Donald Trump had a really, really bad day yesterday in a whole bunch of courts. Yeah, we know you’re real broke up about it, but try to contain your distress for a moment so we can talk about it like grownass adults — albeit grownass adults who watched that filthy sumbitch wreck the country and get away with rampant corruption for six straight years.
The big news is obviously the massive civil suit against the Trump family and their eponymous company by New York Attorney General Letitia James. James laid out what appears to be convincing evidence that the Trumps systematically lied about the value of their assets, inflating them to get loans and insurance, and claiming properties were worth nothing when it came time to pay taxes.
HE DEAD: New York AG Tish James Sues To End All Trump Business Like A Common Trump Charity
In response, Trump had his predictable shitfit on the only website which will have him.
“Another Witch Hunt by a racist Attorney General Letitia James, who failed in her run for governor, getting almost zero support from the public, and now is doing poorly against Law & Order A.G. candidate, highly respected Michael Henry,” he screeched out on his janky Twitter knockoff site, later referring to the AG as “Peekaboo,” which probably makes sense if you snort an entire tube of bronzer before you start typing.
“Today’s filing is neither focused on the facts nor the law — rather, it is solely focused on advancing the Attorney General’s political agenda,” snarked lawyer Alina Habba, who represented Trump in his failed attempt to fend off the NYAG investigation. “It is abundantly clear that the Attorney General’s Office has exceeded its statutory authority by prying into transactions where absolutely no wrongdoing has taken place. We are confident that our judicial system will not stand for this unchecked abuse of authority, and we look forward to defending our client against each and every one of the Attorney General’s meritless claims.”
HABBA! Trump Lawyers Wilding Out As New York AG Looks Ready To Drop The Hammer
Which is big talk for someone who got her ass handed to her already in federal and state court as she desperately but ineffectively tried to stop her client from having to testify. Because, while you always have the right to remain silent, in a civil suit, your silence can be used against you. So in the unlikely event that this case ever goes to trial, state prosecutors can and will invite the jury to take a negative inference from the actual thousands of times Trump and his three eldest children took the Fifth. Womp womp.
And speaking of a negative inference, Habba herself got a shout out in the lawsuit as the AG noted that the search warrant at Mar-a-Lago seems to have turned up some documents relevant to her investigation — information which Trump’s lawyer attested under oath did not exist.
Documents concerning taxes and accounting information would appear to be responsive to OAG’s subpoenas, but no such documents for Mr. Trump were produced by counsel for Mr. Trump despite a representation by that counsel that: I “diligently searched each and every room of Respondent’s private residence located at Mar-a-Lago, including all desks, drawers, nightstands, dressers, closets, etc. I was unable to locate any documents responsive to the Subpoena that have not already been produced to the OAG by the Trump Organization.”
In fact, it was a banner day all ’round for Habba and her client, who got the first of what will undoubtedly be manymotions for sanctions under Rule 11 after her insane RICO LOLsuit in Florida against Hillary Clinton and two dozen other parties got yeeted into the sun for being what the judge called “a two-hundred-page political manifesto outlining his grievances against those that have opposed him, and this Court is not the appropriate forum.”
Also in Florida, the Eleventh Circuit dropkicked US District Judge Aileen Cannon’s special master order only insofar as it pertained to the classified documents seized at Mar-a-Lago pursuant to a warrant on August 8. The appellate panel’s utter disdain for Judge Cannon’s reasoning, not to mention for Trump’s idiotic claim to have secretly declassified the documents by astral projection, is a very bad sign for Trump. Because the opinion so thoroughly rubbishes Judge Cannon’s justification for her own jurisdiction in this case that the Justice Department may well docket a full appeal asking the Circuit Court to find that the district judge had no power to appoint a special master at all. (Remember, this was an emergency appeal seeking a partial stay, not a full challenge to the order in its entirety.)
LOT GOING ON HERE! CATCH UP! 11th Circuit Says Trump And His Favorite Judges All Morons, Investigation May Proceed
TRUMP DECLASSIFYING DOCUMENTS IN HIS BRAIN RIGHT NOW, CAN YOU TELL? IT IS THIS FACE HE MAKES!
As for his wheeze about possible declassification, the court notes dryly that “the record contains no evidence that any of these records were declassified. And before the special master, Plaintiff resisted providing any evidence that he had declassified any of these documents.”
“In any event, at least for these purposes, the declassification argument is a red herring because declassifying an official document would not change its content or render it personal,” they go on. “So even if we assumed that Plaintiff did declassify some or all of the documents, that would not explain why he has a personal interest in them.”
This cuts against whatever ridiculous executive claim Trump is going to try to assert to stop the FBI — which is a part of the executive branch — from looking at the seized documents. And in case that wasn’t totally clear, the appellate panel notes that the requirement to safeguard classified information, even by a person with a right of access to it, “pertains equally to former Presidents, unless the current administration, in its discretion, chooses to waive that requirement.”
That is not a good sign for Donald Trump. In fact, none of this is good for the former president. For the country, however, it’s another story.
[People of New York v. Donald J. Trump / 11th Circuit Order]
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