You Will Anyway: Speaking of lawsuits

Monday, October 24, 2022

Speaking of lawsuits

On Monday in New York State Court in Lower Manhattan, jury selection began in the trial of the Trump Organization, which is accused of evading taxes by compensating employees through off-the-books benefits like luxury cars, apartments and private school tuition.

The nine counts for which the company will be tried include conspiracy, criminal tax fraud and falsifying business records. The alleged scheme stretches back to 2005, the year Trump married his third wife, Melania, through his 2016 campaign, his presidency and the first half-year after his presidency ended.

[...]

The trial's start comes as Trump faces a mounting array of litigation and investigations. There is a U.S. Department of Justice probe into his handling of classified documents, a Georgia investigation into his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, and a civil fraud case pending against Trump and his company for allegedly lying to financial institutions about the value of his assets.

NPR

And E Jean Carroll's defamation case.

A co-defendant in the case, former longtime Trump executive and chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg, pleaded guilty in August and is expected to testify as star witness in the trial. Weisselberg's guilty plea included an agreement to testify truthfully under oath, but he is not a cooperating witness in the way prosecutors had once hoped — sharing evidence with investigators that might implicate Trump himself.

Weisselberg's attorney, Nicholas Gravante, says that his client is being prepped both by the prosecution and the defense in what Gravante calls "a unique plea agreement," while Weisselberg is on paid leave of absence from the Trump Organization.

[...]

While Trump is not on trial in The People of the State of New York v. the Trump Corporation, the actions of the former president will likely come into focus for the jury.

Prosecutors say they can prove that Trump personally signed checks to pay for private school for Weisselberg's family members.

Moreover, while Weisselberg has admitted he benefited from the arrangement, Trump's bottom line allegedly did as well. Charging documents describe a spreadsheet, which recorded off-the-books compensation to Weisselberg. According to the indictment, "The Trump Organization reduced the amount of direct compensation that Weisselberg received in the form of checks or direct deposits to account for the indirect compensation that he received in the form of payments of rent, utility bills, and garage expenses." Those payments were not reported to tax authorities, and taxes were not withheld, they say.

[...]

The business, which was founded nearly 100 years ago by Trump's grandmother, Elizabeth Trump, has sustained five generations of Trumps.

And, like everything he has gotten control of, Trump has killed it if the lawsuit is successful. Tiffany should sue him for what might have been her inheritance.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

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"What we have is a foreign policy which is essentially a marketing strategy for selling weapons." -- Jill Stein

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"America: just a nation of two hundred million used car salesmen with all the money we need to buy guns and no qualms about killing anybody else in the world who tries to make us uncomfortable." ~ Hunter S. Thompson

"Let me issue and control a nation's money and I care not who writes the laws." ~ Mayer Rothschild

"News is what somebody does not want you to print. All the rest is advertising." ~ LACUNA

"What matters in journalism isn't politics, which are as universal and inescapable as breathing. What matters -- along with a fundamentally adversarial attitude toward government, without which "journalism" is simply public relations -- is integrity, transparency, evidence, coherence, and principle. These are the principles on which we should evaluate the quality of journalism, and their absence is why some journalists are so desperate to get you to focus on something else." ~ Barry Eisler

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Life, as Explained in "Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead"

GUILDENSTERN: What a fine persecution---to be kept intrigued without ever quite being enlightened.

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ROSENCRANTZ : The only thing that makes it bearable is the irrational belief that somebody interesting will come on in a minute.

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GUILDENSTERN: But for God's sake what are we supposed to do?!

PLAYER: Relax. Respond. That's what people do. You can't go through life questioning your situation at every turn.

GUILDENSTERN: But we don't know what's going on, or what to do with ourselves. We don't know how to act.

PLAYER: Act natural. You know why you're here at least.

GUILDENSTERN: We only know what we're told, and that's little enough. And for all we know it isn't even true.

PLAYER: For all anyone knows, nothing is. Everything has to be taken on trust; truth is only that which is taken to be true. It's the currency of living. There may be nothing behind it, but it doesn't make any difference so long as it is honoured. One acts on assumptions.

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GUILDENSTERN : We act on scraps of information... sifting half-remembered directions that we can hardly separate from instinct.

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PLAYER: Life is a gamble, at terrible odds-if it was a bet you wouldn't take it.