“It’s clear Trump wanted to avoid the bloodbath of a cross-examination but wanted to say something”
Former President Donald Trump spent just three minutes on the witness stand Thursday in his defamation trial brought by E. Jean Carroll, using his testimony to declare that he backs his prior deposition denying the writer’s claims.
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As Trump left the courtroom, according to The Messenger’s Adam Klasfeld, he complained to the press in the gallery, saying, “It’s not America. It’s not America. This is not America.”
I wouldn’t be so sure of this.
Let’s say Trump gets back into office in November. And let’s say he’s facing an eleventy billion dollar judgement against him in this case, along with whatever criminal penalties come from his other state cases.
What if Trump just says “Nah, I’m not gonna pay.”. Then what? She sues a third time? As a sitting President, the court system is likely to defer any lawsuit until after his term is over, saying that his Presidential duties supersede her civil claims. Similarly, if he’s facing house arrest or jail time, it’s similarly likely that the courts would rule that states would have to wait for his term to be over in order to incarcerate him.
And by 2028, he could be dead. If his next attempts are successful, he may very well install himself as a dictator, backed by a Congress and Supreme Court too scared to do anything about it out of fears of retribution from his base (And we have already seen plenty of evidence that judges and lawmakers can be intimidated enough to back down out of fear of retribution). Or even if he does leave office, he’d be effectively restarting the clock and just dragging the cases back out indefinitely.
Either way, if he gets back into office, he will have several paths to choose from which could lead to him even avoiding state incarceration or civil penalties that he can’t outright pardon himself from. The only way he has even a chance of seeing consequences for his actions are if he loses the election. Any other outcome is a victory for him well above and beyond winning the election itself.
Nope. See Clinton v. Jones, 1997:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinton_v._Jones
“landmark United States Supreme Court case establishing that a sitting President of the United States has no immunity from civil law litigation, in federal court, for acts done before taking office and unrelated to the office.[1] In particular, there is no temporary immunity and thus no delay of federal cases until the President leaves office.[1]”
It sounds like you haven’t ever seen a subpoena sent to a financial institution. As long as Trump’s money is in a US bank or financial institution, it’s easy to get.
You just have to prove to a judge that he’s not paying. The judge issues a subpoena to the financial institution to hand over information regarding any accounts he has. If he has trusts, it’s a bit more complicated but no US financial institution is going to shield any of their clients from legal fines or penalties. They can easily lose their license for that.
Once all the asset details are known, the judge orders payouts. I’m not a lawyer and have never done it, but just looking at wording on the subpoena is enough. “Chase Bank will provide all documents related to accounts owned or controlled by or for the benefit of: whoever”. Their legal department wants to comply as fast as possible with something like this, so they will issue checks as soon as they can.