Gilead
Donald Trump
Finances
Fig. 1. Trump International Hotel, Las Vegas, undated image credited to https://www.flickr.com/photos/glynlowe/ [bad link], CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Are you losing track? I’m losing track.
[A trial for criminal tax fraud in New York] comes as the former US president faces a maze of legal troubles and mounting costs – by some estimates running at close to $4m a month to his leadership PAC – over his attempts to overturn his 2020 election loss, the removal of government documents from the White House when he left office and a defamation case relating to a rape allegation. . . .
If found guilty, the [Trump Organization], which is run by Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump, could face $1.6m in fines and find its ability to operate hotels, golf courses and other assets impeded.
But the trial will likely be most interesting for its subplots and how it intersects with a separate, civil investigation by New York state attorney general Letitia James that harvested a 200-page indictment last month accusing the Trump Organization, Trump and three of his adult children of overstating property values and Trump’s net worth to get favorable bank loans and insurance coverage. . . .
“It’s strategically a really difficult case both for [Allen] Weisselberg [who will be testifying and whose sentence in a separate conviction depends on truthful testimony] and [Donald] Trump because they could end winning the battle and losing the war,” says Andrew Weissmann, a former federal prosecutor who now teaches law at New York University.
“If they do a typical defense cross-examination of Weisselberg and they catch him in some sort of lie then his deal is over and the pressure on him to flip [on Trump] is going to be that much greater.”
Under the circumstances, the Trump Organization’s lawyers can’t simply try to eviscerate the credibility of Weisselberg, Weissmann points out, without potentially rewarding investigators with evidence that their larger quarry, Trump himself, knew of the arrangements to reward executives with untaxed compensation.
“The idea that Trump didn’t know is going to be the critical thing that Weisselberg is asked about. If he denies that Donald Trump knew, you can see the judge saying, ‘I don’t believe it and I’m going to take that into account when I sentence you.’”[1]
Apparently, the Trump Organization has hired good lawyers but they have a terrible needle to thread in their defense.[2]
Edward Helmore, “Trump Organization to face criminal tax fraud charges in New York court on Monday,” Guardian, October 23, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/oct/23/trump-org-tax-fraud-charges-cfo-new-york
(dis)United Kingdom
Prime minister
Fig. 2. President Reagan on the South Lawn during the arrival ceremony of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher of the United Kingdom. U.S. Government photograph, November 16, 1988, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
Politico is reporting that by two counts—neither by Politico—Rishi Sunak is well ahead in Parliamentary support over Boris Johnson, but by one of those counts, Johnson is closing on the 100-vote threshold he needs. It’s probably safe to say at this point that Penny Mordaunt is a long shot.[3]
Another Johnson premiership would likely blow up as a Privileges Committee reports the results of its investigation:[4]
Absolutely not backing Boris Former European Research Group Chairman Steve Baker, who really went for it this morning as sometimes only he can. The influential Brexiteer told Sky’s Sophy Ridge that while there is “a lot of love for Boris Johnson, and I respect that,” the ongoing privileges committee investigation into whether the ex-PM misled MPs over partygate means he’d been a “guaranteed disaster.” Plenty of Baker’s Brexiteer colleagues will be listening hard to what he says.
Gulp: “There is going to be a vote before the House of Commons on whether [Johnson] deliberately misled the house,” Baker said. “In that vote it is guaranteed there will be a large number of Conservatives who will refuse to lay down their integrity to save him. At that point his premiership will collapse.”
Just to hammer the point home: Baker, a Truss-backer who got a ministerial gig when she took office, reminded Ridge that some 62 MPs quit Johnson’s government as it collapsed. “It is a guaranteed, nailed-on failure, and we cannot let it happen.”[5]
Sunak might also be collateral damage in the still-not-quite-resolved Partygate scandal.[6]
The Tories look more and more like a gang whose members can’t keep their pants zipped.
Ben Riley-Smith, Christopher Hope, and Camilla Turner, ‘Rishi Sunak ‘passes 100 Tory MP threshold’ as he races to secure majority,” Telegraph, October 22, 2022, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/10/21/rishi-sunak-races-secure-majority-tory-mps-seal-coronation-leadership/
Matt Honeycombe-Foster to Sunday Crunch list, “D-Day looms—Rishi’s running — Baker’s blast,” Politico, October 23, 2022, https://www.politico.eu/
Ukraine
Fig. 3. “Destroyed Russian military vehicles located on the main street Khreshchatyk are seen as part of the celebration of the Independence Day of Ukraine in Kyiv, August 24.” Photograph by Gleb Garanich for Reuters, August 24, 2022,[7] fair use.
Andrew Meldrum, “Anticipating Ukrainian advance, Russia withdraws officers from Kherson – think tank,” Times of Israel, October 23, 2022, https://www.timesofisrael.com/anticipating-ukrainian-advance-russia-withdraws-officers-from-kherson-think-tank/
- [1]Edward Helmore, “Trump Organization to face criminal tax fraud charges in New York court on Monday,” Guardian, October 23, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/oct/23/trump-org-tax-fraud-charges-cfo-new-york↩
- [2]Edward Helmore, “Trump Organization to face criminal tax fraud charges in New York court on Monday,” Guardian, October 23, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/oct/23/trump-org-tax-fraud-charges-cfo-new-york↩
- [3]Matt Honeycombe-Foster to Sunday Crunch list, “D-Day looms—Rishi’s running — Baker’s blast,” Politico, October 23, 2022, https://www.politico.eu/↩
- [4]Matt Honeycombe-Foster to Sunday Crunch list, “D-Day looms—Rishi’s running — Baker’s blast,” Politico, October 23, 2022, https://www.politico.eu/↩
- [5]Matt Honeycombe-Foster to Sunday Crunch list, “D-Day looms—Rishi’s running — Baker’s blast,” Politico, October 23, 2022, https://www.politico.eu/↩
- [6]Matt Honeycombe-Foster to Sunday Crunch list, “D-Day looms—Rishi’s running — Baker’s blast,” Politico, October 23, 2022, https://www.politico.eu/↩
- [7]Reuters, “Ukraine puts destroyed Russian tanks on display in Kyiv,” August 25, 2022, https://www.reuters.com/news/picture/ukraine-puts-destroyed-russian-tanks-on-idUSRTSALV9Q↩