Tuesday, February 20, 2024

The Kafka trap

New Neo: "The intricacies of Judge Engoron’s vindictive ruling on Trump" - "This aspect of Engoron’s ruling is like Catch-22: you must do the impossible before you even get to appeal, and one of the things you want to appeal is the fact that the judge has made it nearly impossible to appeal." 

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yeah! Isn't it great?


Kevin T. Dugan:
The Donald Trump Fire Sale Starts Now

Donald Trump’s companies have filed for bankruptcies six times, but now he may actually be about to go broke.
....Trump owes roughly $500 million [in penalties]. That would wipe out almost his entire estimated cash pile and vaporize about a sixth of his total net worth.

Trump can afford this, but he is probably going to have to sell something big. His net worth, according to both Forbes and Bloomberg, is between $2.6 and $3.1 billion, but most of that is tied up in his buildings and other properties. His cash pile is about $600 million, Bloomberg estimates, and he cannot use campaign or political-action-committee money to pay these fines.

....There are very few workarounds available to him to get cash. According to Bloomberg, Trump’s businesses have been bringing in cash from renters, and he made about $100 million in profit after selling the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., in 2022, though it’s unclear how much of that money is left.

The self-proclaimed “King of Debt” won’t be able to get a loan from a financial institution overseen or chartered by New York state regulators, Engoron ruled. While that doesn’t eliminate all the banks in the country, it does rule out a lot that could afford that kind of risk. (There are, of course, hedge funds and other shadow banks, but they’d likely charge him a lot more.)

Trump is going to appeal the ruling, but that doesn’t really buy him a lot of time or give him any real relief. He will have to pay up or post a cash bond in 30 days, and delaying adds interest and other expenses to the money he already owes.

Take a closer look at his holdings and it seems Trump might have bigger problems ahead. His largest holding, by value, is a minority partnership with Vornado at 555 California Street in San Francisco — a commercial office building in a city experiencing a “doom loop.” Microsoft, a former tenant, is trying to dump its office space there, and a neighboring building recently saw its value plunge by 80 percent.

If you go down the list of Trump’s other holdings in New York, much of what his name is attached to are similar properties, but through deals that are not as cut-and-dried as somebody just holding the title to a property. At 40 Wall Street, for instance, he owns a ground lease — that is, he pays the building’s owners, the wealthy German Hinneberg family, for the right to lease it out. Since commercial real estate is in the throes of a valuation crisis, if Trump has to start selling any of these assets, he’ll likely be handing someone a fire-sale deal.

Anonymous said...

Earlier today, New York Attorney General Letitia James told ABC News that if Donald Trump is unable to come up with the cash, she will seize Trump’s buildings.

AG James:
”We are prepared to make sure that the judgment is paid to New Yorkers. And yes, I look at 40 Wall Street each and every day.”



Meanwhile....
From the Justice Department’s detention memo for Alexander Smirnov, who is Rep. James Comer and the GOP’s key witness:

“During his custodial interview on February 14, Smirnov admitted that officials associated with Russian intelligence were involved in passing a story about Businessperson 1 [aka Hunter Biden].

…Smirnov’s efforts to spread disinformation about a candidate of one of the two major parties in the United States continues. …What this shows is that the misinformation he is spreading is not confined to 2020. He is actively peddling new lies that could impact U.S. elections after meeting with Russian intelligence officials in November.”

Smirnov also told the DoJ that the intelligence officials he has had numerous contacts with include the head of two assassination squads “with ties to a particular Russian intelligence service.”


Woo hoo! Put that witness on the stand!!

unAnonymous said...

The Democrats' descent into insanity is such that they have become worshipers of their own Trump hatred. From their politicians to their activists to their justice system, they're caught in a relentlessly accelerating and self-reinforcing frenzy to extract the maximum gratification from their hatred.

They don't have even the dimmest recognition that they are in fact driving themselves to meticulously engineer Trump's election, by creating a martyred hero. Even the polls don't clue them into that, which is bizarre. They see the polls, but their "solution" is always to double down on the expression of their hatred and persecution.

After Trump wins in November, their final mental disintegration and moral breakdown is going to be something to behold of historic significance. And it's something that we will be forced to confront with more than just the beholding of it.

Anonymous said...

Anyone in business close to NY that stays after this are guaranteed a place at the table of democratic power. They don't understand is their place eventually will be on the table as the next course. Weep not for those that support this democratic democracy when it implodes.

Anonymous said...

The Democrats' descent into insanity is such that they have become worshipers of their own Trump hatred. From their politicians to their activists to their justice system, they're caught in a relentlessly accelerating and self-reinforcing frenzy to extract the maximum gratification from their hatred.

They don't have even the dimmest recognition that they are in fact driving themselves to meticulously engineer Trump's election, by creating a martyred hero. Even the polls don't clue them into that, which is bizarre. They see the polls, but their "solution" is always to double down on the expression of their hatred and persecution.

After Trump wins in November, their final mental disintegration and moral breakdown is going to be something to behold of historic significance. And it's something that we will be forced to confront with more than just the beholding of it.



Exhibit MDCCCLIV that every Republican accusation is a confession.


And don't forget to donate generously to your criminal billionaire's personal legal costs.

Remember, every time Donald Trump is indicted for rape and tax fraud and hiding classified documents and seditious election interference, all the crimes that he's committed aren't the true story. It's about coming after YOU.

Anonymous said...

Let's see how this might play out....

Joe's brother James has to testify before the House committee about that $200,000 check he wrote to Joe marked 'loan repayment'. You've seen that cancelled check, right? It was written the same day James got that $600,000 'loan' from Americore.

If James can't show a bank transaction for the original loan from Joe, I don't see Joe or James pulling a Fani Willis-bit out of his ass and claiming that the original loan was made in cash. Do you? That establishes that the check was a bribe.

So Joe resigns 'for health reasons' after pardoning James & Hunter, making Kamala the POTUS. She digs in her heels and insists on being the Dem's nominee for President, and Trump wins in a landslide in November, and carries both Houses of Congress.

And the very first thing Trump does upon assuming office is to appoint Kurt Schlichter as Attorney General. Look him up sometime. He's a lawyer, and he makes DJT look like a wuss when it comes to vengeance.

And based on the treatment the J6 prisoners have been getting, they're going to have to build a couple more supermaxes to hold all the people awaiting trial for treason, starting with '51 former-intelligence officials'. And it shouldn't be too hard to fill up Alcatraz & Leavenworth with those awaiting trial for perjury, tax fraud, bribery, etc. based on the loose standards the Dems have already set precedents for with Trump.

Mmmmm-mmm. Can't wait!

Anonymous said...

Go easier on the fentanyl, Shakespeare.

Anonymous said...

Cruel and unusual punishment for denying democracy is the normal for our day. Eventually this problem of democratic democracy in this republic will need to be solved.

Anonymous said...

Uh huh.

To quote The Princess Bride, "Get used to disappointment."

Anonymous said...

Gotta stock up on the fentanyl now while Joe's partnering with the cartels to move it across the border, via a thousand or so 'impoverished migrants' every week or so.

Kinda funny that Joe keeps insisting that he needs the House Republicans to pass a law letting him tighten border controls, when he himself eliminated them with the stroke of a pen on his first day in office, just to spite Trump. Just enforce the current laws, Joe - Mayorkas got impeached for not doing that, you know.

Anonymous said...

Impeached just the once? Amateur.