Donald Trump’s business fraud case will come to a conclusion at the end of January. The District Attorney has asked for 370 million dollars in penalties.

Trump and his lawyers have lashed out at prosecutors as follows

In his opening statement when the trial started in October, Trump attorney Christopher Kise said: “There was no intent to defraud, there was no illegality, there was no default, there was no breach, there was no reliance from the banks, there were no unjust profits, and there were no victims.”

Similarly, Trump has said, “They don’t have any facts. They don’t have any evidence against us.”

According to factcheck.org (not sure if Trump supporters are interested in the truth):

• Trump said his former personal attorney Michael Cohen “took back everything he said in court” leaving the state with no case against him. Cohen testified that Trump never specifically told him to inflate asset values, but he said Trump “speaks like a mob boss” and “tells you what he wants without specifically telling you.”
• The former president claimed that he had “won this case already” in an appeals court. He has not. The appeals court has allowed the case to proceed.
• Trump accused President Joe Biden of setting up “every one” of his civil and criminal cases — a claim that is not backed by evidence.
• He also claimed without support that the New York attorney general’s visits to the White House in 2022 and 2023 were part of “a conspiracy” against Trump.

See Factcheck.org: Trump Distorts the Facts About His New York Civil Trial

I disagree that fraud is a victimless crime. The banks and insurers rely on information provided by others, and what keeps the system honest, is that frequently overstating the value of assets with the intent to mislead financial institutions is criminal fraud. If fraud is not prosecuted, then all the honest people seeking loans on actual assets are hurt.  Trump wants to put himself and his businesses above the law.

Trump is consistently dishonest about everything. Trump will immediately move to appeal the verdict at the end of January. He will of course blame the Department of Justice and President Biden, for everything, when this case was completely in the hands of New York State prosecutors. Per Factcheck.org:

… Biden has no control over state-level prosecutors who have brought cases against Trump in Manhattan and Georgia. Also, James, the New York attorney general, began investigating Trump’s company for fraud in March 2019 — long before Biden was president.

With this level of dishonesty, I wonder how people can support his candidacy. Really, you don’t put crooks into public office.

Stay tuned,

Dave