Trump battled a fraud lawsuit in New York that could determine his future as a businessman with a torrent of insults and taunts… and no coherent legal strategy.

Former President Donald Trump wrapped up his massive civil fraud case with a trademark personal touch: An attack on the judge, right in the courtroom.

“You have your own agenda,” Trump told Judge Arthur Engoron Thursday. “You can’t listen for more than one minute.”

And with that, the trial was over. Now, it’s the judge’s turn.

The man Trump just spent months taunting and insulting will now deliver a judgement within weeks that could wallop Trump’s business empire, with hundreds of millions in fines, a possible lifetime ban on doing business in New York, and possibly other penalties. This case could force Trump to hand over flagship New York properties, including even his Trump Tower headquarters in Manhattan. Trump, who spent a lifetime buffing his preferred self-image as the ultimate brash New York real estate tycoon, may shortly be banned from working in the Big Apple ever again.

With so much at stake, Trump’s decision to repeatedly insult the man with so much power over his fate was an unorthodox choice, to say the least.

  • @[email protected]
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    13911 months ago

    “It’s not common,” Tristan Snell, a former assistant attorney general for New York State, told the Lawfare podcast after Trump’s impromptu courtroom remarks on Thursday. “That’s the kind of thing that someone would do if they were a criminal defendant with mental health problems.”

    Checks out.

  • @Nobody
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    12411 months ago

    Judge Engoron is going to drop an incredibly well researched and factually sound order. Trump underestimated this guy. He thought he could provoke him into making bad decisions, but channeling that anger into professionalism will end up crafting a ruling the appellate courts can’t touch.

    It’s not like they have a lack of evidence. There’s a mountain of evidence they committed the offense and how egregious their conduct was. They ran their business like gangsters.

    • Flying Squid
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      5211 months ago

      Evidence isn’t even necessary now. They’ve already been found liable. This is the damages phase. That’s why Trump is being especially stupid even for Trump. He waited until after the judge’s decision to start attacking him.

      • @madcaesar
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        1811 months ago

        Big brain move Cotton! Let’s see if it works out for him!

        • Flying Squid
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          1011 months ago

          If this isn’t just plain old dementia, all I can think is he believes it somehow benefits his campaign, but nothing can stop the judge’s decision and this is a state court matter, not a federal one, so even if he is elected president, his business empire could be pretty damn well fucked. And he’s fucking it more. It’s just bizarre.

          • @[email protected]
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            811 months ago

            He definitely thinks it helps his campaign to be “fighting back” in court. And if he becomes president again he’ll be an 82 year old multimillionaire-or-better by the end of the term if he even survives it. He doesn’t need the business empire anymore, he needs the political power to be sure he avoids going to jail.

            • @[email protected]
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              511 months ago

              he doesn’t need the business empire anymore

              Well… he still has a mountain of debt, that he was probably hoping to offset by being president in the first place, and it’s possible that we don’t even know about some of it that worries him the most. So losing the business empire could deeply hurt him in being able to pay that off, even with all the donations rolling in.

    • @fidodo
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      1811 months ago

      Never pick a fight against a nerd with power

  • @[email protected]
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    9611 months ago

    I heard (maybe on npr) that his lawyers maybe let him speak to see if the judge would stop him quickly and then they would have a reason to appeal.

    It backfired.

    • @madcaesar
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      3611 months ago

      Trump lawyers: Maybe the judge is as stupid as our client?

      Narrator: He was not

      • @SeabassDan
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        411 months ago

        Well, it’s not like they’re gonna get paid.

  • @paddirn
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    7311 months ago

    Well, at least he’s got the whole dictatorship thing to fall back on, just in case the real estate side-gig doesn’t work out for him.

    • @fidodo
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      1511 months ago

      Seems like he’s betting on it

    • @cosmicrookie
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      1211 months ago

      Can’t do business in NY but can be president of it instead… Smh

  • @BaddDadd
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    6411 months ago

    “The man Trump just spent months taunting and insulting will now deliver a judgement within weeks that could wallop Trump’s business empire, with hundreds of millions in fines […]”. “With so much at stake, Trump’s decision to repeatedly insult the man with so much power over his fate was an unorthodox choice, to say the least.”

    Sure, but the judge has more class than Trump can even conceive, and will be certain to not let the insults sway his decision, possibly swinging into Trump’s favor. Not by much, but some rather than none. Plus he’ll complain about the “mistreatment” anyway.

  • @RestrictedAccount
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    6211 months ago

    It’s a bold strategy Cotton. Let’s see if it pays off for him.

  • originalucifer
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    5511 months ago

    huh?

    hes already been found waaay guilty. its just all about how hard he is going to be spanked. and since weve all been forced to sit and watch the judge make no appreciable appealable moves, hes going to be spanked hard.

    • @Dkarma
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      1711 months ago

      Different case. I thought so too. No he’s in even more shit and gonna lose even more.

      • @[email protected]
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        1411 months ago

        In a pretrial ruling, Judge Engoron found Trump liable for fraud. The trial has therefore been primarily about what kind of penalty Trump, his company and his executives should face. -From the article

        Isn’t it this one?

  • FuglyDuck
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    2911 months ago

    Yes men have been blowing smoke up his ass for so long he’s well-cured by now.

  • @[email protected]
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    211 months ago

    So Trump didn’t get a trial by jury, cool.

    But… How could he? Is there a single American who doesn’t have biases about Trump? Let alone TWELVE.

    • @kmartburrito
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      2211 months ago

      Well since it would be part dog shit and part face bronzer, it would make everyone’s headache from listening to his stupid ass even worse than it already is.

      Basically similar to ditch weed.

    • FuglyDuck
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      711 months ago

      I imagine it’s about the same as bath salts- it’ll fuck you up, then it’ll fuck you up

    • Flying Squid
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      011 months ago

      I’ve heard about people wanting to smoke Jerry Garcia’s ashes, but I think this is a little too far.

      • mattw3496
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        1611 months ago

        Even as someone against the death penalty, hard disagree. Sometimes when a bastard fascist shows you their colors…

        • @[email protected]
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          911 months ago

          Look, I know that France can be an isolating place even if you are wearing a French hat, but they do have some spicy ideas about how to handle certain problems.

          • Flying Squid
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            411 months ago

            Until those ideas lead to an Emperor that tries to take over Europe.

            • @Maggoty
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              611 months ago

              People don’t understand. They think of the romanticized version where a bunch of rich people got killed. They don’t understand it was an entire civil war featuring mass murder of civilians from all levels of society.

              • @[email protected]
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                211 months ago

                Lack of education. I am not French but learned about this in school. History is important so we don’t repeat mistakes from the past.

                Some may think whatever happened some 250 years ago in France is irrelevant. I’ll use this quote from the Wikipedia article to illustrate (keep in mind the estimated number of victims is even higher) :

                “During the Reign of Terror, at least 300,000 suspects were arrested; 17,000 were officially executed, and perhaps 10,000 died in prison or without trial.”

                That’s a little over 1% of the population (about 28 million) arrested and 0,06% executed. In the US today this would equal to 3.320.000 arrested and 199.200 executed.

                And what worries me even more is there are people who look at this and think it’s fine.

                • @Maggoty
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                  111 months ago

                  They think it’s fine because they think they’ll be on the winning side.

    • @jordanlundM
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      311 months ago

      I get the level of ridiculousness, but advocating violence is advocating violence. Removed.