Month: June 2023

What happens to Trump today?

by Dave

Donald Trump and Walt Nauta, his personal assistant, will voluntarily turn themselves in to the federal court in Miami today, June 13. The proceedings begin at 3:00 pm. They are expected to plead not guilty on all charges.

Trump and his associates will enter through an underground garage, so there will be no news coverage of him entering and leaving the building. He will not be required to post bail.

Trump will be accompanied by his lawyer, Todd Blanche. He can not practice law in Florida, but the Judge may allow him to represent Trump during the very brief arraignment. The arraignment will take place in the Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. Courthouse.

Also, Trump’s personal assistant, Walt Nauta, will be charged with 6 counts as he helped Trump hide boxes of documents and lied to the FBI. He previously served the US in the Navy. There is considerable speculation that he will flip on Trump, if prosecutors offer him a deal. But, this might not be the case, as the prosecution might not really need his cooperation.

See link for additional information:

Link: https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/13/politics/trump-court-appearance-what-to-watch/index.html

Today’s event is historic. Trump will likely have a press conference tonight and will likely call the arraignment a disgrace, and claim that Biden is trying to lock him up, so he can not run for president. He will claim there is a double standard, and he is being targeted unfairly.

The reason that Attorney General appointed a Special Counsel, is to shield the investigation from politics and go where the evidence leads them.

The indictment clearly shows that he personally was involved in taking top secret documents and later hiding them authorities and even his own lawyer. It is a total contradiction for Trump to claim that he had a clear right to the documents under the law, and then take part in an effort to hide them from everyone.

Stay tuned,

Dave

Lawsuits against Trump and his businesses

by Dave

There are two civil cases and four criminal cases against Trump.

See link: What are the legal cases against Trump?

On May 9, 2023, Trump was found guilty of defamation of E. Jean Carroll (Civil case) by falsely denying he sexually assaulted her and ordered to pay 5 million dollars. He continued the attack on her character after the verdict, and she asked that the judgement be raised to 10 million dollars. Trump is appealing the case.

Of all the six cases, the E. Jean Carroll case is probably the least of his worries, because it only involves money and 5 to 10 million dollars to Trump is no big deal. But, losing is a big deal to Trump.

The next civil case against Trump is from the New York State Attorney General, Letitia James, and it concerns business fraud in New York State committed by misrepresenting the value of property to lenders (high valuations) and tax authorities (low valuations). It is due to go to trial in October 2023, and the defendants in this case also include the Trump organization, Eric Trump, Donald Jr. and Ivanka. AG James seeks to permanently bar the Trumps from doing business in New York State, and for defendants to pay 250 million dollars.

Now, come the four “biggies” which should keep the Donald up at night because they are criminal and could send Trump to prison for years. He is due in court on June 13, 2023 to be arraigned on 37 counts in the Mar-a-Lago documents case. This is an evolving story and everyone is guessing of when the trial will take place. The case is being prosecuted by the Special Counsel, Jack Smith, who recently announced the grand jury indictment. It is likely Trump’s lawyers will ask for more time to prepare for a defense. The trial will take place in Florida.

Special Counsel Jack Smith is also investigating the possible criminal activities of Donald Trump in relation to the riot in the Capitol on January 6 and events following the attack. It is expected he will bring charges against Trump and others later this year.

Criminal charges against Trump for election interference in Georgia are expected by Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis, between July 11 to September 1, 2023. A grand jury has completed its work, but the details have not yet been revealed. See link above for details on this case.

Trump has been indicted in the Stormy Daniels Hush Money scandal and a trial is set to begin on March 24, 2023. The prosecutor will be Alvin Braggs, Manhattan district attorney.

All totaled 6 cases, of which I would think the two cases from Special Counsel and the one from Fulton County, GA have the highest potential for Trump to do some serious time in jail.

One last one on my list is an investigation of the deal to create Truth Social using a SPAC (Special Purpose Acquisition Company), namely Digital World. The investigation is being done by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Financial Industry Regulatory Agency. I don’t know if this is a criminal or civil case. A few details are given on the link below:

Link: Donald Trump’s Legal Issues

It will be hard to keep track of all these cases. Trials will be held in New York and Florida and most likely Georgia and Washington, DC. Trump and his lawyers will be busy.

Donald Trump may be his own worse enemy. This was clearly the case in the “Mar-a-Lago” Documents indictment, where his case is based largely on his statements, text message and photos from his staff. This evidence is very difficult to refute.

In the United States, the wheels of justice turn slowly. This is necessary to protect the innocent. Following an indictment, in general, Trump is quick to announce that he will win in court. Following a guilty verdict, Trump usually announces that he will appeal to a higher court. And of course, after that beg for a pardon if the next president is Republican.

Elizabeth Holmes is another billionaire judged by a jury in January 2022 to have broken the law, by falsifying results from her novel blood testing equipment. She was able to delay for 17 months the time until she reports to prison for her 11 year sentence. As a mother of two, I believe she will only serve a fraction of the time. The judge stated at sentencing:

“I suppose we step back and we look at this, and we think, what is the pathology of fraud? Is it the inability or the refusal to accept responsibility or express contrition in any way? Now, perhaps that is the cautionary tale that will go forward from this case.”

Trump will not accept responsibility. He will blame the Justice Department and the FBI. He will not likely mention that he appointed Christopher Wray as Director of the FBI. And of course, attack the judge presiding over his trial, who is also a Trump appointee.

Rich people can generally find the best lawyers money can buy. Case in point, Jeffrey Epstein who brought in famed attorney Alan Dershowitz to plea bargain his case in 2008 and got a “sweetheart deal” for abuse of underage girls.

No sweetheart deals for Donald Trump. His guilt or innocence will depend on the evidence.

Two important principles should be remembered. One is nobody is above the law. The second is until someone is found guilty in a court of law, they are presumed innocent.

Stay tuned,

Dave

Debt Ceiling Deal – Missing the Point

by Dave

The debt deal is done. I’m very glad. We were exactly 3 days from declaring default, and the damage would have been severe and long lasting.

There are a lot of commentators out there answering the wrong question – who won? Or which party got the best part of the bargain. It is like a game of poker, and who has the higher pile of chips.

What all this negotiated deal boils down to, is a deal that lasts until January 2025. Perhaps there is an extra four months with extraordinary accounting measures. Of course, nobody really knows who will be at the table in 2025. Could definitely be worse. One little misjudgement, and we could be in a world of hurt.

After President Biden and Majority Leader McCarthy agreed on the terms of the agreement, the House Committee on Rules had to decide whether to allow the bill to go to the floor of the House. The committee consisting of 13 members had 3 days to decide. The committee was split 6-6 with one undecided.

Representative Thomas Massie from Kentucky was at this point in the driver’s seat, determining whether or not we would go run out of funds to pay our nation’s bill. And it didn’t look good, because it sure sounded like he was going to block the vote from coming to the House. But he voted Yea and the bill kept on rolling. How does one person get so much power?

The question is does this debt limit ceiling do any good? If it does any good, why is it that not a single country other than Denmark, has an absolute limit on the money the government is allowed to borrow. In Denmark the debt ceiling is set so high, there isn’t any intense negotiations to raise it.

In fact, the debt ceiling limit does no good at all and the risks of missing the deadline are sky high. Neither political party should be allowed to hold the US economy hostage to demand certain concessions. The US must pay for its obligations. The deficit is created when spending is higher than revenues, thus the remedies are either increase revenues or cut spending.

Spending is controlled in the budget process, which by our Constitution is the responsibility of Congress. A debt ceiling is redundant, and for the good of our country needs to be repealed.

We are not headed towards bankruptcy. Believe me, there are countries in huge financial turmoil. The US is not one of them. People rush to withdraw money from banks as a country is in turmoil. In the US, they save more in their bank account.

When grandparents see the birth of a grandchild, their perspective has to change, to a much longer view. There are a lot of good things government is doing right now which will help the next generation. Access to higher education and better health care have come a long way, but the progress must continue. The next generation will have to deal with climate change and use of alternative fuels. Not easy choices.

The debt ceiling is a relic, created by my generation and should end with my generation. Once gone, nobody is going to bring it back.

Link: Raise the debt ceiling. Then fix our democracy.

Stay tuned,

Dave