Trump’s Fraud: The Nutshell Version

'Cash crunch': Trump may be forced to endure something worse than selling his assets https://t.co/w6Cw1Ur3Vx

— Raw Story (@RawStory) January 11, 2024

Longtime investigative reporter Susanne Craig noticed a key moment in the final arguments in the New York fraud trial against Donald Trump. Trump's lack of liquidity was cited as a possible motive for his grossly inflating his wealth. 

"The argument has been that he submitted these statements of financial condition in order to get better rates at the banks," she said. "And they went through some of the spending that Donald Trump has been doing recently. There have been a lot of renovations at three properties. He put $250 million into Dorral and the old post office; he spent $225 million on renovations."

Full disclosure compels me to point out this was the AG’s case, in part, as presented over the last 40+ days. Apparently this reporter just noticed that when it was put in summary form in closing arguments.

Is our children learning? Or is freedom of the press accompanied by freedom from thought?

Anyway…

What the prosecutors said is that Trump was in a "cash crunch," and that is why he needed to inflate his wealth, which would have fallen below a certain point that would have cost him more or would have removed the possibility of being able to get capital from banks.

Not exactly news, but glad you finally noticed. The NYT must be so proud:

"Then secondly, I was listening to it because he is facing coming into a judgment with this judge of penalties going up to $370 million," Craig also pointed out. "We're looking at the hundreds of millions of dollars range. The attorney general painted the picture that the cash position is not good. It also supports the analysis that we have done at The New York Times that he doesn't have a lot of cash on hand to meet a penalty of that size."

More importantly, Trump no longer controls his funds, another result of this lawsuit.

[Andrew Weissman] also noted Craig's point about Trump being forced to sell his assets could be even more undignified because there has been a financial monitor appointed to handle the Trump Organization finances from the point at which fraud was determined. The monitor may seize the assets to sell them off in a kind of fire-sale.

For “may” there, substitute “will.”  The monitor works for the court. The court will want its judgment executed.

"Very often the courts of appeals will require a cash bond," said Weissmann. "And so that issue of can he wait until the appeal is over to start paying this, that may not be an option."

As I’ve been saying: final judgments are final. Taking that judgment to the Appellate Division in February (the judgment is expected by January 31st) does not stay its execution without a bond. And if Trump doesn’t have the cash for that judgment, he doesn’t have the cash for the bond. These are “pay to play” rules. Trump screaming and yelling about it won’t mean a damned thing. This’ll be put up, or shut up.

His goose is well and fully cooked.