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You are here: Home / Open Threads / OMFG (Open Thread)

OMFG (Open Thread)

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From The New Republic:

Donald Trump is arguing that he shouldn’t have to post the massive bond in E. Jean Carroll’s defamation case against him … because he’s simply too rich.

Trump owes Carroll $83.3 million for defaming her in 2019 when she first accused him of sexual assault. The former president had 30 days to either pay the damages or post a bond required by New York state law to appeal the decision. But Trump’s legal team filed a motion on Friday to delay payment.

“Having argued to the jury that President Trump has great financial resources, Plaintiff is in no position to contradict herself now and contend that she requires the protection of a bond during the brief period while post-trial motions are pending,” Trump’s lawyers wrote.

They argued that Trump’s extreme wealth was security enough that he would eventually pay.

Jesus, Mary & Joseph. Let the legions of contractors he’s stiffed over his decades-long fraud career testify.

Here’s the real game, of course:

Presiding Judge Lewis Kaplan on Monday declined to grant Trump a stay until Carroll’s lawyers had a chance to reply. Carroll’s legal team has until Thursday to respond, and then Trump’s team has until March 2 to reply to them. Kaplan also noted that Trump’s team had waited almost until the end of his payment window to file the request for a stay.

Well, yeah — he’s trying to control the clock on every case, civil and criminal.  This should be Carroll’s lawyers’ reply: 😂🖕💰

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

169Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    This should be Carroll’s lawyers’ reply: 😂🖕💰

    The legal profession needs people like you, BC.

  2. 2.

    WaterGirl

    Trump still hasn’t come to grips with the fact that there really are going to be consequences imposed upon him.

    If you are Trump, that’s not the way it’s supposed to work.

    He apparently still hasn’t accepted that he is losing and has to do what the courts say.

  3. 3.

    currawong

    He hasn’t got any money, has he?

    I read a thread yesterday describing how all of his properties are highly leveraged so even if he did sell anything it would raise little or no cash.

    I’m sure Vlad can put something in a diplomatic bag for him.

  4. 4.

    Baud

    Having argued to the jury that President Trump has great financial resources

    That was before Engoron, no?

  6. 6.

    WaterGirl

    @Baud: Oh, good point!

    Not that it matters, though, because I’m pretty sure we agree that “I shouldn’t have to go along with the court’s rulings” isn’t going to get Trump very far.

  7. 7.

    Parfigliano

    His shoe swindle last week is proof he is beyond broke and running out of shitheads to sucker.  Sad.

  9. 9.

    Baud

    @WaterGirl:

    Absolutely. This is a frivolous filing.

    Still, it’s fun to point out all the ways it’s wrong. It’s like that game kids play where they have to identify all the things that are wrong with a picture.

  10. 10.

    Scout211

    I read that yesterday from Liz Dye at Above the Law

    For some reason, I can tolerate all the Trump legal news filtered through her wry wit.  Otherwise, Trump’s outrageous legal machinations just make me sick.

    And yet it took the defendant until Saturday to get around to asking the court for an “an unsecured stay of the execution of the Court’s February 8, 2024, judgment, ECF No. 285, until 30 days after the resolution of President Trump’s post-trial motions under Rules 50 and 59 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which will be filed no later than March 7, 2024.”

    Alternatively, he’d like to “post a bond in an appropriate fraction of the amount of the judgment” — maybe $91.60! — while he tries to convince the court to overturn the jury’s verdict.

    Trump argues that the bond requirement should be waived in light of the “strong probability that the disposition of post-trial motions will substantially reduce, if not eliminate, the amount of the judgment.” This is probably news to Judge Lewis Kaplan, who spent four years dealing with Trump and his sparklemagic lawyer Alina Habba, and has shown absolutely no inclination to give her or her client an inch.

    Trump’s lawyers also make the very odd argument that a punitive-to-compensatory ratio of 3.6:1 is “excessive” and likely to be overturned by the trial judge or on appeal. They also protest that their client’s behavior was not “uniquely egregious,” conveniently omitting to mention the hundreds of social media attacks he lobbed at Carroll, repeating the defamatory statements online even as he sat in the courtroom.

    But the best part is Trump’s claim that he’s so rich that he should be spared the ignominy of having to post a bond.

    “Having argued to the jury that President Trump has great financial resources, Plaintiff is in no position to contradict herself now and contend that she requires the protection of a bond during the brief period while post-trial motions are pending,” he huffs. “This fact nullifies risk to the judgment creditor and weighs heavily in favor of an unsecured stay.”

    He then immediately turns around and argues that, despite his vast wealth, having to post a bond would constitute irreparable injury.

    Bold added.

    ETA:  Also too, irreparable injury?  Is not that the actual reason for punitive damages? 

  11. 11.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Every.Single.Time, I think “Well, this is TFG’s absolute nadir, lower than which he cannot possibly go,” and Every.Single.Time, he proves me wrong.

  12. 12.

    MattF

    So, repeated and remorseless defamation of a woman he raped might not be such a great idea. Who knew?

  14. 14.

    WaterGirl

    @Scout211:

    …during the brief period while post-trial motions are pending,

    Brief?  Not if DJT has anything to say about it!

    Also, you should go read Wonkette’s story about this same thing.  It it brutal and hysterically funny, all at the same time.

  16. 16.

    dmsilev

    Given his mobster-like attitudes, I think Carroll’s attorneys should respond by quoting _Goodfellas_: “Fuck you, pay me”.

  17. 17.

    pat

    LMFAO.

    This is why Melania (Mercedes?) cried when he won.  She saw this coming, all of his false edifices raining down on top of them.  hahahahaahahhhahhhhhaaaaaaaa

  18. 18.

    Trivia Man

    As a understand, he doesn’t have to post the bind to appeal. But if he doesn’t, at 30 days they start seizing assets. If appeal is successful they have to pay him back. If.

  20. 20.

    dmsilev

    Maybe Ms. Carroll will accept payment in kind. $83 million would be 215 kilopairs of Trump sneakers, just what absolutely nobody needs.

  21. 21.

    scav

    Ah yes, the I’m rich and {social norms / legal requirements / civic duties / ethical standards / business regulations / insert garble here} don’t apply!   Grab em all by the pussy.

  22. 22.

    Jeffro

    for a guy who’s so incredibly rich and innocent, he sure does want to delay providing proof of those things, isn’t he?

    you’d think he’d want the maximum amount of time possible to campaign on it: COMPLETE VINDICATION!  INNOCENT AS A NEWBORN BABE!!  RICHER THAN BEZOS!!!

  24. 24.

    Jeffro

    @dmsilev:Given his mobster-like attitudes, I think Carroll’s attorneys should respond by quoting _Goodfellas_: “Fuck you, pay me”.

    I approve this message.  =)

  26. 26.

    Splitting Image

    The funny thing is that if Trump were really a good businessman, he’d have realized that the time to cut his losses and settle was ages ago. Of course, he likes to brag that he never settles, but that’s because he is not a good businessman.

  29. 29.

    smith

    As far as I know, the interest clock is ticking on this one as in the NY fraud case.

    When he put up his own cash for the $5.5 mil needed to appeal the first E. Jean Carroll verdict, there was speculation that it meant he couldn’t get anyone to back a bond for a measly $5 mil. There is no way he can rustle up a miracle for this one or for the NY fraud case. His assets have got to go.

  30. 30.

    japa21

    The bad part for him is that, not only did they want to not post a bond, they wanted everything stayed until this whole issue is argued. That stay was not allowed, so the clock is still ticking.

  32. 32.

    Ocotillo

    It never ends.  Delay, delay, delay, delay and on it goes.

    It really comes down to he is putting all his chips on winning in November.  I am so sick at our justice system that is so frackin’ skewed to the wealthy it ain’t funny.

  33. 33.

    TeezySkeezy

    @Baud: Yes, but only if there are similarly like minded judges to complement that attitude, then we could make some real progress!

  34. 34.

    Martin

    @dmsilev: Oh, no – the law allows for this. You start seizing assets. I’m guessing the judge that is handed that stage of this case won’t be too sympathetic to Trump either.

  35. 35.

    hueyplong

    JFC, that motion irritates me more than the others, and that’s a high bar.

    1 Contrary to the narrow thinking that Trump is incapable of moving beyond, the concept of the bond isn’t merely to weed out (from the right to appeal) anyone not rich, it’s to keep the loser from ratting away the money, which this motion implicitly discloses as his plan.

    2 Just kidding, it’s really that he hasn’t got the money.

    3 As for likelihood of prevailing on his appeal, it’s downright hilarious how Trump is absolutely, positively going to win in every court except the one in which he’s currently arguing.

    4 Fuck you, pay me.

    5 Time for a bust out, Donny.  I can see Ray Liotta and Joe Pesci putting lighters to the tiki lounge “roof” in the lobby of the Trump Tower.

  36. 36.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    @SiubhanDuinne: Start from an assumption he has absolutely no bottom, no shame, and will act accordingly. There is no reason to believe, after years of this crap, he will comply with any rule what-so-ever that stop or penalize him unless forced at gunpoint.

  39. 39.

    smith

    The irony in this is that his lying about the value of his assets is what got him into so much trouble in the fraud case. Once those assets are auctioned off we’ll finally know what they’re really worth.

  44. 44.

    Martin

    @Baud: Failure to pay. Poor people don’t get to file a zillion appeals. You get a lien pretty damn quick and things escalate from there

    And there are thousands and thousands of people in jail for failure to pay civil fines.

  46. 46.

    feebog

    I said in a twitter post a few days ago that he might be able to scrape up the bond money for the E. Jean Carroll case, but no way in the fraud case.  He has 375 million in debt and many of his golf course properties are either in the red, mortgaged to the hilt or both.  Some of his properties do bring in income, but it sure looks like he has almost no cash.

  51. 51.

    Baud

    @Martin:

    No, a failure to pay a regular civil judgment doesn’t land you on jail.

    And the lien will be just as quick here.

    Rich people can afford to appeal more. And most rich people can afford to pay a bond.

  52. 52.

    prostratedragon

    @hueyplong:

    As for likelihood of prevailing on his appeal, it’s downright hilarious how Trump is absolutely, positively going to win in every court except the one in which he’s currently arguing.

    Bravo!!😆

  53. 53.

    smith

    OT: Something fun to look for tomorrow — Dem senators are putting a bill up to provide federal protection for IVF, and will ask for unanimous consent. They’re daring the Republicans to block it.

  54. 54.

    WaterGirl

    @Jackie: It’s a house of cards.  If his properties were on a white board in cop show, with colored yarn to show the connections between various things, I’m willing to bet that the whole thing would be a tangled mass of yarn.

  55. 55.

    Chacal Charles Calthrop

    @Villago Delenda Est: I agree. I think while regular bond companies won’t touch him and there’s a monitor appointed over his New York assets, Prince Bone Saw will step up and anonymously fund some kind of company that will appear out of nowhere to bond his judgments.

  61. 61.

    Miss Bianca

    @Martin:

    And there are thousands and thousands of people in jail for failure to pay civil fines.

    Really? I find that hard to believe, after some of the conversations I’ve had with local municipal court judges.

  62. 62.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @currawong: He hasn’t got any money, has he?

    Nope. The court is going to start seizing assets.

    And the beautiful part is that as I understand it, the court-appointed financial monitor is going to be making the decisions on what assets to sell off to pay the bill.

    Plus, he can still appeal without posting the bond (that was new to me, I just heard that a couple of days ago) but nobody does that because it doesn’t stop your assets from being seized. So if you won such an appeal, you’d still have lost your assets.

    I know we want to see him in jail and have every possible obstacle put between him and any kind of office ever again. But meanwhile we have reached the point where he is feeling actual pain, actual consequences, actual fear. So we can start sipping our Schadenfreude now.

  64. 64.

    cain

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    I know we want to see him in jail and have every possible obstacle put between him and any kind of office ever again. But meanwhile we have reached the point where he is feeling actual pain, actual consequences, actual fear. So we can start sipping our Schadenfreude now.

    This is better than jail. This is taking everything he worked for. Without his businesses he’s just a shell. He has nothing to brag about. He’s a pauper.

    Those evangelicals will lose all respect for him since you know prosperity gospel and all that. He’s clearly no longer favored by God.

  65. 65.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Miss Bianca: I’ve read that in jurisdictions where the local govt and po-po fund themselves with (e.g. traffic) fines, it’s actually a big problem.  Also, I’d wonder about men in jail for failure to pay child support (not saying that that’s unjust, just that those are civil  judgments, after all).

  66. 66.

    Another Scott

    WaPo:

    One day in 1990, as Donald Trump tells it, he and model Marla Maples were strolling along New York’s Fifth Avenue when they passed a beggar.

    “You see that man? Right now he’s worth $900 million more than me. … Right now I’m worth minus $900 million,” Trump told Maples.

    After a decade of profligate borrowing, Trump lacked the cash to make his loan payments. Although he owned hotels, skyscrapers, casinos and an airline, his debts exceeded the value of his properties by hundreds of millions of dollars.

    Trump’s lenders could have forced him into personal bankruptcy and stripped him of almost everything. But that didn’t happen.

    […]

    History doesn’t repeat. He won’t be so lucky this time.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  67. 67.

    cain

    @lollipopguild: Taking with him all kinds of documents he has buried so he can sell them elsewhere.

    Imagine the kind of shit reaction the GOP would have. They’d never be able to live it down – neither would the press.

  69. 69.

    Waspuppet

    @currawong: I’ve been saying since 2018 that he’s flat broke. Just look at the way he and his family live their lives.

    To be scrupulously fair, “I’m so rich I don’t have to come up with your money” has been working for him for 40 years. And at this point he’s too stupid and senile to try anything else.

  72. 72.

    Another Scott

    @Chetan Murthy: That was my recollection too, and I thought the amount was $5B.  But the WaPo link was what came up in a search.

    He lies about everything, so he’s probably told many variations of the story…

    ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  73. 73.

    Martin

    @Jackie: I don’t think they are, but a LOT of rich people have no cash. In fact, that’s a highly recommended strategy – turn your cash into assets, use your net worth to borrow against those assets at favorable rates to generate cashflow, and then constantly refinance those loans using your asset appreciation to keep the scheme going.

    So you have enough to cover your day to day needs, but everything else is tied up in property and the like which is difficult and expensive to sell off. Because it’s debt, it doesn’t count as income, so you don’t pay tax on it, and we don’t generally pay tax on unrealized gains so the asset appreciation doesn’t incur a debt obligation either. This is why Liz Warren was pushing for a wealth tax – it wipes out all of those loopholes.

    The system can work so long as your expenses fit within the bounds the system permits or if your expenses are again assets which you can just restructure your borrowing around. But you get hit with an $80M judgement, that breaks everything – especially if another judge has said you can no longer use banks that do business in the banking capital of the world.

  76. 76.

    Steeplejack

    @Trivia Man:

    Second paragraph of the New Republic snippet above:

    The former president had 30 days to either pay the damages or post a bond required by New York state law to appeal the decision.

  78. 78.

    smith

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: we have reached the point where he is feeling actual pain, actual consequences, actual fear.

    The timing is great, since it’s likely the stripping of his assets will start just before he has to sit through his first criminal trial. He was unable to behave on the few days he attended the NY fraud trial and the Carroll 2 trial. I won’t be surprised if he’s close to a total breakdown in court by April.

  79. 79.

    RSA

    @WaterGirl:  Trump still hasn’t come to grips with the fact that there really are going to be consequences imposed upon him.

    “It is totally UNFAIR that deranged and racist prosecutors are holding me RESPONSIBLE for my OWN ACTIONS! This is not what our aristocratic, slave-owning, musket-bearing FOUNDING FATHERS would have wanted for the last and greatest REAL PRESIDENT of the United States.”

  80. 80.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Martin: As I remember, Ferguson MO was one of those towns.  They’d granted a bunch of property tax giveaways to local businesses, the residents were all pretty poor (so no big property tax gold seam there), so all that was left was traffic fines.  Of course, that works a treat when you can also get commuters passing thru.  [lots of towns do the latter, though. Lots and lots.]

  82. 82.

    Jackie

    Off topic, but OMG! Arizona is trying to pass a state law giving ranchers the right to kill undocumented migrants:

    Arizona Republicans want to let ranchers in southern Arizona legally shoot and kill undocumented immigrants who cross their land,” the Arizona Mirror reports.

    “A bill moving through the state House of Representatives would make changes to the state’s existing ‘Castle Doctrine’ law, which permits Arizonans to use deadly force against people who are trespassing or breaking into their home.”

    ETA  I guess I shouldn’t be shocked, as the GQP wants to kill anyone who isn’t one of them.

  85. 85.

    Dan B

    @Jackie: That’s quite the Christian thing to do for visitors.  If I were a landowner I’d be very reluctant to find out if the law would hold up in court.

  86. 86.

    Martin

    @Chetan Murthy: Yep. And something for people to ask their city council – can the city afford the roads they’ve built? A shocking number of cities cannot – they don’t collect enough tax revenue to pay for road construction and maintenance. They can’t afford to grow the city for this reason. A lot of those tax giveaways come with the business receiving them agreeing to pay for the roadwork needed to support the business – a small upfront cost to the developer that they are happy to trade for a large recurring saving later. But the city is broke, so it’s the only deal they can offer.

    This has been one of the driving forces behind urbanization – citizens that have learned that their city is being bankrupt by surburbanization. And if your city starts to contract – you’re almost guaranteed to fall into that trap.

    Taxing residents through traffic fines and other bullshit fees is one avenue to solve the problem. It’s a terrible one, and yes, Ferguson was one city doing that.

  88. 88.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Chacal Charles Calthrop:

    Prince Bone Saw will step up and anonymously fund some kind of company that will appear out of nowhere to bond his judgments.

    I think Trump has already found out that nobody is that into him, which is why he’s desperately trying to reschedule.  I’m not positive, but I think so.  He’d already have a sugar daddy ponying up if one was in the offing.

  89. 89.

    Trivia Man

    @Steeplejack: An appeal bond stays execution (seizing  assets). It is not required for an appeal. As the appeal is resolved, seizing may commence if there is no bond.

  90. 90.

    Ksmiami

    @cain: it’s like scene in Trading Places where Eddie Murphy’s character tells Winthorp the best way to ruin a rich person is by turning them into a poor person.

  91. 91.

    randy khan

    As grounds for what essentially is a waiver of a rule that applies to everyone, saying “I’m so rich that paying what I owe will be easy” is not terribly compelling.  If you’re that rich, then paying for the bond or putting up the cash won’t be much of an imposition either.

    Amusingly, if what many people suspect is true and he really can’t pay the bond without causing the house of cards to collapse, that probably would be a better argument for a waiver.  (It would have to be something along the lines of “raising the money that quickly would be difficult given the complex financial arrangements (so, so complex, you wouldn’t believe how complex) made in connection with my many extremely valuable properties.”  But he can’t do that – it would be bad for his image.

  93. 93.

    Martin

    @Chacal Charles Calthrop: Only if they believe that Trump will get re-elected. That’s the trap Trump is in. If these legal problems undermine his electability, his ability to raise money to solve the legal problems dries up, because the only real value he has for anyone is as a traitor to the US, and that only works if he gets elected.

  95. 95.

    ColoradoGuy

    Just saw the Speaker of the House lying his ass off in front of the White House. I was stunned how easily and fluently he lies, just as natural as can be, telling one thing after another that was flagrantly and absurdly false to anyone with a memory longer than a day.

    Are there schools where they teach people how to do this with such apparent ease? Or is it cultural, as in Russia, where “truth” (Pravda) is used as a weapon against out-groups? Is smooth, professional-grade lying an intrinsic part of evangelical culture?

  96. 96.

    PaulWartenberg

    @cain:

    This is better than jail.

    Kind of. But I still want trump’s pallid, flopsweating Cheeto-covered hide sitting in a jail cell unable to scream about his ‘greatness’ at anybody else.

  97. 97.

    Shalimar

    @Baud: Identify the differences between pictures was also very popular 25 years ago on those game machines they put on the countertops in bars, though I’m guessing kids were always better at them than drunks.

  98. 98.

    Baud

    @ColoradoGuy:

    Are there schools where they teach people how to do this with such apparent ease?

     
    Yes, right wingers receive lots of training on media and public speaking. Of course, as with anything, some are more talented than others.

  99. 99.

    PaulWartenberg

    @ColoradoGuy:

    it’s cultural. many of these religious holier-than-thou persons convince themselves of the righteousness of their cause, and so justify the lying to others even as it goes against their religion’s core tenets. they never get held accountable for that lying, so they keep doing it until it no longer profits them.

  102. 102.

    Chetan Murthy

    @ColoradoGuy:

    Are there schools where they teach people how to do this with such apparent ease?

    When I was in high school, I used to participate in “speech” tournaments.  Stuff like “persuasive speaking”, and debate.  I’d say that that directly addresses your concern — certainly the ability to lie with great sincerity and convincingness is what’s being judged in these events.

  103. 103.

    Barry

    @Baud: “This is a civil case. No one would be in jail.”

    If any of us tried the stuff that he did with the judge,  we’d be in jail for contempt of court.

  104. 104.

    scav

    @Jackie: They also probably want to close that loophole where manly men were convicted of killing people who had gotten the address wrong.  Manly men should be able to kill at will, without consequences.  Their property, their rules.  Women need not apply, they don’t even own their own bodies.

  108. 108.

    Dan B

    @Baud: Think Tanks, especially right wing ones, have studios in house for training.  Their roots in business / Chambers of Congress believe in marketing so spinning the message is second nature.

  110. 110.

    WaterGirl

    @la caterina: Wonkette article

    Having Lost Fraud Case Bigly, Donald Trump Decides Now Is Time To Negotiate A Settlement

    Excerpt:

    Because to the winner go the spoils, the office of Attorney General Letitia James this week filed a proposed judgement that would satisfy the conditions of the Decision and Order handed down by Judge Arthur Engoron. The judgement would then be signed by the court clerk and “entered,” at which point the parties can start the process of seeing that it gets enforced.

    As we understand it as not-lawyers, this is a basic step in the settling of just about any civil penalty. Once the signed judgement is officially filed, Trump has 30 days to come up with $450 million in cash to either pay the judgement or put into a court escrow account for the duration of the appeals process. Otherwise the AG can start seizing his assets: his buildings, his golf courses, his thousands of pounds of hairspray and bronzer, whatever.

    Donald Trump, however, decided this week to try and negotiate the unnegotiable, because as a businessman he assumes there’s always room for negotiation until you sign on the dotted line. (He also thinks there is room to change the terms by fiat after you sign on the dotted line, but that’s a whole other story.) Negotiation isn’t really how any of this works, at least not at this stage. The time to negotiate was many, many, many months ago, when maybe he could have negotiated a settlement.

  111. 111.

    Martin

    @Barry: It’s not just that – it’s that courts for rich people seem to possess infinite time to resolve issues. But if you’re poor, and the docket only allows for 15 minutes to resolve your case, your case gets resolved in 15 minutes. If you’re late – that’s going to factor into that resolution. If you have a hardship – too bad – we don’t have time for that.

    Shit, I’ve been time pressured as a juror when my explanation for why I didn’t think I’d be an impartial juror in a case ran, apparently, seconds too long. This is especially bad for minor offenses and for family court. I mean, it’s only the custody of your child – can’t we move this along?

  112. 112.

    Martin

    @WaterGirl: Donald Trump, however, decided this week to try and negotiate the unnegotiable, because as a businessman he assumes there’s always room for negotiation until you sign on the dotted line.

    That’s not a businessman property, that’s a white male property. Gonna have to take my word on that one.

  113. 113.

    bjacques

    Speaking of Mo Bone Saw…if Trump loses, why shouldn’t Jared’s $2 billion investment fund he’s “managing” simply evaporate shortly afterward? His usefulness has pretty much ended anyway.

  114. 114.

    cain

    @PaulWartenberg: The thing is – once you take away all those things – walking around in the open. It will humiliate him in a way that jail wouldn’t.

    His entire identity is being rich. No longer getting deference because of his position. It’ll be hellish.

    If he was in jail, he play the victim card.

  116. 116.

    Harrison Wesley

    I thought Trump was supposed to make his getaway via the TARDIS he has buried on the golf course next to his ex.  I might have some details wrong on that, though.

  119. 119.

    Almost Retired

    @Baud: Excellent.  And continuing with the Highlights Magazine theme, Trump’s attorney is  Goofus to E. Jean Carroll’s Gallant.

  124. 124.

    mrmoshpotato

    he shouldn’t have to post the massive bond in E. Jean Carroll’s defamation case against him … because he’s simply too rich.

    How?  Just how does that make any fucking sense?!

    I know he’s an orange-faced, drug-taking, manbaby shitstain who’s fucking bald!

    But his most-likely syphilitic sewer of brain mush really “thinks” this?  Holy fucking shit!

    Further evidence that Fred Trump was a massive shitpile of a father.

    ETA

    They argued that Trump’s extreme wealth was security enough that he would eventually pay.

    Hey, you pile of shit lawyers!  We know the orange shitstain has been a conman since at least the 1980’s! 🖕

  125. 125.

    Gravenstone

    I’ve noted elsewhere that this is basically Trump lying to himself to protect his ego. The rest of us are left to just point and laugh.

  126. 126.

    prostratedragon

    Heads up, Chicago(-area): we’re due for severe storms, hail, possible tornadoes, snow later tonight after the 40-degree temperature drop, and 10 percent chance of frogs.

     

    Well, maybe I’m kidding about the frogs. But do check for warnings.

  128. 128.

    bjacques

    @smith: I thought I had read somewhere that Kushner wasn’t actually handed the two large but the fund was created for him to manage, and his rakeoff was in the form of churn and commissions that would embarrass the Merrill Lynch managers to whom Bank Of America are always trying to pimp your nest egg to.

    It keeps Kushner on the leash, but if Trump loses in November, MBS simply winds up the fund and Kushner has to find another hustle. Isn’t that the setup?

  132. 132.

    rmjohnston

    The proper response from the judge is: “Mr. Trump, if you do not have sufficient cash and assets to post a bond, then you may, of course, declare personal bankruptcy, which will provide a stay while all your debts are sorted out. That is the only way in which any court will grant you a stay on this matter. Further requests for a stay will be deemed frivolous filings absent an order from a Federal bankruptcy court and sanctioned accordingly.”

  136. 136.

    West of the Rockies

    I’ve got to think some chunk of GOP donors are exhausted from his CONSTANT demands for money.  Even true believers have to begin to resent his greedy fingers.

  138. 138.

    Snarki, child of Loki

    Trump’s next caper is to try and get cash by suing E Jean Carroll for erection interference.

  141. 141.

    Another Scott

    @bjacques: @smith: @Bill Arnold:

    I love it when a thread comes together.

    Jared’s hedge fund is called Affinity Partners.

    Reminds me of “affinity fraud” and “Fraud Guarantee” and similar things rattling around in my head.

    Various stories have said that they’ve not been in much of a hurry to invest the money.

    A recent piece – CalcalisTech.com:

    The transaction was closed in the midst of the war in Gaza and the currently complex economic and geopolitical conditions in Israel and the Middle East. The consideration for the transaction reflects a market cap of NIS 2.7 billion (approximately $740 million) for the automotive and credit operation. Kushner received a significant discount of $40 million on the price published at the signing of the agreement in September, with the value of the activity decreasing from NIS 3.8 billion at the time of the agreement’s signing to NIS 2.7 billion upon completion of the deal. This represents a decline of almost 29% in the company’s value and a 12% drop in its effective market cap.

    Since it was established in 2021, Affinity Partners has examined more than 1,000 companies, and made investments of more than $700 million out of the $3 billion it raised, mainly from Saudi Arabia’s wealth fund.

    The parties have agreed that, at present, the new company will only hold shares related to Shlomo Group’s automotive division, including the vehicle leasing, rental and sale operations, where the fund will have an additional period of 12 months after transaction closing to turn to the Capital Market, Insurance and Savings Authority to apply for a license to hold over 10% of Credit Path, a private company engaged in non-bank credit.  Under the agreement, Shlomo Group will grant Affinity Fund a loan of $46.75 million to finance the investment transaction.

    (Emphasis added.)

    Um, what??!

    (No explanation needed.)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  142. 142.

    Fake Irishman

    @Jackie:

    Remember all that money juicers sent to AZ to elect a Democratic governor? That bill is horrific and Katie Hobbs is going to veto it with a Gila Monster stamp.

  143. 143.

    prostratedragon

    @Dan B:  Yes, that nearly always means a rough ride down this time of year. I’m in a good rebar building and have a windowless retreat in the apartment, so I’m luckier than many.

  144. 144.

    Princess

    @ColoradoGuy: The school where Preacher Johnson learned to lie was the evangelical church. Evangelicals can lie as much as they feel they need to if they fervently believe God wants them to.

  145. 145.

    Martin

    @ColoradoGuy: Is smooth, professional-grade lying an intrinsic part of evangelical culture?

    Like with a lot of things it’s self-fulfilling. If you’re successful in the evangelical community, it’s because you’ve mastered that lying. If Johnson hadn’t mastered it, he’d be the owner of a car dealership somewhere instead and you’d never have heard of him.

    My cousin tried that path with the Catholic Church and he didn’t realize what the job was. He wanted to comfort people, but the church needed him to fundraise with a side of comforting people. He wasn’t cut out to do sales, and sales is what was expected.

  147. 147.

    Jackie

    @Fake Irishman: Of course Hobbs will. But, how horrifying that it could make it to her desk in the first place. I don’t know if AZ’s state senate is as MAGA as their House.

  148. 148.

    geg6

    @prostratedragon:

    We’re getting the same warnings here in Pittsburgh.  Huge storm, they are saying.  Heads up to jackals from Illinois to, at least, Pittsburgh.  Get your cars under shelter if you can.  Overnight will be wild.

  149. 149.

    Dan B

    @prostratedragon: As a teenager I saw a waterspout from our cottage* on the opposite side of Lake Michigan from Chicago.  It was a completely still day and at about 1,000 feet away was also silent.  There’s weather there!

    *the “cottage” slept 16!

  153. 153.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Quit doing that. TFG has spent his whole life doing whatever he wants, damn the consequences. He’s an adult toddler lacking any supervision throughout his whole life. He does whatever he wants, takes whatever he wants, grabs whatever he wants, breaks whatever he wants and says whatever he wants. He has funded his behavior by suckering people into buying his bullshit in one form or another, proving P.T. Barnum’s adage about a sucker being born every day. I would quit trying to find a bottom for TFG as there isn’t one.

    Stupid money allows you to be stupid and get away with it. TFG failed all the way to being the President of the worlds most powerful nation. Sure makes us look good, eh?

  155. 155.

    Gvg

    @Chacal Charles Calthrop: who ever gets involved with Trump at that point is going to be investigated by everyone. Not just American agencies and democrats, every financial agency and intelligence service on the planet. Friends and foes, and a lot of them will tell us if we don’t find out. This is why I thought Trump the shady businessman was an idiot to run for the Presidency. Everyone looks into the American President, and Trump made it necessary to dig even more than usual. He was doomed I thought. And there turns out to have been worse than I knew.
    Well. I am glad he is going down. I hope some media person flat out says it, shady businessmen should not run for high office, their truth will be found out. Then maybe we will scare off the worst for a decade or so.

  156. 156.

    Gvg

    @Jackie: how can they tell an undocumented person from a legal person, or a citizen with say brown skin? There are going to be mistakes, because half the population is of below average intelligence. I also predict some claimed accidents that are actually murder. No way this should happen and I suspect it is unconstitutional if we had a sane court.

  157. 157.

    Wapiti

    @smith: Except Trump came out in favor of IVF, so I’d expect a lot of Repubs would have no problem with it. Hypocrisy does not phase them.

  158. 158.

    CHETAN R MURTHY

    @Gvg: as they say, the cruelty is the point. Also, perhaps you might remember a number of American citizens of Mexican or South American or Central American descent were caught up in the ICE rates and held in ICE prisons a couple of them for quite a while, during TFGs reign of error.

  159. 159.

    CHETAN R MURTHY

    @Wapiti: yeah, they know he’s kidding on the square, just like when he said that Caitlyn Jenner could you know be a republican, etc etc.

  161. 161.

    Sallycat

    @Chetan Murthy: The men in jail for child support are in jail for contempt of court; the court determines the individual has the means to pay, and orders them to pay.  If  the individual doesn’t pay, he is held in contempt and jailed.  He can get out of jail by payment.

  166. 166.

    Paul in KY

    The boy’s got some chutzpah. Got to give him that. Like murdering your parents and then pleading for leniency as you are an orphan.

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