Limey with the last 6 posts. Calm down, we all know Donald Trump will not go to jail no matter how bad you want him to go. Do you ever think of anything/anyone other than The Donald?
The Commandant of the Marine Corps - General Eric Smith - has been working 18-hour days as the appointment of an assistant is one of the positions being blocked by Tuberville. This isnāt just meaningless posturing by Tuberville - there is a real world impact of all of this.
To wit:
Of course, while Smith is down - potentially as a result of the stress put on him by Tubervilleās blockade of the appointment of an assistant - there isnāt anyone who can easily take on his duties as the position of his assistant is the subject of Tubervilleās blockade.
Tonight in the Senate, it looks like there are some Republicans who may be moved to join with the Democrats to end this nonsense. They should do this, then take Tuberville to the bathroom and beat him with bars of soap.
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BuT ThE QoP iS sO PRo MilItARy.
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Don Jr. wraps up his testimony today, to be followed by Eric.
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Are those the guys asking the questions today?
Don Jr. being shown a series of loan documents that he signed as āattorney in factā for his father, by which he was attesting that āthe foregoing presents fairly in all material respects the financial condition of Guarantor at the period presented.ā
Also, hereās the latest sketch of Jr. by the courtroom artist.
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The net cash flow of the Trump Org in 2017 was $2.2 million. For a company with ābillions and billionsā of assets, that seems to me to be miniscule.
As I have always said, Trump lives on cash flow and thereās no real wealth here.
I would be interested to see how Joe āthe big guyā Biden classified his funds he received from Burisma.
Jr. is done. Defense had no cross examination.
The prosecution walked Jr. through very dry, document-based questioning by which those who stayed awake were presented with damning admission after damning admission. Jr. signed a multitude of documents where he attests to the accuracy of the SOFCs and his only defense was that he had nothing to do with the preparation of the documents and doesnāt remember signing them.
The thing is, the punishment here is disgorgement, so Jrās āIām too lazy/stupid to crimeā defense is irrelevant. If you buy, in good faith, an antique diamond necklace that turns out to have been stolen, you donāt get to keep the necklace. Here, the Trump Org āstoleā - per testimony yesterday - about $170 million in financial benefits to which they were not eligible, that they only received due to their deceit. So they have to give back the $170 million.
Why this is such a big thing is because $170 million is a lot of money for a company that has only $2.2 million in net cash flow annually. Once the piper has to be paid - the defendants have already been found guilty on the main part of this case, remember - theyāre going to have to sell assets to settle the case. Given that they dramatically inflated values of properties on which the loans were based, and the banks have liens on them, itās entirely likely they will be significantly underwater on many properties.
This is why this is an existential crisis for the Trump Org. And given that Trump Sr. lives in properties owned by the business and lives off cash flow generated by those properties, he will be broke and homeless when this is all over.
Ericās up now. Yeah, the stupid one. Hereās a sample:
Maybe this part should be in juvenile court.
Remember, this testimony is being given to a judge, not a jury. He is trying to determine how much of the Trump Orgās wealth is the result of the already proven fraud.
If a plumber took a second mortgage on his condo to buy a truck for his business, he would be subject to fraud charges and other sanctions if he misrepresented the value of his property. Heās a plumber, not a property and finance organization like the Trump Org. Trump and his sons are in the property and finance business. They should be held at least as accountable as the plumber.
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Eric dying the death by a thousand paper cuts from receipts.
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That judge is going to hold all the lying against them. So unfair!
In the 5 mins or so that Trump Sr. has spent on the stand, the judge has already found him ānot credibleā. Next weekās testimony is going to be pure theatre.
Meanwhile, theyāve filed another appeal against Ivankaās subpoena to testify. She wonāt wriggle off this hook, and may well end up pleading the 5th.
Iām confused by this trial, why would they need to plead the 5th, or what would they gain by doing so? Any malfeasance they admit on the stand is attributed to the Trump Org, correct?
Another thing I donāt get is why all the Trumps feel like playing stupid about everything helps? The org as a whole is the party on trial, just because they admit theyāre stupid and/or donāt pay attention to important things doesnāt absolve the org, correct?
I havenāt been following the case very closely, but anytime thereās organizational criminal fraud thereās a chance for there to be individual criminal liability as well, which, absent some sort of immunity, could justify an individual taking the 5th.
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What Bench said. Also, Ivanka sued to be removed from the case because her involvement in the crimes Org pre-dated the events in this case. If she answers too many, or any, questions she could find herself back in the case.
I think theyāre trying to walk the tightrope between not admitting anything and making it worse, and not pleading the 5th and making it worse. This being a civil case, the judge can take an adverse inference from any invocations 5th amendment protections.
Also, these are the idiot sons who āranā the company while Sr. was president. Iām sure their whole careers at the Trump Org involved saying what daddy told them to say and signing what daddy told them to sign - including while he was on sabbatical. Daddy is going to throw them both under a bus next week Succession style, and itās going to be brutal.
Eric is being forced - by presentation of evidence - to admit that the testimony he gave at his deposition was wrong. Heās popped off at the prosecutor a couple of times now, but the vice on his balls continues to get tightened.