"He's Nothing."
And as former Red Sox slugger Mo Vaughn once famously said: "The price goes up every day."
We are going to be experiencing schandenfreude — and experiencing it very strongly — at levels no one has ever seen in this country.
Lawrence: $83M To Carroll Could Start Trump’s ‘Collapse Into Bankruptcy’
MSNBC, January 29, 2024
Lawrence O’Donnell, MSNBC, January 29, 2024:
E. Jean Carroll has sent Donald Trump on his way to bankruptcy, with the $90 million that he now owes E. Jean Carroll as of tonight. That’s $83.3 million [which] a jury returned for E. Jean Carroll on Friday, added to the $5.6 million that a jury returned for E. Jean Carroll in the same courtroom last year and with interest running on both of those judgments. Interest. Remember the interest — that everyone else has forgotten about. Donald Trump is already around $90 million in debt to E. Jean Carroll and that debt increases every single day that it is not paid because of the interest added by law to that amount every day that it remains unpaid.
And that could be the smallest debt that Donald Trump owes after a New York judge enters a judgment in a civil fraud case against Donald Trump in which the New York State Attorney General is seeking $370 million.
And that’s not all. Don’t stop there. There are much bigger possible judgments coming. Washington D.C. juries could make that New York number look small if they return verdicts against Donald Trump in the civil cases brought against him by 11 members of the House of Representatives. That’s 11 plaintiffs who are suing Donald Trump for, in effect, threatening their lives on January 6th by sending his mob to the Capitol.
There are also three police officers who are suing Donald Trump for the threats and injuries that they suffered on January 6th. Each one of those plaintiff’s cases, each one of them, could be getting hundreds of millions of dollars in the same Washington, D.C., courthouse where a civil jury returned a verdict of $148 million against Rudolph Giuliani for the defamation of two Georgia election workers, Ruby Freeman and her daughter Shaye Moss.
Donald Trump could be facing court orders to pay a billion dollars or more in the next few years. And those Washington, D.C., jurors are going to get to hear Donald Trump saying in depositions that he’s worth ten billion dollars. Those jurors are gonna hear statements from Donald Trump that he’s worth much more money than anything his accounting of his assets shows. And so, the $90 million, or $100 million, depending on exactly when she collects it, that E. Jean Carroll is now on her way to collecting from Donald Trump, could just be the beginning of Donald Trump’s collapse into bankruptcy because of all the willful and stupid ways Donald Trump has broken the law. . . .
I will now read to you for the first time ever a Donald Trump post on his social media network in full. And I am reading it in full because of the words that do not appear in this post. At 4:55 p.m. on Friday, Donald Trump wrote:
Absolutely ridiculous. I fully disagree with both verdicts, and will be appealing this whole Biden Directed Witch Hunt focused on me and the Republican Party. Our Legal System is out of control, and being used as a Political Weapon. They have taken away all First Amendment Rights. THIS IS NOT AMERICA!
That is the ranting of Donald Trump cowering in fear, now, of the best lawyer he has ever seen in a courtroom, Roberta Kaplan. That is Donald Trump cowering in fear of E. Jean Carroll because that post does not contain the name E. Jean Carroll. Donald Trump has dared not speak her name since Roberta Kaplan convinced a jury to shut him up with a $83 million verdict. . . .
Carroll told Rachel Maddow described how she felt being in the same room as her attacker for the first time since the 1996:
I was terrified. . . . Four days before trial, I had an actual breakdown. I lost my ability to speak. I lost my words. I couldn’t talk, and I couldn’t go on. That’s how frightened I was. But oddly, we went into court, Robbie [her attorney Roberta Kaplan] took the lectern, I sat in the witness chair like this [shaking hands], and she said, “Ms. Carroll, good morning. Could you please spell your name for court.” And, amazingly, I looked out, and he was nothing. He was nothing. He was a phantom. It was the people around him who were giving him power. He, himself, was nothing. It was an astonishing discovery for me. He’s nothing.
This week could bring news of another judgment against the Orange Jesus that would dwarf the pile of cash Trump must pay to Carroll.
Michael Tomasky, The New Republic, January 29, 2024:
Think $83.3 million is a lot of money? Well, hold onto your hat, buster, because this week, New York Judge Arthur Engoron is supposed to announce the penalty he’s slapping on Donald J. Trump in the Trump Organization fraud case.
The case, brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James in 2022, accuses Trump of lying to bankers and insurers about the value of his properties. Last September, Engoron declared in a summary judgment that the evidence clearly said Trump had done so. . . .
Engoron said he was aiming to announce the fine amount by January 31. That’s Wednesday. James is seeking $370 million. . . .
Is there a precedent there for a larger reward than was even being sought? Signs are promising. . . .
[T]he knife took another twist into Trump’s flesh last Friday . . . Barbara Jones was appointed last fall by Engoron to monitor some of the Trump Organization’s transactions. On Friday, Jones wrote Engoron a 12-page letter saying, in part: “I have identified certain deficiencies in the financial information that I have reviewed, including disclosures that are either incomplete, present results inconsistently, and/or contain errors.” So—what’s your bet? Maybe $400 million? What about $500? Who knows?
The money isn’t even the main factor in play . . . No—the nuclear bomb here, the real psychological waterboarding of Donald John Trump, will come if Engoron strips him and his company of the ability to do business in New York state. This option is on the table because Trump was prosecuted under a 1956 law that allows courts the ability to issue a “permanent and plenary ban” on a company if the behavior is egregious enough to warrant it.
Sounds heavy, right? No question it would be a crushing blow to Trump’s ego. But guess what? Trump is such an accomplished con man that this isn’t even the first time the law has been used to prosecute him. Trump University set that precedent. . . .
What a way to start a year! Maybe about a half-a-billion dollars in fines, and a court ruling that is expected to torch his ridiculous immunity theory and allow other prosecutions to proceed. Speaking of which, Jack Smith is looming right around the corner.
By the way:
Gabriella Ferrigine, Salon, January 30, 2024:
A legal expert warned that Donald Trump can’t use his 2024 campaign funds to compensate writer E. Jean Carroll for the $83.3 million in damages he owes her, following her second defamation lawsuit against him.
Dave Aronberg, the state attorney in Florida’s Palm Beach County, where the former president’s sprawling Mar-a-Lago estate is located, spoke to MSNBC on Monday about the recent verdict and emphasized the need for Trump’s transparency in securing financial aid.
“He’s got to post a bond just to appeal within 30 days of the judgment. So E. Jean Carroll will get her money at some point,” Aronberg told MSNBC on Monday. “He can try to get money from his supporters, but he’s got to tell them what it’s for ... He can’t say, ‘Help me with my re-election fund’ and then divert the money to E. Jean Carroll, that would be a crime.”
Aronberg reiterated this point in a separate statement to Newsweek, saying, “If Trump wants his supporters to pay his debt to E. Jean Carroll, he’ll have to disclose it. He won’t be able to claim it’s for his re-election or any other cause, and then divert it to pay off this $83.3 million judgment. Otherwise, he could be charged with fraud like Steve Bannon, who diverted money from the ‘We Build the Wall’ campaign.”
Perhaps the grifting email will begin like this:
“Friend,
I was indicted for you.
I stole classified documents for you.
And I committed sexual assault for you.
But we are a team, friend, a united team of patriots fighting for our very survival.
I committed so much crime — for you — and now you can pay the penalties — for me.”