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Judge has ruled that Donald Trump committed fraud for years while building the real estate empire that catapulted him to fame and the White House.

Judge Arthur Engoron, ruling Tuesday in a civil lawsuit brought by New York’s attorney general, found that the former president and his company deceived banks, insurers and others by massively overvaluing his assets and exaggerating his net worth on paperwork used in making deals and securing financing.

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[-] sin_free_for_00_days@sopuli.xyz 154 points 10 months ago

There really should be some DOJ investigation into why the SDNY dropped the case in the first place.

[-] ivanafterall@kbin.social 116 points 10 months ago

Is he basically just a full-time legal defendant now?

[-] squiblet@kbin.social 88 points 10 months ago

His full-time job is pretending to be a martyr/savior and asking rubes for money.

[-] utopianfiat@lemmy.world 30 points 10 months ago

I sure hope the Republican donor class is neglecting the rest of the 2024 races for the sake of trying in vain to keep Trump out of prison

[-] IDontHavePantsOn@lemm.ee 7 points 10 months ago

You reminded me of a video news story from the early 2000s where the news station interviewed a guy, who panhandled while pretending to be a wheelchair bound homeless person in front of Walmart, as a sort of "gotcha" journalism piece. He was totally open and honest about it and was chuckling the entire time. At the end of the piece they asked "so now they we have outed you on tv, how are you going to trick people into giving you money?" He replied, "I'm just going to go over there (while pointing to adjacent stores). "And you think you will get people to give you money?" "Yeah, no one knows who I am and people forget so quickly that it won't effect me". (These aren't exact quotes.)

In a way Trump does the same thing. Everyone forgets his past actions quickly, blames the outcomes on the other party, and just moves on to different allegations he can spin. There's so much news surrounding him theres little time to actually interpret his actions, and he can just shift gears to another group of downtrodden citizens to swindle if he pisses his supporters off.

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[-] guidedlight@lemmy.world 34 points 10 months ago

He always was a full-time legal defendant. I’ll leave this here…

https://www.usatoday.com/pages/interactives/trump-lawsuits/

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[-] LillyPip@lemmy.ca 7 points 10 months ago
[-] morphballganon@mtgzone.com 5 points 10 months ago

It only counts as creating jobs if you pay your employees

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[-] Anissem@lemmy.ml 92 points 10 months ago

His coffin must be so large to need this many nails

[-] SkybreakerEngineer@lemmy.world 29 points 10 months ago

You are now thinking about that one tennis photo

[-] TransplantedSconie@lemm.ee 17 points 10 months ago

The one with the poop leakage?

[-] mateomaui@reddthat.com 9 points 10 months ago
[-] thisbenzingring 7 points 10 months ago
[-] mateomaui@reddthat.com 21 points 10 months ago

actually I think we’re confusing the tennis and golf photos, based on the original golf photo

and this barely modified tennis one

[-] Duranie@lemmy.film 5 points 10 months ago

I wish upon you a bag of dicks which you should eat in its entirety, for having made my look at that ass. Twice.

[-] mateomaui@reddthat.com 10 points 10 months ago

Bags of dicks received, but they sent an economy size order! I feel bad receiving so much appreciation for so little, so here’s a bonus just for you

[-] JWBananas@startrek.website 17 points 10 months ago

No more than 215

[-] Diplomjodler@feddit.de 9 points 10 months ago

And yet there he is, still going free.

[-] squiblet@kbin.social 13 points 10 months ago

It's a civil case, so yeah. Only financial penalties and business restrictions can result.

[-] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world 5 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

WHY, though? When what he's accused of are crimes and the plaintiff is the NYS Attorney General, why the fuck is it NOT a criminal case??

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[-] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world 88 points 10 months ago

So why the hell is this a civil suit rather than a criminal one?? Last I checked, bank fraud, insurance fraud, and other fraud are all illegal crimes that are against the law!

[-] elbarto777@lemmy.world 16 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Not that I don't agree with you, but I just want to point out that not all cases of breaking the law are criminal. For example, if you run a red light, a cop won't throw you in jail for it. You'll get a fine, though.

Of course, what Trump did should put him in jail.

But seeing his empire dismantle must be more devastating to his ego than the possibility of prison.

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[-] EmpathicVagrant@lemmy.world 9 points 10 months ago

Only if you’re a poor.

[-] PersnickityPenguin@lemm.ee 4 points 10 months ago

Just FYI, but Trump has been involved with 4,095 lawsuits during his career.

This is a major on though.

https://www.azcentral.com/pages/interactives/trump-lawsuits/

[-] reverendsteveii@lemm.ee 4 points 10 months ago

Answer to the question you asked: what he's technically accused of here is defrauding someone and the law will err on the side of "making the aggrieved party whole" (forcing him to give back what he stole) in these cases. After all, if someone ran off with all your money today would you be happier if the government hurt that person or if they made that person give it back to you. Someone steals my money no jail sentence is gonna satisfy me as much as being able to pay my mortgage.

Answer to the question you meant to ask: Takes less evidence to get a civil suit to court, and in the process of prosecuting the civil suit you can get subpoenas for evidence and testimony that can lead to criminal indictments. This is basically getting a foot in the door to look at his taxes, his accounting records and everything else. Wouldn't be shocked at all if there are criminal indictments on the way.

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[-] ImFresh3x@sh.itjust.works 63 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Went to Fox News to find this huge story. Scrolled by 7 non stories to find the headline ‘judge announced ruling on trump case’ with a picture of the judge looking black holding a microphone as if she’s some *political activist,” with no mention that he was found guilty of massive decades long fraud.

[-] TheBat@lemmy.world 18 points 10 months ago

Please add screenshot. Don't want to give traffic to them.

[-] Nelots@lemm.ee 10 points 10 months ago

It was the first thing I saw when I went to the website, but their description of it is pretty damn accurate.

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[-] lemmyman@lemmy.world 14 points 10 months ago

FYI the photo you're referring to is of NY Attorney General Letitia James, not the judge. She looks black because she's black.

[-] ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world 13 points 10 months ago

Excellent image-based propaganda, showing Trump clapping which implies he's celebrating exoneration.

[-] mateomaui@reddthat.com 52 points 10 months ago

hell yeah

Engoron ordered that some of Trump’s business licenses be rescinded as punishment, making it difficult or impossible for them to do business in New York, and said he would continue to have an independent monitor oversee the Trump Organization’s operations.

[-] Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago

At this point, who is stupid enough to do business with Trump that would also care if he has a business license?

And why would Trump even pretend to do legitimate business after finding a donation grift that keeps on giving the more trouble he gets in?

[-] mateomaui@reddthat.com 9 points 10 months ago

who is stupid enough

Republicans

why pretend to do legitimate business

donations laundering

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[-] Evilcoleslaw@lemmy.world 30 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Oh okay, I was a bit confused at first. This is part of the massive civil case, but these are claims within that case that the judge issued summary judgement for. There are still more claims that will go to trial next week.

[-] Rapidcreek@reddthat.com 23 points 10 months ago

Letitia James draws first blood.

[-] autotldr@lemmings.world 14 points 10 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:


NEW YORK (AP) — A judge has ruled that Donald Trump committed fraud for years while building the real estate empire that catapulted him to fame and the White House.

Judge Arthur Engoron, ruling Tuesday in a civil lawsuit brought by New York’s attorney general, found that the former president and his company deceived banks, insurers and others by massively overvaluing his assets and exaggerating his net worth on paperwork used in making deals and securing financing.

The decision, days before the start of a non-jury trial in Attorney General Letitia James’ lawsuit, is the strongest repudiation yet of Trump’s carefully coiffed image as a wealthy and shrewd real estate mogul turned political powerhouse.

Beyond mere bragging about his riches, Trump, his company and key executives repeatedly lied about them on his annual financial statements, reaping rewards such as favorable loan terms and lower insurance premiums, Engoron found.

Those tactics crossed a line and violated the law, the judge said, rejecting Trump’s contention that a disclaimer on the financial statements absolved him of any wrongdoing.

Manhattan prosecutors had looked into bringing a criminal case over the same conduct but declined to do so, leaving James to sue Trump and seek penalties that could disrupt his and his family’s ability to do business in the state.


The original article contains 345 words, the summary contains 215 words. Saved 38%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[-] roguetrick@kbin.social 13 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Summary judgement? Nice. Trump's team didn't see that coming I bet.

[-] jballs@sh.itjust.works 11 points 10 months ago

For anyone, like me, who didn't know what a summary judgement was:

Summary judgment is granted when the facts can be decided upon without needing to go to trial, where the opposing party would lose due to a lack of evidence. If it's not clear that there is no more evidence, then summary judgment must be denied.

[-] athos77@kbin.social 5 points 10 months ago

Isn't this the case where his lawyers screwed up and failed to file paperwork requesting a jury trial, so the judge got to make the ruling on her own?

[-] YoBuckStopsHere@lemmy.world 9 points 10 months ago

I'm not a religious person, but karma is real.

[-] FUCKRedditMods@lemm.ee 24 points 10 months ago

You think the KARMA he deserves is being meted out?! With this slow fucking shitshow?

It’s not karma to break the law and then be prosecuted for it, that’s just “the law” or society/government. If karma was real this fucker never would have been president.

If karma was real my life wouldn’t suck so hard. If karma was real then 50% of the world’s money wouldn’t be in the hands of like 83 terrible people. If karma was real police officers wouldn’t get away with murder all the time, or get a $31k/year pension for shooting an unarmed man in a hotel hallway (cops and rich people are an example of when the LAW is just as imaginary as karma).

The list could go on forever. The idea of karma is a nice fantasy we justice-minded people can imagine, but in reality, it’s just bullshit like every other superstition.

[-] YoBuckStopsHere@lemmy.world 8 points 10 months ago

Trump broke, in prison with his name becoming known for corruption isn't the ending he had planned.

[-] archiotterpup@lemmy.world 7 points 10 months ago

Point of order: Karma is for the next life. Not this one.

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[-] mateomaui@reddthat.com 6 points 10 months ago

I think it’s more that until now he’s always skated by on technicalities or republican intervention, and now there are 4 fairly ironclad cases that republicans have no real power to stop, and right now it’s slowly being released on him in a painfully constipated fashion, almost certainly to become a full diarrheal blowout before it’s all done.

[-] gregorum@lemm.ee 16 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

I prefer to call it “justice"

[-] jballs@sh.itjust.works 6 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

The dildo of justice rarely arrives lubed.

-Socrates

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[-] 2piradians@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago

Syracuse decided they had one too many orangemen

[-] akai@kbin.social 6 points 10 months ago

Schadenfreude up the wazoo

[-] aexm@lemm.ee 5 points 10 months ago

😂 dudes done for

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this post was submitted on 26 Sep 2023
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