Dem
51
GOP
49
Boy do we have a lot of action today. The House is in turmoil, SCOTUS is back on the job, and to top it off, Donald Trump goes on trial today. A trial that will be decided by a judge (not a jury) and the judge in question, Arthur Engoron, has already officially ruled that Trump's company repeatedly committed fraud year after year. Not exactly a Trump-friendly judge. Trump will have to wait until May or later to get a case with a Trump-friendly judge, Aileen Cannon, and in that case, it will be a jury, not the judge, that makes the final call.
There are rumors that Trump will show up in Engoron's courtroom today. Then he will be sitting just a few feet from a judge he has called "deranged, unhinged, and a political hack." At debates, Trump just talks over the other candidates. We are going to go out on a limb here and predict that if Trump tries to shout at Engoron when he is talking, the judge will not cower and whimper "I'm sorry, Mr. President. I will be more careful from now on."
Among other things, the trial will focus on the penalties that will be imposed on Trump for his pattern of fraud. ew York AG Letitia James is seeking a fine of $250 million, but the judge could make that $10 million or $1 billion at his discretion, although that decision is sure to be appealed. The judge could also ban Trump from ever being an officer or director of any company in New York and force him to sell all his New York properties within some (short) period of time. Or the judge could skip that step and appoint a receiver to sell the properties without Trump being able to stop it.
Justice Engoron graduated from Columbia University with a B.A. in English literature, then got a J.D. from NYU. He has had an eclectic career. He has driven a taxi cab and played in a band. Years ago, he also protested the Vietnam War. He was elected to serve on the New York County Civil Court in 2003 and was reelected in 2012. He was appointed as an acting justice on the New York Supreme Court in 2013 and elected as a regular justice in 2015. So he has been a judge for 20 years. He once wrote a manual for the Small Claims Court. Now he is in the Big Claims Court. During his 15 minutes of fame, starting today, he will be the most famous judge in the country. Here is his photo.
When this trial is over, Trump can watch the trial of Ken Chesebro and Sidney Powell on Oct. 23. He will probably be interested in whether they have flipped, and if not, what evidence the prosecution will use against them because they will use the same evidence against him.
Then, on Jan. 15, the second defamation case brought by writer E. Jean Carroll will begin. He was found liable for defaming her once and then kept doing it. On March 4, Jack Smith gets a shot at him in the conspiracy cases. Alvin Bragg's case about the hush-money payments is scheduled for March 25, but will probably be delayed. Then on May 20 we get the Mar-a-Lago documents case. In between all the cases, Trump can campaign if he likes. Offhand, we can't remember any presidential candidate who was on trial in half a dozen places for half a dozen reasons in half a dozen months, but maybe we've missed a couple. We'll check on it; after all, that bastard Millard Fillmore was a real ne'er-do-well. (V)