Legal AF by MeidasTouch - NY Prosecutor Reveals SECRET WEAPON to PROVE Trump Intent

Episode Date: October 4, 2023

The New York Attorney General Letitia James has a way to prove that Trump “intended“ to commit his personal financial statement, fraud, and defraud banks and insurance companies at trial. Michael Popok of Legal AF Explains why the defense is losing sleep about the “intent” element of their clients’ fraud, as they struggle to defend the case. Thanks to our sponsor HumanN! Get a free 30-day supply of SuperBeets heart chews and a free full-sized bag of turmeric chews valued at $25 by going to legalafbeets.com Remember to subscribe to ALL the Meidas Media Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://pod.link/1510240831 Legal AF: https://pod.link/1580828595 The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://pod.link/1595408601 The Influence Continuum: https://pod.link/1603773245 Kremlin File: https://pod.link/1575837599 Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://pod.link/1530639447 The Weekend Show: https://pod.link/1612691018 The Tony Michaels Podcast: https://pod.link/1561049560 American Psyop: https://pod.link/1652143101 Burn the Boats: https://pod.link/1485464343 Majority 54: https://pod.link/1309354521 Political Beatdown: https://pod.link/1669634407 Lights On with Jessica Denson: https://pod.link/1676844320 Uncovered: https://pod.link/1690214260 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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executive law, 63 dash 12. Doesn't that just roll off the tongue? Remember those numbers 63 dash 12. I'm going to talk about them a lot in this particular hot take. There's a big difference between the type of case or claim that she won on summary judgment on Tuesday last week, and the case she has now with the remaining six or seven new counts that are all fraud-based, all under 63-12, see, I had trouble saying it, but are different in quality and are different in the burden that she has as the New York Attorney General to make out in bringing this case.

And then we're going to talk about the focus in the openings on these, on these different burdens. On Tuesday, the judge, judge, and Goran, who's also presiding over the bench trial, meaning no jury, talk about that later, no jury. He also handled the summary judgment. Summary judgment is when you ask a court to dispense with the need for a trial and to rule on the papers as a matter of law on the undisputed factual record, you rule for one party or the other.

That's a part and that's how summary judgment works. And the thing that the New York Attorney General smartly moved for summary judgment on was the easiest of her counts because the burden was less. She sued on a what we referred to in New York practice as a standalone 63-12 persistent fraud case standalone meeting by itself persistent fraud 63-12. And she won that on summary judgment.

The judge found as a matter of law on the undisputed facts based on the hyperinflation overinflation, fraudulent inflation of Donald Trump's ballad sheet, personal asset sheet, personal financial statements, statement of financial condition, SFC, that he had committed persistent fraud under the standalone provision of 63-12. That does not require a finding or having the New York Attorney General prove intent intent to defraud, doesn't have to be proven just that there was fraudulent conduct

that had turned out to be fraudulent conduct. She also doesn't have to prove, in terms of her case last Tuesday on some rejudgment, that there was, that she doesn't have to prove materiality, that the dollars involved were so high or so large, that it materially changed the transaction or people's reliance on it. Right?

If it was, you know, there was fraud, but it only caused the dollar in harm. If there was a materiality requirement, she wouldn't be able to bring that case because the dollar amounts would be too low. But in a standalone 63-12, there's no materiality and there's no requirement of showing intent. That's why she's able to do it on summary judgment

because it's very difficult, near impossible on summary judgment to prove intent. If you look at all the case law I've been doing this for 32 years, intent is generally a question of fact that can only be determined at a trial by a jury or by a judge. But she knew the one she had. And then Donald Trump jumped up and down about,

oh, she got summary judgment and there's no trial and all that. One of the reasons that you're, that a New York attorney general who ever sitting in the seat can use 63-12 is because there was a development in the law from 2016 when Donald Trump University, Trump University, was successfully sued for fraud under the same exact statute by a predecessor to a politician James. And the appellate courts then said, a New York attorney general under this statute from

1950s can have a one count persistent fraud and wallpaper over all the other little baby frauds, all the little fraudlets that are within there. It doesn't have to bring a separate count for each one. And so that law was established because of Donald Trump. Thank you, Donald Trump. Now, that's what happened on Tuesday, finding, so the headlines were New York judge finds persistent fraud in operation of Trump businesses

and that all the rest. And he gave her a couple of things in terms of remedies. He gave her the dissolution of all of the limited liability and corporate documents certificates to operate in New York, with an immediate assignment of a receiver to dissolve those companies. But in terms of the amount of of discouragement for Ilgott and gain, money that Donald Trump made by pumping up his assets fraudulently, leaving the banks with a hidden risk, unsecured, giving him lower interest rates than he should have been entitled to, lending him more money than he was entitled to, which he then used for other purposes.

It doesn't matter whether there's a victim, if you will, the banks were repaid. If he never should have gotten the loans that those values to begin with at that interest rate, and they get insurance coverage for a property that's not worth what he says it's worth at lower premiums as well. That's the fraud. Now the difference is in the case now in the remaining counts, which are all under the same statute, 63-12, but are for different individual frauds and conspiracies related to those frauds. Fraud in making a personal financial statement or a financial statement and a conspiracy around that.

Fraud in the books and records entries for the company related to these overall frauds and bank loans and insurance and the conspiracy around that, right? You know, fraud in insurance and the conspiracy around that. Those are the counts. Those all require intent to be shown or proven by the New York Attorney General. She's got to show not just that it happened, but that Donald Trump intended it to happen. And that's why there's 34 witnesses, including Michael Cohen, whose video clip from his deposition, which is out of court testimony, but under oath got played right away. It's helping to link between Alan Weiselberg,

the CFO disgraced who went to jail, Michael Cohen, yes, who also went to jail, but knows where all the bodies are buried at the Trump organization because he helped bury them when he used to be his Donald Trump's consul Yere and head lawyer. And others that will testify around this, around this topic to prove this element of intent to judge and go on who's sitting presiding over the trial without a jury because it's a bench trial. Heart health and staying healthy, especially when you have a family that you want to be able to spend as much time with as possible, is so important. We all have a heartfelt reason to support our blood pressure. In fact, more than

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Get this exclusive offer only at legalafbeats.com, get this exclusive offer only at legalafbeats.com. And so that's the focus. And that's why in the openings you hear the opposing lawyers, Chris Keiss and Alina Habba, say there was no intent, no intent, no intent. You might be saying, why are they stuttering? Why do they keep talking about intent? Because unlike what happened on Tuesday, these claims, these counts, require intent. And so the push pull you're gonna see in the courtroom

is the defense team arguing no intent, they'll just say it. I'm not sure they have that much evidence of no intent. And the New York Attorney General team led by Kevin Wallace, senior enforcement council for the division of economic justice. Listen to that title, economic justice is what they're seeking by the New York Attorney General. They're gonna argue intent, intent, intent.

Here's how we know intent. He gave direction, Donald Trump, to Michael Cohen and Alan Weisselberg as his chief financial officer, to change the numbers and overvalue certain of his assets and his asset classes, buildings, homes, brand, you know, other things in order to get to a certain number because he wanted to be higher on the Forbes 400 list of top billionaires. And so he would create his own numbers.

And so Michael Cohen's talking about intent, right? Why is he doing it? Some people might be saying there probably is a reasonably moderately successful business underneath Donald Trump without the fraud, right? Popok? Yeah. Yeah. His lawyers who don't really know him

and didn't grow up in New York and practice in New York for 32 years, they say, oh, he's one of the leading real estate developers worth billions and billions of dollars, not quite. He's a moderately successful real estate developer, going bankrupt three different times, including when he ran a casino, which is unheard of. Nobody's ever gone bankrupt running a casino like Donald Trump. You know, it doesn't really develop as much as buys buildings. So I wouldn't call them a developer, puts his name through licensing agreements on buildings, develop by other people,

brings his brand or used to bring his brand into the deal and do some management. So real estate management like his father used to do. But so real estate management, like his father used to do, but mega real estate developer, like the people that own the related group, or some of the other major developers? No. So there was a moderately successful, it would have been a hundred millionaire, a couple of hundred millionaire, not a billionaire,

had he just run the company without fraud. But that's the beauty of the case. Donald Trump's greed and avarice, and that of his family, and his spending patterns meant that he wasn't satisfied to be a few hundred millionaire. He wanted to be a double triple billionaire, and there is the fraud, because that's the only way to get

to pump up your numbers that way. And so that's intent. Materiality, I think, is obvious. fraud because that's the only way to get to pump up your numbers that way. And so that's intent. Materiality I think is obvious. There's so much dollar amount involved here. It has to be material. We're not talking about low fraud here. He wasn't pickpocketing.

He wasn't going to his local CVS and Greb and batteries and putting him in his pocket, not yet. But so materiality I think is easy, but the intent, intent, intent. That's what you're going to hear for the next three to five months You're going to hear the facts from the 34 witnesses and thousands and thousands of pages of documents But you're going to but you're going to hear a lot of focus on intent and An intent issue that's not present what what happened to some rejectments against them last Tuesday So that's the big focus the remaining counts, insurance

fraud and conspiracy, a financial statement fraud and conspiracy, business record fraud and conspiracy, all crimes in the state of New York. But here being tried on the lesser burden of beyond of preponderance of the evidence, which just means the scales of justice tip ever so slightly in your favor, you win. Feather on the side of two equally balanced scales of justice, you win. As opposed to the balance that you need to strike if you're the prosecutor of criminal cases, you have to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt, right? Scales of justice are like this. Civil case, but those

around the world that watch us. Civil fraud is what's on trial. This remaining fraud requires intent, and that's why you're hearing so much about intent. Along with a lot of other stupid ignorant statements made by Donald Trump's lawyers, Chris Geiss and Alina Habba, who don't understand real estate nor their client and just parrot and mimic words that he's given them. When Alina Habba says in her opening, the Trump organization is a beautiful company. That's not her talking. That's not 40-year-old Alina Habba. That's 80-year-old Donald Trump's language. When Chris Geiss says he's made, his clients made billions and billions of dollars as a successful real estate developer the New York attorney general begs to differ.

They think he's made billions of billions of dollars, but really done it on the back of fraud. They're being a small successful company spitting out, you know, a couple hundred million dollars of net worth, not satisfied. Donald Trump wants billions and that's the that's the Ponzi, that's the scheme. That's the fraud. That's at focus for the next three to five months. We're gonna focus on a daily basis

on the Midas Touch Network, on the fraud trial of the century against Donald Trump. You can watch us on YouTube, my co-anchors, Karen Friedman, Nifalo Ben, my Salis, some combination of all three of us, both on hot takes like this one, and on our leading podcast, Legal AF, also, on the Midas Touch Network.

Yes, it's what you think. And you can subscribe, free to the Midas Touch YouTube channel. You'll get the content coming to you about these issues. You can listen to us on audio podcast as well. But we'll catch and explain these types of issues in a way that we hope is informative without blowing smoke or sunshine, and also in a way that's marginally entertaining.

I do it about every day right here, exclusively on the Midas Touch Network. So until my next hot take and my next episode of LegalAftos is Michael Popok reporting. Hey, Midas, Mighty. Love this report. Continue the conversation by following us on Instagram. At Midas Touch to keep up with the most important news of the day. What are you waiting for?

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