Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Judge’s Ruling Will END Trump Financially

Episode Date: February 14, 2024

Michael Popok of Legal AF breaks down Friday’s expected civil fraud judgment against Trump, explains why with interest it could approach $550 million dollars, and why Trump will be hard pressed to sell assets under monitor supervision to pay it off. Cancel unwanted subscriptions – and manage your expenses the easy way – by going to https://RocketMoney.com/legalaf Visit https://meidastouch.com for more! Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast The Influence Continuum: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show Burn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 Political Beatdown: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown Lights On with Jessica Denson: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/lights-on-with-jessica-denson On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Michael Popak in legal AF. I want to give you a primer so that you understand its judgment day on Friday against Donald Trump in the New York civil fraud case brought by Leticia James, the New York Attorney General presided over by Judge Angoron. 11 weeks of trial, a closing argument that was over a month ago. And now we're ready for the judgment. We thought it was coming a couple of weeks ago. I want to tell you why I believe it's going to be over 500 million dollars What that means for Donald Trump's financial empire his ability to pay that and the 83 and a half million dollar judgment That's already been rendered against him verdict in the E Jean Carroll defamation punitive damage civil rape case and I'm going to tell you in so that you're prepared how to respond to people

that have Donald Trump's talking points about the judgment, the judge and the New York attorney general. I'm going to do it all in this hot take. Let's start with what's going to happen on Friday. Judge Angoran, we thought was going to come out with this order about two weeks ago, but two shoes had a drop first, apparently. He wanted the report from the monitor, who he had put in place, former federal judge Barbara Jones and her reporting about whether the Trump organization's been on its best behavior over the last 14 months or not,

or whether they're still violating and committing fraud with lack of controls and other issues about transfers that would indicate that they have not learned their lesson. He got that report already, and it was a low C at best, almost a failing grade for Donald Trump's organization that they're still, even in spite of this lawsuit, are still potentially committing fraud

and don't have proper lack of controls or people in place to catch such fraud. That is gonna weigh heavily on the mind of the judge as he enters his ruling. That's one. Secondly, there's been reporting and the judge is trying to get to the bottom of it as do other Allen Weisselberg

who is a co-conspirator defendant with Donald Trump in the fraud case, committed perjury, lied under oath, which is a crime. And whether the lawyers allowed him to lie under oath during his testimony, you'll recall it, or I'll tell you straight here, then when Alan Weisselberg, the disgraced felon of a chief financial officer for Donald Trump took the stand. If it was a fact that would have hurt Donald Trump, he conveniently forgot it and had amnesia.

If it was a fact that helped Donald Trump, he conveniently remembered it. Now we know why. Look, prosecutors have been questioning Allen Weisselberg's ability to tell the truth for a long time, dating back to Stormy Daniels, when the federal prosecutors were investigating Michael Cohen and Donald Trump at that time. So it's no surprise that there's reporting that the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, which is the criminal prosecutors in New York, are looking at whether and to charge Allen Weisselberg with perjury, which would be another crime. He's already gone to jail once, got convicted of tax fraud. This would be his second two-time loser. He'd go to jail for a longer period of time unless he's cooperating. This is another data point for Judge Engorron. Let's talk about what this case and the judgment will be about.

First of all, it's going to be about fraud, and that's all it's about. The judge already ruled on summary judgment before the start of the trial in October that there was the New York Attorney General made out her proof and had already proved as a matter of law that the Trump Organization Donald Trump and others for at least a five-year period Committed persistent fraud in the operation of their business. That's a summary judgment finding The only thing left is the last six counts all about fraud the big difference is those counts go to materiality and whether there is reliance. So having already proved persistent fraud once, having already proved persistent fraud once,

the question is now having heard for weeks of testimony and evidence whether this judge who's the trier of fact without a jury is going to find six more counts of fraud, fraud in financial records, fraud in business records, fraud in financial statements, fraud in insurance practice and conspiracies around those things against Donald Trump, Eric Trump, Don Jr. and the rest. So that's what the case is about. Based on the evidence, there's no doubt in my mind that the judge is going to find at least four or five more counts of fraud to have been proven.

So we have that. Now we get to the amount of the judgment. The amount of the judgment has been reported that the New York Attorney General is seeking $370 million worth of what's called discouragement. These are not damages. These are the amount of ill-gotten gains that were earned by Donald Trump and his organization in committing fraud, right? Having an unlevel playing field.

This is money that it's ripped away from them as ill-gotten gains. We call that discouragement, that's separate from damages during the five or six-year period. That's that issue. If they discourage the full $370 million, he also owes pre-judgment interest, which in New York is 9% compounded year after year, meaning this judgment could well, it exceed $550 to $570 million. That's money that Donald Trump's got to come up with. And even if he tries to appeal, he's going to have to post a bond of several hundred million dollars plus pay the 83 and a half million dollar judgment for E. Jean Carroll. That's a lot of cash. Hold that point. We'll go into

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over 500 million in canceled subscriptions. Stop wasting money on things you don't use. Cancel your unwanted subscriptions by going to rocketmoney.com. That's rocketmoney.com. So that's the judgment. But in addition to that, the judge has already ruled that the organizations, the entities of the Trump organization and those around it should be dissolved by a monitor, put out of business, almost like in bankruptcy and liquidated. That is up on appeal, but I doubt he's going to win there. So this judgment could lead to the following Donald Trump Eric Don Jr. And two or three other executives being put out of business in the state of New York forevermore lifetime Related to transacting any business being an officer or director of any New York corporation Um ever transacting a real estate loan or a real estate transaction in New York They're done.

They're gonna have to go to Florida, go to Nevada, go to Texas, go somewhere else more friendly to them and reincorporate, but leave their money behind because the judgment's gonna be, we're talking $500 million or more in a judgment. We're gonna know that number on Friday. He's gonna have to post a bond, but the bond will be a couple of hundred million dollars

because his financial statements have been judged already to be fraudulent. So what bonding company is gonna lend on his personal say so or on his financial statements? They're gonna want money. Where does that money come from? That's gonna have to come from the liquidation of assets, the sale of assets by Donald Trump.

He's got about four to $500 million in the bank, at least as companies. That doesn't include his personal assets. Even if he used all of his cash, which leaves him with zero in the bank, he'd still be short based on these numbers. So he's gonna have to sell something. But in order to sell something, he's gonna have to get

the provision of the monitor, because the monitor is still in place court ordered by Judge Ngoran. You see how this is playing out? And where is he going to get the extra money to pay for his presidential campaign? Yes, it's a sucker's bet. He constantly separates his his sucker supporters from their money. He's very good at that. But we're talking several hundred million dollars, it's got to go towards his legal expenses and legal fees. He's burning through at least 10 to 15 million dollars a month in legal fees for all of the cases that we talk about on legal AF. So you see how, you know, this last Waterloo moment is Friday with the judgment. Once we get the judgment and all of its ramifications from the equitable remedies, the dissolution

of the company, the barring and banning of Donald Trump and his other kids and executives from ever serving in office in New York again in a business, preventing him from taking out loans from New York charter banks, taking out, doing real estate deals in New York, he's done and dusted in New York. That's why he's reached out and attacked in social media. New York Attorney General Atisha James, always blaming the prosecutor or the Attorney General for his, his criminality, his fraud and Judge Angoran. Let me explain a couple of things that you're ready with little note cards in your palm when your friends and family and others may try to use Donald Trump's talking

points. First of all, Donald Trump says in a social media post that I didn't get a fair trial. I should have gotten a jury trial wrong. New York law does not provide for a jury trial when the equitable remedy of disgorgement and under this power of the New York Attorney General to bring a persistent fraud case under her executive powers and her executive law powers does not require a jury trial. You can ask for a jury trial, but Alina Habba, the lawyer who handled the case mostly for Donald Trump in the beginning, didn't ask for a jury trial. She wouldn't have gotten it. She

would have had to take on that up on appeal. It's an extraordinary circumstance to get a jury trial for a discouragement and a civil fraud case, but she could have asked, but she never did. So she waived that argument. So he has no one to blame but his own lawyer for the fact that he doesn't have a jury trial. But as a side note, he wouldn't have gotten a jury trial anyway.

So we're left with the bench trial, the judge trial. Judge trial went just fine. There's not a witness that Donald Trump tried to put on that he wasn't allowed. In addition to that, Judge Angoran bent over backwards and let Trump have four experts who had no knowledge and no expertise in any area that related to the case at all, just so Donald Trump wouldn't have an appellate issue.

Sure, you wanna have experts, go ahead. And then he heard from them and said, I don't think any of them are worth the piece of paper their diplomas are written on on these issues. But they're in the record, if that's what you wanted. Then Donald Trump was able to put on whatever witnesses he want. He's the one that decided he wasn't going to testify again on behalf of his own case.

He was called in the New York Attorney General side of the case in cross-examination mode, but he could have testified in his own case in chief and he said he didn't want to. So he had an opportunity to testify and he didn't. He didn't even have Eric Trump take the stand again. Weisselberg, we've already talked about, he's a perjurer or at least an alleged perjurer.

So whoever could have helped Donald Trump had full opportunity, including Donald Trump, to testify on his own behalf, but yet he didn't do it. And then there's no piece of paper, there's no evidence that was excluded that Donald Trump, to testify on his own behalf. But yet he didn't do it. And then there's no piece of paper. There's no evidence that was excluded that Donald Trump wanted to put in. He got experts that that weren't experts in the area that was required. He got document all thousands of pages of exhibits in. He could have put on any witness he want.

He got the lawyer of his choice. He just doesn't like the judge or the New York attorney general. Well, I'm sorry about that, but that's not the requirement of due process that you like who you're being prosecuted by or who's bringing the case against you. So all the social media huffing and puffing is all for nothing. Let's be frank. This is a well-constructed, this will be a well-constructed judgment based on 11 weeks of trial testimony, dozens and dozens of witnesses evaluated by the judge sitting as the sole arbiter

of the issues here, applying the law to the facts, looking at thousands of exhibits and rendering his judgment. We're gonna follow what happens this week. This is a pivotal week, as I've said in another article for Donald Trump. You've got, for instance, Monday he appeared in Florida and faced Judge Cannon for the first time

since he appointed her. He's got a, on Thursday, we've got a jury trial being set in the Stormy Daniels case in New York. We've got McAfee in the judge in Georgia deciding whether the indictment is going to be dismissed in Georgia or not. And we've got Judge Bershawn deciding whether the Stormy Daniels case is going to be dismissed or not. So it's a big week for Donald Trump and for justice. We'll follow it here on Legal AF, only on the Midas Touch Network and on Hot Takes, just like this one. So until my next hot take, until my next Legal AF,

this is Michael Popak reporting. Love this video. Make until my next hot take, until my next legal AF, this is Michael Popak reporting. Love this video. Make sure you stay up to date on the latest breaking news and all things Midas by signing up to the Midas Touch newsletter at MidasTouch.com slash newsletter.