They are seeing the very signs they look for in foreign countries collapse, except they are here happening at home.
Personally, yes, it should. The law should be harsher on them.
Long term it’s probably decaying public trust, short term: no matter the asshole they’ve got people that voted for them.
I’m not too sure that America is even thinking about it’s future anymore and we’ve got a ton of momentum.