Comey and James cases dismissed

 But without prejudice.  So they can be brought again in the future.

UPDATE 12/11/2025:  In the case of the black woman, they keep trying.

Bondi in effect admits Halligan wasn't properly installed

 

Trump's "enemies" list under attack

 

UPDATE 10/11/2025:

Not even for political gain.  For salving the aggrieved ego of a narcissist.

Clearing out the lawyers with integrity

Yes, every day puts another arrow into the heart of the Constitution and America itself.  If you have children at home, you probably should be thinking and planning what country you will be moving to so they can grow up free.

Pride in New York

 

Mamdani is carrying a transgender flag.

The politics of fear

 

Not bending the knee

Click here for a fulsome explication of the action and its illegality.

James getting her ducks in a row

Going for the golf course. I like it.

Letitia James cleaning up New York one Major asshole at a time

Walking the edge

To which he can say, "I never told anyone to try."  Useful idiots getting into trouble is not his concern.

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

UPDATE 10:29 am:

Well, I don't know how much it endangers them.  That would depend on how the useful idiots think a citizen's arrest is made.  It probably endangers the idiots more.

Fun times in New York Court - Part 2

He definitely did not refer to him as "President Trump".

Before the break...

Trump's testimony continued after lunch.

Huh?

Tuesday is election day, so nothing tomorrow.

Team Trump is foreshadowing motions they will make at the conclusion of the AG’s case, such as a motion for a mistrial or directed verdict. The lawyers are hinting that it has something to do with the subject of the existing gag order and likely concerns the judge’s principal law clerk, but not, as Trump attorney Aline [sic] Habba noted, her notes with Engoron.

Engoron instructs them that they cannot make such a motion to the extent that it would trigger the gag order.

Habba clarifies that the existence and content of the notes are not the subject of their anticipated motions. She asks if they can have an opportunity to be heard on those issues, even if they would fall within the gag order.

Engoron relents and says they may do so in writing; Habba pledges to do so “delicately.” Engoron asks them to do so through a procedural mechanism known as an order to show cause, which the judge will see but which is not filed until he signs it.

  MSNBC

Fun times in New York Court - Part 1 (Trump's morning testimony) is here if you want to read it.

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

Whinger in Chief and perpetual victim

“This Rigged Trial, brought by the Racist New York State A.G. Letitia James before Trump and developer Hating Judge, Arthur Engoron, which should have never been brought in that the so-called STAR WITNESS, SleazeBag Lawyer (for many people) Michael Cohen, admitted last week on the stand that he LIED,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, referencing his former personal lawyer.

“Therefore, on that fact alone, this Fake Case should be dismissed,” he added.

  The Hill

His grasp of the law is awesome.

“There is no Victim (except me!). Leave my children alone, Engoron,” Trump added, addressing the judge. “You are a disgrace to the legal profession!”

Perhaps he shouldn't have put his children in charge of perpetrating fraud via his companies if he didn't want them drawn in to a lawsuit.

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

Also, Judge Engoron and Tish James

Who was the fool who filed this for him in the first place?

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

He should be gagged

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

Meanwhile in New York

A New York judge—unmoved by the incessant pleas from Donald Trump’s legal team to delay trial—made quick work of the former president’s last-minute request Tuesday night to push back his first big upcoming trial for bank and tax fraud. On Wednesday morning, Justice Arthur F. Engoron pulled out a pen and scribbled a nine-word remark at the bottom of the draft order that Trump’s lawyers wanted him to sign, rejecting it outright. “Decline to sign; Defendants’ arguments are completely without merit,” Engoron wrote, signing it with his trademark ligature “Æ.” The Trump family is now less than four weeks away from the start of a monumental civil trial in which AG Letitia James seeks to siphon at least $250 million away from the Trump Organization over accusations that it routinely inflated asset values and lied on official paperwork.

  Daily Beast

Siphon more.

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

Trump testimony

Oh lord, what a client Trump's attorneys have.  In a deposition in the New York case against Trump, when Trump was merely asked why he put the Trump Org into a trust (when he became president), this was his response...

That's how the deposition starts.  And it goes on and on.  

He sat for seven hours! his defenders say.  And this is why.

They were merely asking what role he played in the organization after he became president.

It must be a challenge to know when to shut him up and when to let him ramble long enough to hang himself.

Continue reading if you have time for lots of fun.

And don't miss "the worthless clause" section.  That's where it reads like a Marx Brothers script.

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

UPDATE 09/05/2023: 

Ron Filipkowski summarized the transcript here.

Some excerpts:

While Trump was forced to admit over and over that the value of his assets was inflated, he blamed his accountants or other people and factors for that. But his main defense, which he repeated dozens of times, was what he referred to as a "worthless clause."

This clause is basically a disclaimer at the beginning of the statements that any entity who receives them should conduct their own assessment of the value of his properties and he was not responsible if the valuations provided by him were incorrect. Essentially, it is his position that this clause gives him immunity from being held liable for any misrepresentations since that disclaimer renders all the numbers in the statement "worthless."

Another common theme is that Trump always justifies overvaluations of his properties by discussing their potential worth - what he thinks could be done with them to make them more valuable - and he factored in these potential future earnings or projects in his statements of their current value.

[...]

He said that once he became president, his name became "the hottest brand in the world," and anything with his name on it is instantly worth more. P.36.

[...]

Trump said that the value of his name alone is worth more than the assessed value of all his other properties combined. He said that he has valued his name at $2.9 Billion on some financial statements, but he really thinks it is worth more like $10 Billion. P.38-39.

[...]

He said that when he submitted his net worth statement to Deutsche Bank for the financing, he included an item for $2.93 billion in his assets for the value of his name. He explained that "if I wanted to build up my net worth, all I had to do was include my brand value." However, the bank refused to consider that and made him remove it. P.342-343.

[...]

When discussing the value of the Doral golf courses and property, he made a point to say that it was zoned for gambling, so that made it potentially worth much more than its current market value if he was ever able to secure a gaming license. However, this has been something he has been unable to do. P.34.

[...]

Trump said when he valued his properties in these formal statements to lenders and other entities, he didn't have them appraised or assessed because it would take too long to do that. When asked what method he used, he said that he "would use common sense." P.100-101.

When he was confronted with a 2022 letter from his accounting firm Mazars that financial institutions could no longer trust the Statements of Financial Condition they prepared from 2011-2020 because the information they received from Trump Org was inaccurate, he said they only did that because the AG "harassed them and they were petrified." He claimed that he had a conversation with a senior partner and, "He was so scared, he was crying."

[...]

At one point, Trump had claimed that [his Silver Springs, NY] property was worth $291 million on his financial statement. He said it was the most valuable house in NY and if he sold it to the Saudis he could get that much. He was confronted by Forbes in a 2015 interview about that claim by a reporter who said they assessed it through a 3rd party at only $23 million.

Trump admitted that the $291 million was too high, thinks maybe Eric or Weisselberg came up with that original number, but still says it was worth at least $125 million. He then said if the AG would clean up crime in NY then the property could be worth much more. The prosecutor then noted that the property is in Bedford, which has virtually zero crime. P.178-191.

In 2013, this property was assessed at $191 million. In 2015, Trump valued it on his financial statements at $435 million. When asked how the value of the property could have more than doubled in just two years, he claimed that Sean Connery helped him negotiate a zoning permit for to build another course on the property but admitted that he hasn't actually build it yet. P.235-237.

[...]

In 2015, [his 40 Wall St] property was appraised for $260 million, but Trump listed it as valued at $530 million. When asked how it could be worth more than double what the bank (Capital One) appraised it at, he said that "bank appraisals are always low."

  Meidas Touch

Line 'em up

Lucky Ivanka

A New York appeals court [...] said that New York Attorney General Letitia James must exclude from her suit transactions that took place before July 13, 2014, or February 6, 2016, depending on the defendant. The court also dismissed claims against Trump’s daughter Ivanka.

The Appellate Division in Manhattan said James has the power to sue over “repeated or persistent fraud or illegality”, but that the allegations against Ivanka were too old and should have been dismissed.

James first filed the lawsuit against Trump in September, accusing the Trump Organization of “numerous acts of fraud and misrepresentation”. The suit seeks $250m in damages and proposes to bar the Trumps from running businesses in New York.

[...]

The trial is expected to begin in October before the state Supreme Court in Manhattan.

  aljazeera

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

Trump deposition in New York case

Former United States President Donald Trump spent nearly seven hours answering questions in a New York lawsuit that accuses him and three of his children of fraud, according to his lawyer.

  al Jazeera

Could that be the first full day's work he's ever done?

New York Attorney General Letitia James has accused the former president, Donald Trump Jr, Eric Trump and Ivanka Trump of lying to tax authorities, lenders and insurers for years as part of an “incredible” fraud at the Trump Organization.

[...]

Trump previously attended James’s office in August, during which he refused to answer most questions and invoked his right to silence several hundred times.

Christopher Kise, a lawyer for Trump’s businesses, said the former president spent nearly seven hours answering questions about his “extraordinary business success” and that “everyone will scoff at the notion any fraud took place” once the facts are out in the open.

I'm scoffing at THAT right now.

James’s lawsuit alleges that the Trump family routinely misstated the value of the Trump Organization’s properties for their own enrichment.

Pour one out for the Trumps. Poor things.

Trial is set for October 2.

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

Coming up this month for Trump

Back to New York.

It's going to take more focus than Trump is capable of to sit for a deposition in one case when there are others closing in on him.

Also this month: the civil trial for defamation and battery of E. Jean Carroll v Donald J Trump.

The first of two trials is set to begin on April 25. Another trial that was also originally scheduled for April has been indefinitely postponed.

[...]

The cases both center on the same incident, which allegedly took place at the Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan sometime in 1995 or 1996. At the time, Carroll was a recognizable magazine columnist and TV talk show personality.

[...]

Carroll first sued Trump in 2019 for defamation over his claims that year that he had never met her and that she had invented the story in order to increase sales of her book. (The trial for that case, which is referred to as "Carroll I" in court documents, has been postponed indefinitely.)

[...]

[That case] has been hung up on an important legal question: Was Trump acting in his capacity as president when he made those denials?

[...]

The question is now in the hands of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, which held arguments in January. It's not clear yet when a ruling will come.

[...]

[L]awmakers in New York opened a temporary one-year window to allow victims of past sexual assaults to bring their old claims to court. Carroll then filed a second lawsuit, which makes a new defamation claim over his statements in 2022 and adds a battery claim for the alleged assault itself. This case, called "Carroll II," is the subject of the trial that begins this month.

[...]

According to Carroll's complaint, the two had a chance run-in at the store, where Trump was shopping for a gift for "a girl." He asked for her advice, and the two shopped together before he pushed her into a dressing room and raped her, she alleges.

[...]

For 20 years, she set the story aside, she says, worried that her reputation and career could be harmed by making the allegation public while consequences for Trump would be minimal.

But her view changed in 2016 and 2017, she says, as Trump was elected president and accusations against movie producer Harvey Weinstein broke into the public view.

"The walls that she had erected in her mind — the fear that Trump would emerge unscathed, the wariness of allowing him and his allies to come after her, the doubt that speaking up would actually matter, and the nagging anxiety that she was somehow to blame for being raped — began to crumble," her lawsuit says.

[...]

Trump denied the allegations.

[...]

"I don't know this woman, have no idea who she is," he wrote in a statement posted to Truth Social last October. "And, while I am not supposed to say it, I will. This woman is not my type!"

  NPR

The man will never learn not to say the things he's not supposed to say.  

The court is currently in the process of preparing for jury selection. Lawyers on both sides have submitted proposals for jury questionnaires or jury instructions.

[...]

The jury, once selected, will be anonymous, Kaplan ordered last month. The court cannot "ignore the significant risk that jurors selected to serve in this case will be affected by concern that they could be targeted for unwanted media attention, outside pressure, and retaliation and harassment from persons unhappy with any verdict that might be returned," Kaplan wrote.

[...]

The case is taking place in federal court at the Southern District of New York, meaning potential jurors are drawn from Manhattan, the Bronx, and a handful of suburban counties north of the city.

I will admit that New York business of opening a one-year opportunity to redress old allegations of rape seems a little on the nose for a suit against Trump.  I wonder if that will play any part in his defense.  And if a jury in New York will care anyway.

UPDATE 11:52 am:

And who's his friend in the pink pajamas?