Donald Trump’s incredibly bad day
Ever heard of or played the game Jenga? You try to strategically remove pieces that will allow the tower to continue standing, but somewhere along the way, you have no choice but to pull that one piece that topples the entire thing. Jenga is a fun game unless you’re Donald Trump and your Jenga is about to fall. Two big pieces were pulled out of his tower this week. Where to start with Trump’s “worst day ever,” as Raw Story called it?
First, the Court of Appeals basically told Trump’s attorneys to get out of their faces with their nonsense. They obviously did not buy Trump’s arguments, and they let Judge Aileen Cannon know what they thought of her ruling. At least Trump didn’t appoint all brown nosers to the bench, as two members of the three-judge panel were Trump appointees-Britt Grant and Andrew Brasher-and the third was Robin Rosenbaum, a President Obama appointee. As CBS News pointed out, Trump could appeal to the Supreme Court, though one would think that would have been done immediately. The Court of Appeals, however, was clear in its ruling: “We conclude that the United States would suffer irreparable harm from the district court’s restrictions on its access to this narrow-and potentially critical-set of materials, as well as the court’s requirement that the United States submit the classified records to the special master for review.” So much for that. As if this rapid ruling wasn’t bad enough, Attorney General Letitia James filed a civil suit against Trump and his three adult children for fraud.
We all know this suit is based on Trump’s penchant for overvaluing his assets for purposes of securing loans that he can’t pay back. Knowing Trump, he never planned to pay them back. Renato Mariotti, a former federal prosecutor, believes that Trump has no defense to this suit. As reported, Trump tried to settle with James pre-suit, but she was having none of his foolishness. Mariotti is no stranger to fraud suits, as he prosecuted many in his time. Mariott said that this suit is “full of seemingly damning evidence,” including the Trumps fraudulently obtaining $250 million over ten years. People like Donald Trump fail to acknowledge what they do is wrong until someone hits them where it hurts, and Letitia James has done that. Mariotti believes she will prevail.
As Mariotti points out, Trump is now fighting several legal battles at the same time, two of which may well lead to criminal indictments. Because of those criminal charges, Trump cannot testify in the civil suit lest he expose himself to further criminal charges, and his failure to testify will hurt him with a civil jury, which is allowed to infer what it likes respecting his silence. What a mess Trump has gotten himself into. Of course, Trump has always been messy, and he always seems to slip away from any major damage. This time could well be different. He’s either going to go broke, or he may be headed to jail, which will also leave him broke. The clock is ticking on Donald Trump’s downfall.
Shirley is a former entertainment writer and has worked in the legal field for over 25 years