Trump's Legal Issues: Orange Hair Could Be the New Black

 

       It's difficult to know where to begin with Donald J. Trump and his various legal transgressions. Only weeks ago he was acquitted of impeachment on his actions of culpability in inciting the US Capitol riot on January 6th by the U.S. Senate. The historically unprecedented circumstances of a former president being impeached set a likely possiblity of a future or even current Democratic president being impeached by a Republican controlled Congress, just for spite. However spineless you may think some Republican senators were, verbally scolding Trump for riling up his lunatic, radical fan base on one hand, yet voting to acquit on the other hand, well sadly, this is where American politics has ended up. Believe it or not and yes, it's beyond comprehension, Donald Trump, despite all the madness, mismanagement and hopefully we'll soon get to the bottom of, criminal activities before and even during his four year term, received an incredible 74.2 million votes (numbers courtesy of cookpolitical.com). Those mind numbing voting results does put even semi-logical Republican pols in a difficult position, to say the least. Obviously, the majority of constituents these Congressmen and Senators represent voted for Trump and more than likely many of them are extreme "Trumpists". Be that as it may, when the madness of January 6th fades, with time and perhaps when some of these brainwashed Trump worshippers snap back into reality, maybe that would be enough for Republicans to finally, once and for all, denounce this tyrant. Perhaps when everyone is reminded what a swindler, con-man and head of an actual criminal enterprise, Trump truly is, then just maybe, hearts and minds will be zapped back into coherence.

    Now, I know you're thinking, we already know all these things about Trump, heck people like me who lived in New York City had been aware of Trump's financial escapades and prejudice behavior for decades before he ran for President. But moving onward, the point of this piece is to focus on Trump's post-white house legal problems, which just got a whole lot more interesting, as two of his beloved Supreme Court appointees Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh voted with Liberal judges and  upheld the 7-2 July decision to allow prosecutors access to his tax records (info obtained from Associated Press). This is an extremely damaging setback for Trump and his defense. Even though white-collar crime dog, Cyrus Vance Jr. may not be seeking re-election as Manhattan District Attorney. Whoever does replace Vance Jr., will without a doubt or even competition, be a Democrat and hungry to increase their profile by having the gargantuan task of prosecuting a former President. To get an idea of what the DA will be perusing is one example in which Donald Trump paid an insultingly miniscule 750.00 in income taxes in both 2016 and 2017. Supposedly after all was said and done with Trump's 2017 tax return, he actually, or should we say, supposedly lost over 12.5 million dollars (courtesy of NY Times). A well known fact during Trump's original Presidential campaign in 2016 was the secrecy and downright refusal, of releasing any financial information publicly. It was traditional for hundreds of years for candidates running for president to happily disclose their financial dealings to show potential voters they were honest tax paying Americans and void of any corruption allegations. Trump was never one to succumbed to normalcy, which is painfully obvious, but in this case as we'll see more, Trump definitely had good reasons to hide his tax statements. That number alone, 750.00, should disgust every hard working American who may make a salary of 50,000 a year and pay on average, over 6,000 in income taxes compared with  the amount of a so called billionaire (numbers courtesy of interactive.taxfoundation.org). 

   It's not just Trump's absurd tax history that gives us a clear picture of what a faux business genius, he's always claimed to be. One unfortunate and very gullible example of Trump's celebrity status blinding common sense, was his financial dealings with German lender Deutsche Bank. I'm never one to show any sympathy for any bank, or major corporation of any kind. But in this case you have to stand in awe of the amount of money Donald Trump swindled from this star struck, seemingly incredibly naive, and perhaps a bit idiotic bank lender. Here are numbers that could make anyone's head spin; Donald Trump the author of a book named 'The Art of the Deal" currently owes (according to Forbes.com) Deutsche Bank a mind-numbing 340 million dollars over roughly 15 years of business dealings. So I guess "The Art of Deal"entails accruing hundreds of millions of dollars in debt and avoiding paying any taxes, be sure to write this down folks, you could one day own a golf course and have your own fraudulent University. 

    Which reminds me of the all-time shameful act of blicking money from people misguided by Trump's bluster and imaginary business acumen. Founded in 2004, Trump University, was advertised as an entrepreneurly school to learn from the best and to become a famously, rich business tycoon. Well friends, in case you may have forgotten or never heard, Trump U. was defunct by 2010 due to the reasons that the 3-5 day "seminars" were total bullshit and the "students" received no credits, referrals for further studies or employment, not even grades for the "classes" that prices ranged between 2,000 and 35,000 dollars (info obtained by (NPR.com). Luckily, the poor saps that fell for this high profile scam won a class action lawsuit to the tune of 25 million dollars, as Trump's lawyers aimed to settle quickly, considering the processedings took place in November of 2016, while the Donald was already President. There's no debters prison in the United States, unless of course, it's monies owed to the IRS or child support. But in cases like these, I sure wish the government would make an exception.

    Speaking of the IRS, it's one federal agency, Trump is terrified of. It's the one entity that could actually hold Trump and his history of fraudulence accountable. And not just with payoffs, no the IRS is not afraid to go after anyone on actual criminal charges, no matter your status as a celebrity, business tycoon or even a former President. They're not interested in blank checks to make unsavory, illegal acts disappear, like the Southern District of New York (SDNY) they're looking to put you away. Federal prison, now I've heard all the club fed jokes, about minimum security federal prisons and their overly comfortable settings, but for someone of Trumps stature, the lifestyle he's accustomed to and his incredibly narcissistic ego, even a year in any jail would destroy him. 

  Let's get the bottom of, how and why Donald J Trump could actually end up in a criminal court of law, with a realistic chance at being convicted of white collar, finance based charges. The most egregious criminal offenses Trump and members of his family could be facing in the SDNY, are as follows: bank fraud, insurance fraud and the most serious, that could carry a prison sentence of up to 7 years, the dreaded tax fraud. We mentioned earlier Trump's futile efforts to get his tax records hidden from current Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance JR have run dry, meaning there's really nothing legally stopping the SDNY from prosecuting former President Trump. If a trial were to take place in the distant future and Trump was actually found guilty and is sentenced to prison time, it would possibly be regarded as the greatest fall from grace in American history. Time will tell if the federal government will have the stomach to not only indict a former President, but actually, if convicted, send him to jail.

   Astoundingly, it's not just federal offenses Trump needs to worry about. State charges in New York and even for his post election antics in Georgia could also eventually lead Trump from the White House to the Big House. Now, the state charges he could be facing are not nearly as serious as the potential federal charges that could earn him a seat in the defendants chair. The state of New York offenses basically stem from his tax fraud federal case, but similarly, now with access to his tax records, the state of New York could seek it's own case of tax fraud, if it's found Trump also cheated on his state taxes. In Georgia, state prosecutors are currently investigating whether Trump, during his manic attempts to force Georgia's governor, Brian Kemp and state secretary Brad Raffensberger, to overturn Joe Biden's win, violated state election statutes. 

   It seems anywhere and everywhere you look Donald Trump is in some pretty deep legal water. And no matter how recklessly loyal Trumpists can be, it would take a full fledged armed revolt to keep their hero out of the court room. Let's also remember how unpopular Donald is in the city of New York, where he only gained a measly 22% of the vote in 2020 and most of those he gained in the historically Republican borough of Staten Island (numbers compiled by newsweek.com). Meaning it's doubtful we'll be seeing any armed insurrections outside or inside a Manhattan courthouse, as New York is well-known and quite proud of their large amount of minority population and progressive idealism.

  Lastly, I did make several attempts while writing this piece at sarcasm and making light of Trump's outlandish behavior, including poking fun at some of his criminal activity. But, realistically speaking, I like many of you are sick of watching wealthy capitalists and in Trump's case fascists get away with crimes ranging from cheating on taxes to flat out stealing from people. The man is an abomination and has come to represent everything wrong with the United States. Until the citizens of this fading democracy bear witness that just because you were born into wealth or tricked enough frustrated voters to believe your bullshit, and become president, you're still held responsible for crimes you committed. Otherwise, nothing is going to change, and money will overcome the justice system everytime.