September 24, 2022
Wednesday was bookended by two significant victories in the ongoing battle to hold Trump accountable. Wednesday morning, New York Attorney General Tish James held a press conference to announce the filing of a massive civil suit against Trump, three of his four adult children and his company. The 220 page complaint detailed more than 200 instances of alleged fraud, including multiple reported valuations for Trump properties that were wildly in excess of their appraised value, (Source: “New York Attorney General Accuses Trump of Staggering Fraud in Lawsuit,” by Jonah E. Bromwich, William K. Rashbaum and Ben Protess, The NewYork Times, 9/21/22).
One particularly egregious example was the valuation of Trump’s triplex apartment in Trump Tower. It went from a valuation of $80 million in 2011 to a purported valuation of $327 million in 2015 (Source: People of the State of New York v. Donald J. Trump, et al, Complaint, pp 75-76). The fourfold increase was supported by lying about both the size of the apartment (alleging that it was 30,000 square feet, rather than 11,000 and by quoting a price of $18,000 per square foot, far in excess of the $4459 per square foot that was the highest reported price per square foot in Trump Tower at the time, (Source: ibid, pp.78-79).
The lawsuit seeks to permanently ban Trump and three of his adult children from serving as officers or directors of any New York State corporation or similar business entity, and to bar Trump and the Trump organization from applying for loans from any New York State financial institution or acquiring commercial real estate in New York for five years. The complaint also demands disgorgement of fraudulently obtained financial benefit, estimated to be $250 million dollars, (Source: ibid, pp 212-213).
Then on Wednesday night, a three judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed Judge Aileen Cannon’s inexplicable ruling barring the Justice Department from reviewing 100 classified documents seized from Mar-a-Lago in its criminal investigation. In its opinion, the 11th Circuit stated that it “cannot discern why [Trump] would have an individual interest in or need for any of the 100 documents with classification markings,” (Source: “Appeals court: Justice Department can use Mar-a-Lago documents in criminal probe,” by Devlin Barrett, The Washington Post, 9/21/22).
These two legal developments are victories for the Rule of Law and bring Trump closer to suffering some consequence for his rampant criminality. It is tempting to simply watch him squirm as his legal woes mount almost hourly, but we’ve known since January 6, 2021 that Trump is far from the only threat to our democracy.
A thousand toxic flowers have bloomed since Trump harnessed the American id, all eager to carry on Trump’s project of stripping civil rights from every American who isn’t a straight, white Christian man and plunging them into misery. We need look no further than to the governors of Texas and Florida. Since May, Texas Governor Greg Abbott has shipped 11,000 migrants who arrive at the border to New York, without resources, information or notice to New York officials, forcing the city to scramble to accommodate them, (Source: “Migrant Crisis Puts New York’s ‘Right to Shelter’ Law to the Test,” by Jeffery C. Mays, The New York Times, 9/15/22).
Not to be outdone, on September 15th, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis chartered a private jet to fly 50 asylum seekers to Martha’s Vineyard. His gambit to “expose liberal hypocrisy” failed spectacularly when the people of Martha’s Vineyard rushed to help the migrants, providing food, clothing, shelter and interpreters, (Source: “ ‘They enriched us.’ Migrants’ 44-hour stay leaves indelible mark on Martha’s Vineyard,” by Ray Sanchez, CNN.com, 9/18/22).
The gleeful sadism of Abbott and DeSantis is not confined to border states or the South. Across the country, a dispiriting parade of elected officials and political candidates traffic in a noxious combination of conspiracy theories and hatred. In “Blue” New Jersey, Democratic incumbent, Tom Malinowski is facing a tough race against Trump acolyte, Tom Kean, Jr., who hopes to use his famous father’s moderate reputation to hoodwink independent voters. In Pennsylvania, Doug Mastriano, an actual insurrectionist who wore a Confederate uniform to an Army college reunion, campaigns on a platform of a total abortion ban.
Threats to democracy can be found among the candidates in every state, at every level of government. We can’t afford to sit back with popcorn watching Trump’s troubles mount like it’s another season of “Billions.” Every one of us must spend the next six weeks working to defeat extremists like our freedom depends on it. Whether we know it or not, it does.
#postcardstovoters.org
#PADems.com
#voteriders.org
#Votesaveamerica.com
.