Trump lawyers panicked by plan to use quotes from his books in hush money trial: report – Raw Story
Tom Boggioni is a writer, born, raised and living in San Diego — where he attended San Diego State University. Prior to writing for Raw Story, he wrote for FireDogLake, blogged as TBogg, and worked in banking, marketing and construction.
A filing from prosecutors stating that they plan to quote extensively from books written by — or ghost-written for — Donald Trump in his upcoming hush money trial has his lawyers on the defensive.
According to a report from ABC News, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office has found a wealth of material in the multitude of quotes from the ex-president in the books, including, "For many years I've said that if someone screws you, screw them back."
They intend to present them before the jury tasked with considering the 34 felonies contained in the indictment related to the 2016 cover-up of his alleged affair with adult film star Stormy Daniels.
The report notes that investigators have compiled quotes not only from Trump's bestseller "Art of the Deal," but also "Think Like a Billionaire," "How to Get Rich," "Think Big and Kick A–" and "Great Again."
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According to ABC, the new filing includes, "Four dozen quotes from books published between 1987 and 2015," and that Trump's lawyers protesting the former president's words could "prejudice" the jury.
In response, Trump lawyer Todd Blanche stated, "Whatever President Trump's style of business operations was in 1987, 2004 and 2007 … is by no means probative for how he would have operated those businesses when he was President of the United States of America."
The ABC report adds, "According to the defense, some of Trump's quotes that prosecutors intend to highlight involve his approach to business — including his frugality and 'hands-on' approach — while others focus on Trump's interactions with women, which is expected to be a central issue in the trial."
It continues, "Defense attorneys argue some of those statements could potentially offend jurors, such as when Trump wrote, 'I always think of myself as the best-looking guy and it is no secret that I love beautiful women.'"
Trump's lawyers are arguing the quotes are, "Largely irrelevant, stale, and cumulative," further explaining, "Many of the statements that the People seek to admit have no apparent relevance to the issues in this case and will only lead to juror confusion."
You can read more here.
Ousted Michigan Republican Party chair Kristina Karamo has lost yet another bid in court to be reinstated to her job.
According to the Associated Press, "The Michigan Court of Appeals said it won’t suspend a lower court’s order affirming Kristina Karamo’s removal by party members. Karamo was hoping that a stay would clear the way for her to lead a meeting Saturday in Detroit to select presidential delegates for the party’s national convention."
Karamo, a far-right QAnon proponent and election denier who has promoted antisemitic conspiracy theories and has called reproductive health care "Satanic," was elected to chair the state GOP after an unsuccessful run for Secretary of State in 2022.
But her tenure was immediately marked by catastrophic financial losses to the party and infighting that even led to officers getting into a physical brawl with police response.
Ultimately, Republicans were fed up and voted to oust her from leadership, replacing her with former congressman and Trump administration diplomat Pete Hoekstra.
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However, Karamo caused a succession crisis by refusing to leave her position, blocking Hoekstra out of party servers and other resources he needed access to for weeks.
Earlier this week, a state judge came down on the side of party officials who replaced her, ruling that Hoekstra is the legitimate chair of the Michigan GOP and clearing the way for him to assume the role of managing the party delegation.
E. Jean Carroll's lawyer on Thursday shot back at Donald Trump's request for a pause in paying his court fines after a jury awarded her over $88 million in two defamation cases — and onlookers said she didn't hold back.
MSNBC host Chris Jansing announced the news. "It is brutal," she said.
"This is page one, 'There is absolutely no basis in law for Trump’s requested relief."
"He simply asks the court to 'trust me' and offers in a case with an $83.3 million judgment against him the court filing equivalent of a paper napkin signed by the least trustworthy of borrowers," the filing continues.
Legal analyst Lisa Rubin explained that it's just the first argument outlined by Carroll's lawyer, Roberta Kaplan.
"This is an effort by Donald Trump to get an indefinite stay without having to post the kind of appeals bond that we have been discussing not only in this case, but also in the civil fraud trial that the attorney general recently won," Rubin said.
"And, in fact, they bring that civil fraud trial up as one of their concerns about Trump's cash position."
According to a filing Wednesday in the fraud trial, Trump confessed he's broke and needs to start selling off assets if he is to pay his damages, set at $355 million and accumulating substantial interest every day.
"In the absence of a stay on the terms herein outlined, properties would likely need to be sold to raise capital under exigent circumstances," Trump's attorneys wrote. "And there would be no way to recover any property sold following a successful appeal and no means to recover the resulting financial losses from the Attorney General."
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According to Carroll's lawyer, Trump is trying to get a stay on paying without any security. The way it works now, Trump must put up a bond to secure the payment before he can appeal. Despite telling Carroll's lawyer in a deposition that he had about $400 million in cash, it appears that is not actually true.
"Trump still has an opportunity to brief that, but they're saying, we can see that he is desperate and then going back to the point that you raised, which is they say there is no transparency or trustworthiness when it comes to his financial situation because again and again, we've seen him try to hide the ball with the American people and with the public," Rubin explained.
She noted that Carroll's lawyer cites "everything from the evidence and case that Judge Arthur Engoron decided, same New York civil fraud case, but also to our friend and colleague, Susanne Craig is reporting for the New York Times where she excavated years of Trump's tax returns and other financial information to show that his financial picture was not what he portrayed it to be to the American public."
Former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance highlighted that Carroll's argument ends by pointing out that Trump's "request for even a reduced bond, as opposed to the full payment, is legally meritless. The bottom line? Trump, the self-proclaimed billionaire, is struggling with the bond and can't float the entire sum."
See the discussion below or at the link here.
'It's brutal': Shock and awe follows E. Jean Carroll's court response to Trumpyoutu.be
According to investigative reporter and Donald Trump biographer David Cay Johnston, the former president's attempt to post an appeals bond that was not even one-fourth of the amount he needs to put up as he fights a $464 million judgment is more proof that he is not nearly as rich as he has claimed for years.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning Johnston noted in a column for MSNBC that Trump has a rich history of inflating his wealth and it has finally caught up with him after Judge Arthur Engoron dropped the hammer on him for committing financial fraud and writer E. Jean Carroll prevailed in two lawsuits against him to the tune of over $93 million.
According to the author of "The Making of Donald Trump," the door was opened by Judge Anil Singh on Wednesday for the former president to look for a loan from a New York financial institution, but, "It remains to be seen whether any licensed financial institution will lend Trump the money he needs. Not that desperation for cash is new for Trump."
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Recalling his 35 years observing Trump and his money machinations, he pointed out, "In 1990, he told me he was worth $3 billion. I said that I didn’t believe him because I, a newspaper reporter with eight children, paid my bills on time, while he hadn’t paid hundreds of suppliers in months.
"A few hours later, Trump told another reporter that he was worth more than $5 billion," Johnston wrote, before adding, "Soon New Jersey casino regulators revealed that Trump owed $295 million more than the value of his assets. As I reported at the time: 'You are probably worth more than Donald Trump.'"
As for the former president's true worth, Johnston wrote that Trump admitted in a 2007 deposition that his estimation of his worth is largely based on the "mood" he is in when asked, leading Johnston to dryly add, "One cannot pay a civil fraud award in moods."
Writing, "The fraud and Carroll cases together entail at least $537 million. And more cases are pending," he recalled that in 2015, as Trump was ramping up his plan to run for office, he repeatedly boasted he had a worth of $10 billion and then had a change of heart when compelled by the federal Office of Government Ethics to turn in his signed filing "which showed a net worth of about $1 billion."
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Pointing to Trump's nearly 1,800 page $100 million offer in an appeal that was mostly shot down by Judge Singh, with Johnston saying it was larded with "far-fetched claims published by pro-Trump websites," he wrote, "That will play well with those Trump supporters who read such documents, but not with appeals court judges. The permission for special treatment is unlikely to be granted, but it won’t be Trump’s last tactic to stall enforcement of judicial awards that may well expose the true level of his wealth."
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