Former president Donald Trump is set to see the orange foundation that cakes his face get streaky, with various legal problems raining down hard on him over the next few days.
Firstly, he has to pay E. Jean Carroll tens of millions of dollars. He is also under investigation for his role in the Jan. 6 attempted insurrection, and then there is his highly publicized fraud case in the state of New York. The man is in court so often, he might as well install one of his terrible golden toilets into the men’s room there so he can feel at home.
The New York case is his biggest current headache, as there is a chance that he will be prosecuted under an old state law that has previously been used to target fraudsters like Martin Shkreli. This law, referred to as 63(12), would allow the judge to order Trump to pay a much bigger fine than previously thought possible for his constant fraudulent inflation of the worth of his assets. It would also grant the courts power to set new, tough restrictions on Trump’s business dealings in the state.
This means there is a real chance he could be banned from running any company based in the state for life. Attorney General Letitia James has also taken things a step further, and requested that Trump’s sons also be banned from being the heads of companies in the state. So, it’s not looking good for the alleged billionaire’s clan.
This particular fraud law means that the attorney general prosecuting Trump doesn’t need to convince the judge that anyone was actually defrauded by Trump’s lies. All they need to do is show that Trump was behaving deceptively, or had crafted “an atmosphere conducive to fraud.” While we’re no legal experts, we don’t think that will be too hard.
Trump has responded in his usual adult and nuanced way, calling the law “VERY UNFAIR.” Of course, this is a man who famously lies like he breathes, and is known for cheating at everything from golf to elections, so we’d take that accusation with a truckload of salt.
Outside of his many legal issues, Trump is also once again facing criticism for his treasonous love of Russia. There was a time when a U.S politician bootlicking the leader of the vast Eurasian country would have sent shockwaves across the world, but Trump is so obviously under Putin’s thumb that it’s hardly a surprise that he’s willing to sell out U.S allies just to get a head rub from his oligarch owner.
The reignition of Trump-Russia news stems from Tucker Carlson’s embarrassingly softball interview with Putin, as well as the fact that Trump has spent the last week implying that if he were reelected in November, NATO would be on their own against an increasingly brutish and expansionist Russia.
This would be devastating to global security, and could very well see the beginning of a new World War if it were to pass. But you wouldn’t know it from reading so-called papers of record like the NYT and WSJ, who seem more worried about Biden being a bit old than The Manchurian Candidate becoming real life.
It’s no surprise that the Republican party seems happy to sign over control of America to a dangerous and despotic leader from another country. Most of them probably look at the way Russian oligarchs steal from the nation with impunity and have figured they want the same thing in the States.
However, not everyone is happy to bend the knee to Putin and potentially cause a massive war. A veterans’ group named VoteVets recently released an attack ad that has some pretty daming lines, including:
“Just ask the people of Poland, Finland and the Baltics whose borders are already under assault from Russia whether they trust Putin the way Trump does. Ask the parents of American service members if they are ready to sacrifice their kids’ lives for Trump’s weakness.”
They also go on to blast Republican “appeasement,” and describe Trump as a “puppet in chief,” which is pretty accurate. Let’s hope that the former president continues his current losing streak with a massive failure in November, for all our sakes.