Running Out of Ways To Finance the Ongoing Con of trump's Empire

Overlooked by all the recent criminal indictments imposed on donald trump are the civil trials he's already scheduled to face later this year.

A big one is the New York state's civil case involving tax fraud from trump's alleged (and repeated) fraud when it came to trump's property values. This past week the state Attorney General Letitia James petitioned the courts for a summary ruling on parts of the civil proceedings, which would be a huge bomb to drop ahead of the scheduled October 2023 trial, via Nia Prater at the New York Intelligencer (paywalled):

State attorney general Letitia James has alleged in a new court filing that Donald Trump lied about the value of his assets for financial gain, inflating his net worth by as much as $2.2 billion in one year.

The New York Times reports that court papers filed Wednesday accuse Trump of misrepresenting the value of his assets in order to obtain more favorable financial loans. His supposed net worth ballooned as a result, at a rate of $812 million to $2.2 billion every year over a ten-year period ending in 2021, per CNN.

James’s office is also seeking a summary judgment in the ongoing financial-fraud case against the former president, his eldest sons, and his company, the Trump Organization, arguing that a trial is not necessary to determine that fraud had been perpetrated...

I'm not a lawyer so I'm not sure what the chess move here is aiming for. Given the scope and severity - and serious political ramifications - of the case, I wouldn't think a judge would decide against taking this matter to a jury. Granted, the evidence IMHO does show a ton of fraud especially when you consider the AG's office uncovered 200 separate instances of trump's financial deceit, but you kind of want the seal of approval from a jury of trump's peers (or at least a jury of people who couldn't beg their way out of jury duty). Back to Prater:

In past filings, James has alleged that Trump overstated the value of his various properties, including Mar-a-Lago, 40 Wall Street, and his penthouse apartment in Trump Tower. The attorney general’s office initially sought to charge Ivanka Trump alongside her brothers Donald Jr. and Eric for signing off on some of the financial statements, but the court dismissed the case against Trump’s eldest daughter, ruling that the statute of limitations had run out on the specific allegations against her.

Trump’s legal team is looking to have the entire case dismissed, citing the narrowed time frame established by the ruling on Ivanka’s charges, Reuters reports. A hearing in the case is expected for September, prior to the planned trial start date of October 2. James is seeking to bar Trump and his sons permanently from operating a business in the state as well as $250 million in fines...

One of the observations I keep making about donald trump's political career is that it's all part of his ongoing financial grift. trump needs to campaign not only to get back into political office to avoid jail, but also to keep his personal coffers as full of money as possible.

The thing is, he never has "enough." It's not that his greed is limitless - it is - it's that trump's borrowed so much and is stuck paying so many loans off that he can't keep up staying above a profit margin. There's a lot of signs that trump is desperately out of money by the fact his own lawyers - and some of his closest allies like Giuliani - aren't getting paid and desperate for money themselves as they face legal troubles stemming from trump's electoral fraud schemes.

Getting hit with a $250 million fine from the state of New York is one thing, and can well expose the financial straits trump and his family are in. What's really going to hurt is if AG James can effectively bar trump and co. from operating any business out of New York.

Shutting down the Trump Organization would put a halt to any ongoing business deals trump is scheming, like the buyout deal for his Truth Social app that's fallen apart and facing its' own bankruptcy. It would certainly put under scrutiny the financial ties trump's company has to the many PACs and fundraisers involved in trump 2024 campaigning.

Granted, trump and his sons can try to re-incorporate in another state - they already tried to do that in Delaware where the legal code is more relaxed, only for James to shut it down arguing it was their attempt to dodge the New York case - but being blocked from any dealings in the literal financial capital of the world in New York City is going to hurt (Okay, Tokyo and London also top the list but I doubt the nations of Japan and the UK will let trump and his family bring their corruption to their shores like that).

What will happen if trump loses his Trump Organization altogether would disrupt any funneling he's doing from the campaign fundraising into that corporation. I would imagine that if James is successful in the civil trial, she and the courts would insist on someone performing a kind of third-party receivership/guardianship on trump's finances to ensure he both pays his fines and ends all business dealings in New York (and likely sell all the properties that makes up his financial empire). A watchdog on his wallet is the last thing trump wants. That would seriously put a crimp in trump's attempts - such as borrowing even more from overseas creditors and banks who would have every legal reason (and maybe legal requirement) to cut him off - to continue lying/defrauding about his own worth.

And trump is all about lying about his own worth. Even to himself.

trump could still campaign and gaslight his own followers - and his Far Right media allies - into believing he's a successful businessman, the illusion of success he'd used since campaigning from 2016 to now. But to the real world, the ones outside that cult, the ones who would have to do business with him: Everyone else would see him as the "clown living on credit" he's been all along

I doubt the judge will issue a summary ruling. The sensible move is to put to jury (jury rulings are harder to appeal successfully) and figure trump and his eldest sons will face the financial consequences.

Let justice be done.

Let trump's worthlessness be exposed for all to see.