Dem
51
GOP
49
Three songs predominantly in German have made the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in the United States. One of those is "99 Luftballons" by Nena. If you'd care to see if you can guess at least one of the other two, we'll put the titles below. One of the answers is doable, while the other is... tough. In any event, the 99 balloons in the Nena song float away, so you know they're full of hot air. And they're German, of course. Also of German heritage and full of hot air? Donald Trump. Particularly on Sunday night, which is why we chose that song.
It was not 100% clear that Trump would appear in person for the first day of his New York civil fraud trial, but he did. And he decided to get things going early by hopping on his social media platform for some ranting and raving. We're talking 1:00 a.m. here, so clearly it was a sleepless night. Here's a sample:
Judge Engoron’s Valuation of Mar-a-Lago, the most spectacular property in Palm Beach, Florida, IS FRAUDULENT! He states a value of 18 Million Dollars, knowing full well that it is worth, perhaps, 50 to 100 times that amount. Engoron is working diligently to misrepresent me, and my net worth, which is substantially MORE than is shown on my fully “disclaimed” Financial Statements. I have not even included my most valuable asset – BRAND! He should resign from the “Bench” and be sanctioned by the Courts for his abuse of power, and his intentional and criminal interference with the Presidential Election of 2024, of which I am leading all candidates, both Republican & Democrat, by significant margins. Likewise, Letitia James should resign for purposeful and criminal Election Interference. She is fully aware that Mar-a-Lago, and other assets, are worth much more than what she is claiming. Both of these Democrat Operatives are a disgrace to New York, and to the United States of America!
It's gotta be a Trump original, as opposed to the work of a staffer, given the run-on, nearly incoherent style of the thing.
Trump also blasted the judge multiple times, in person, while talking to reporters yesterday. Generally speaking, it's not wise to badmouth a judge before a jury trial, since the judge makes so many important decisions affecting the defense. An even worse idea, however, is to badmouth a judge before a bench trial, which is what this one will be. That's right. As Judge Arthur Engoron announced at the start of the proceedings yesterday, there will be no jury because neither side asked for one.
This is a correct statement, of course, but it comes with a caveat. There is a form that is filed at the start of a New York trial, which you can see here:
As you can see, New York AG Letitia James and her team did not see a need for a jury trial. The form filed by Team Trump didn't ask for a jury trial, either. So, no jury!
But that brings us to the caveat. Quite a few outlets are reporting this news along the lines of "Trump hires crappy lawyers, and now he's paying for it, because they made a bush-league mistake." Not so fast. Quite a few legal experts think that Trump couldn't have had a jury trial even if he asked for one. Here's our New York lawyer-reader R.E.M. in Brooklyn:
I've read various commentary about how Trump's lawyers erred by failing to file a timely jury demand, but because section 63(12) and its remedies were unknown at common law, and because the AG is asking only for equitable relief (orders of dissolution, receivership and disgorgement) instead of legal damage relief, no jury trial is available under the New York Constitution.
Second, even if Trump's team believed he was entitled to a jury trial, they might have determined that a bench trial was the better play (say, because the New York City jury pool is very un-Trumpy). Add it up, and what Engoron was effectively announcing was: "Well, nobody asked for a jury trial, so we don't have to waste time arguing about whether one is even available."
Trump does have some legal legs that he will try to stand on, as indicated by the opening statements. His counsel made the classic "everyone does it this way" argument, which seems unlikely to fly, but you never know. Engoron, for his part, noted that the trial could run into some statute of limitations problems in terms of some of the testimony. If the judge himself is bringing it up, that seems a more likely argument to succeed, even if it's not enough to torpedo the whole case.
But even if there's a very slight potential silver lining here and there for Trump, he still looks to be in a world of hurt, especially considering he's already lost on one of the counts against him. Back to R.E.M.:
This is deep in the legal weeds, but sometimes you and the readers seem to appreciate this kind of crawling around. Last week's order from Judge Engoron found that there is no dispute of fact, even considering the heightened civil fraud standard of proof in New York of "clear and convincing evidence." It is very rare to win a fraud claim on summary judgment since "fraudulent intent" is an element.
The order is devastating—a corporate death penalty for Trump's entities. And it's not just property located in New York that is affected. It is "ORDERED that any certificates filed under and by virtue of GBL § 130 (which allow them to do business as New York entities) by any of the entity defendants or by any other entity controlled or beneficially owned by Donald J. Trump, Donald Trump, Jr., Eric Trump, Allen Weisselberg, and Jeffrey McConney are canceled" (emphasis added). That means Trump cannot do business with any existing entity he controls.
In the next paragraph, the order directs the appointment of a Receiver "to manage the dissolution of the canceled LLCs," that is, an independent person/entity is going to liquidate all of the Trump entities' property, not just Trump Tower, 40 Wall Street, and other New York real estate, but everything: Mar-a-Lago, the Scottish golf course, Bedminster. Early on in the case, Trump tried to transfer some of his assets to a non-New York entity, but was prevented from doing so by the judge.
Now, that said, Justice Engoron was pressed by Chris Kise (a now-sanctioned Trump lawyer) whether the order meant sale of the properties, or if the Receiver could manage them. Kise also asked about entities allegedly not connected to the Attorney General's suit, such as those that own Junior's and Eric's apartments. Justice Engoron said he wasn't prepared to rule, so he could modify the order to let some of the entities live and maybe even operate under the Receiver (and the Appellate Division and Court of Appeals also have a free hand to modify the findings and the remedies). But Kise is right about the broad scope of the order on its face.
What it amounts to is that Trump either needs to do very well in this trial, or he needs to have success on appeal, or (more probably) he needs both, or he's likely going to be left in ruins, financially.
Given how much is at stake here, why would Trump behave so foolishly, and do everything possible to aggravate the judge? We've thought about it, and here are our three theories:
Who knows if it's one or more of these things, or if it's something else we did not think of. This trial's going to take a while, because it's going to get weedy, so we'll have to be patient while we wait to see how it turns out. (Z)