Still more legal fun in Trumpland

A New York court handed Donald Trump a lifeline as time ran out for Trump to secure a bond covering the $454 million loss for his recent fraud case. A panel of appellate court judges gave Trump 10 days to secure a far smaller $175 million bond just hours before New York’s attorney general could legally begin the long, slow process of seizing his assets. The reduction in the bond amount does not reduce the total $454 million fine Trump will ultimately be expected to pay if an appeals court upholds the judgment. Rather, a bond works as assurance that Trump will pay the fine’s full amount if his appeal is unsuccessful.

Along with the fine, Trump also faces a ban from running any company based in New York and obtaining loans from any banks in the state for the next three years. The appellate judges agreed to halt both bans as the court decides on the appeal. A court-appointed monitor, who has been overseeing the Trump Organization’s financial reporting over the last few years, is expected to continue oversight of the company for another three years as part of the judgment.

[Effectively, almost no major banks can obtain a loan because just about any bank in New York are head quartered there or generally the US primary branch.]

Trump’s lawyers have said it’s impossible for him to do that for the original amount. They said underwriters wanted 120 per cent of the judgment and wouldn’t accept real estate as collateral. That would mean tying up over $557 million in cash, stocks and other liquid assets, and Trump’s company needs some left over to run the business, his attorneys have said.

New York Judge Juan M. Merchan, has scheduled an April 15 trial date for Trump in what will be the first criminal case involving an ex-president, involving allegations that he falsified business records during the 2016 presidential campaign. Merchan made the ruling, but not before scolding Trump’s lawyers as he weighed when to reschedule the trial, after a last-minute document dump caused a postponement of the original date. Merchan had bristled at what he suggested were baseless defence claims of “prosecutorial misconduct.” “Why did you wait until two months before trial? Why didn’t you do it in June or July [2023]?” Merchan asked a Trump lawyer.

Merchan has imposed a gag order on Trump, limiting him from making statements about potential witnesses in the criminal trial relating to hush money payments scheduled to begin next month. Merchan also said that Trump can’t make statements about attorneys, court staff or the family members of prosecutors or lawyers intended to interfere with the case. Trump is also barred from making statements about any potential or actual juror.

Trump attended a pre-trial hearing, where Merchan swiftly rejected the motion seeking sanctions against the district attorney’s office, setting the trial date for April 15. Afterwards, Trump went to his 40 Wall Street building nearby, speaking to reporters to attack the case against him, Merchan and one of the prosecutors on Bragg’s staff who previously worked for the Justice Department, Matthew Colangelo. Then on his social network platform, Trump continued attacking Colangelo, baselessly claiming that the prosecutor was sent to the district attorney’s office to go after Trump as Attorney General Merrick Garland’s “right hand.”

Trump complained that the gag order issued was “illegal, un-American, unConstitutional.” He said that Merchan, a veteran Manhattan jurist, was “wrongfully attempting to deprive me of my First Amendment Right to speak out against the Weaponization of Law Enforcement” by Democratic rivals.

Trump claimed that Merchan’s daughter, Loren Merchan, whose firm has worked on campaigns for President Joe Biden and other Democrats, had recently posted a photo on social media depicting her “obvious goal” of seeing him jailed. In a statement, a spokesperson for New York’s state court system said that claim was false and that the social media account Trump was referencing no longer belongs to Loren Merchan. It appears to have been taken over by someone else after she deleted it about a year ago.

Trump is officially selling a patriotic copy of the Christian Bible for $60 themed to Lee Greenwood’s famous song, “God Bless the USA.” “As we lead into Good Friday and Easter, I encourage you to get a copy of the God Bless The USA Bible,” Trump said. Inside, it has the words to “God Bless the USA” and the text of The Declaration of Independence, the Pledge of Allegiance and other historic American documents. Promotional material for the Bible shows Trump alongside Greenwood. Various clergy didn’t take long to object to the use of the Bible.

It is also quite expensive for a copy of the Bible. The FAQ section of the “God Bless America” Bible website clarifies that no proceeds from the sales of the Bible will go towards Trump’s presidential campaign. The FAQ goes on to say Trump’s name, likeness and image are under “paid license from CIC Ventures LLC which is linked to Trump.” However, there is no mention of whether any proceeds could be put toward his personal legal troubles. However, there has been no word on where the profits are going to.

[Trump is not a religious man. He rarely attended church – except maybe when someone well known died.]

Jeff Yass, the billionaire Wall Street financier and Republican mega donor who is a major investor in the parent company of TikTok, was also the biggest institutional shareholder of the shell company that recently merged with Trump’s social media company.

[Now we know why Trump wasn’t to keep TikTok around.]

The Trump campaign said they will have their own super event in Florida on April 6th where they claim they will raise $33 million. This is to out-do the star studded even on March 28th for President Biden that also included Presidents Obama and Clinton which raised an estimated $26 million.

[The campaign already know how much? Sounds like a Russian election where you know that the true leader has won before the election day.]

Trump’s presidential campaign has established titles for the various levels of donations his new joint fundraising operation with national and state Republican Party committees is seeking – as Trump races to find campaign cash for the general election. The levels are:

• “Ultra MAGA” and is designated for individuals who donate $814,600.
• “Team Trump 2024” for those who donate $250,000.
• “Team America First” for $100,000 contributions.
• “Club 47” at $50,000.
• “MAGA 24” at the $24,000 level.

It seems, Trump also has to pay money in the UK. A London appellate justice refused Trump’s request to appeal the dismissal of his case against retired British spy Christopher Steele’s company over his controversial 2016 dossier. Trump had sought permission to appeal Judge Karen Steyn’s February judgment that Trump’s data privacy case — which argued that Steele harmed his reputation by peddling “egregiously inaccurate” claims about his Russian ties — lacked merit and should be thrown out. Steyn also ordered Trump to pay £300,000 [about $513,000] in legal fees to Steele’s company, Orbis Business Intelligence, which Trump requested to be stayed.

Former Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel called the January 6, 2021 [a.k.a. The Trump Insurrection], attack on the US Capitol “unacceptable” after years of deflecting on the issue. She said that the Capitol riot “doesn’t represent our country. It certainly does not represent my party…. We should not be attacking the Capitol; we should not be having violence,”. Asked why she didn’t offer such condemnation as RNC chairwoman, McDaniel responded, “When you’re the RNC chair, you kind of take one for the whole team. Right now, I get to be a little bit more myself.”

[A coincidence that she said something after been tossed to the curbed from a coup headed by Trump?]

McDaniel, right after her ouster at the RNC, got a $300,000 a year job at NBC News but other [real] journalists and anchors started a revolt and McDaniel has lost her job.

[Part of the backlash stemmed from her supporting Trump’s 2020 denial and then taking a $300,000 a year contract when staff is being cut across various NBC divisions. As well, even though she was the head of the RNC, she wasn’t friendly with the more moderate Republicans like Mitt Romney and Nikki Haley.]

Sen. Lisa Murkowski won’t rule out bolting from the GOP. She was one of seven Republicans who voted to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial amid the aftermath of January 6, 2021, is done with the former president and said she “absolutely” would not vote for him. “I wish that as Republicans, we had … a nominee that I could get behind… I certainly can’t get behind Donald Trump.” Asked if she would become an independent, Murkowski said: “Oh, I think I’m very independent minded… I just regret that our party is seemingly becoming a party of Donald Trump.”

A California judge recommended that conservative attorney John Eastman be disbarred in the state over his role in developing a legal strategy to help Trump stay in power after his 2020 election loss.

Melania Trump sponsored her mother to immigrate to the United States through a family-based process that Trump aggressively sought to end, according to federal immigration records. The records detail for the first time the full path that the former first lady’s mother, Amalija Knavs, followed from Slovenia to the United States — and how the Trump administration’s policies would have made that far more difficult for others.

Melania Trump used a legal pathway that her husband and his top advisers had repeatedly disparaged as “chain migration,” the right of US citizens to bring their parents to the United States. During his presidency, Trump endorsed a bill called the Raise Act that would have limited priority sponsorship to the spouses and minor children of US citizens, taking parents off the fast-track list.

Did you know that Melania Trump arrived in the United States from Slovenia in 1996 for modelling work and obtained a green card around 2001 based on her “extraordinary ability” as a model.

[Ability?]