Trump Is on the Brink of a Win in His Massive New York Fraud Case

Donald Trump may soon get a reduced penalty in his civil fraud case, if oral arguments in an appeals court Thursday are any indication.

The intermediate appeals court in Manhattan heard Trump’s appeal against a New York ruling from February where he was not only fined $450 million plus interest but also barred from doing business in New York. Some of the judges on the five-member panel seemed at least receptive to the former president.

“The immense penalty in this case is troubling,” said Justice Peter Moulton. “How do you tether the amount that was assessed by the Supreme Court to the harm that was caused here where the parties left these transactions happy?”

Deputy New York Solicitor General Judith Vale, representing the state, was ready with a response, though.

“Although this is a large number, it’s a large number for a couple reasons. One, because there was a lot of fraud and illegality,” Vale said. “That is an enormous benefit they got from this conduct” of falsifying financial statements to obtain better loan rates, she added, referring to the Trump Organization.

Justice David Friedman argued that the ruling against Trump was undercut by Deutsche Bank saying Trump’s actions did not harm them.

“It hardly seems to justify bringing an action to protect Deutsche Bank against President Trump, which is what you have here,” Friedman said. “You have two really sophisticated players, in which no one lost any money.”

Vale said that state law did not require being harmed, and also noted that the bank actually complained when it heard about false statements and pulled out of its agreement with Trump.

At one point, Trump’s lawyer John Sauer tried to argue that the former president and his businesses were following “generally accepted accounting principles,” only to be rebuked by Justice Peter H. Moulton.

“It’s the factual inaccuracies that are important,” Moulton countered. “You might be following GAAP principles, but if your data is terrible, you’re creating a fallacious statement.”

The former president and convicted felon had to pony up a $175 million bond in April to stop the judgment while he appeals. His fine, thanks to 9 percent interest accruing every year, has now grown to more than $478 million. If he wins, it will be dropped, and Trump has had some success in New York courts as of late.

Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene is so angry at House Speaker Mike Johnson that she said she doesn’t think Republicans deserve to keep the majority in the House.

The House passed a three-month stopgap bill Wednesday to prevent a government shutdown, amid loud opposition from the Georgia Republican and her far-right pals. In getting the spending bill passed, Johnson went against the wishes of Donald Trump and MAGA.

During a call into Steve Bannon’s War Room, Greene railed against Johnson and made a startling remark, according to RawStory.

“Mike Johnson is not our speaker. He is the speaker for the Democrats,” Greene ranted.

Greene blamed Johnson for funding the Biden-Harris administration, the “weaponized” Department of Justice, and the FBI that “raided Mar-a-Lago and has raided a lot of January 6 defendant homes.” It doesn’t seem apparent to Greene that funding the government is not only Johnson’s job but hers as well.

She claimed Johnson had “fully funded the invasion at our border that is, that is killing Americans every single day.”

“He’s been a great speaker of the House for Democrats, and he has absolutely helped the Biden-Harris administration destroy this country,” Greene continued.

“I share the anger and frustration, and I don’t think Republicans deserve to be reelected to hold a majority,” Greene admitted.

“We have to elect President Trump in order to control the federal government,” Greene said. She immediately walked back her remark, insisting that Republicans needed to be reelected because if Democrats got control of the House, they would “rewrite the tax codes.”

She urged voters to “hold your nose and vote for that RINO that you absolutely hate, because we need a good tax code in place.”

Last week, Greene went on a tear against Johnson for his plan to attach the SAVE Act, which is based on faulty election data and seeks to solve the practically nonexistent problem of widespread noncitizen voting, to a six-month continuing resolution to fund the government. The move would have been a nonstarter for Democrats.

This is far from the first time the two have butted heads. In May, Greene tried to have Johnson removed from the speakership, but was quickly shot down.

At the end of the day, Greene and Johnson are both far-right congressional proxies for Trump. It’s just that only one of them seems to actually care about doing their job.

Free speech hero Elon Musk is yet again silencing his perceived opponents. This time, he is doing J.D. Vance’s dirty work.

Independent journalist Ken Klippenstein on Thursday reported on the leaked 271-page dossier on Vance, allegedly from the Trump campaign’s research team, which mainstream media outlets had refused to publish. Just hours later, Klippenstein was banned from X, where he’d shared a link to his reporting and to the dossier.

X users have found that they are unable to even post the link to Klippenstein’s Substack newsletter on X without receiving a message that the link is “potentially harmful.”

For ease, here is Klippenstein’s reporting on the dossier: https://www.kenklippenstein.com/p/read-the-jd-vance-dossier

This isn’t the first time Musk has used X to meddle with progressive accounts on the platform. X has come under fire for banning or limiting an NPR story critical of Trump, the Uncommitted Movement account, and even KamalaHQ. 

In January, Musk temporarily banned Klippenstein, who worked for The Intercept at the time, and a handful of other journalists. The only connection between them: their left-wing politics and their criticism of Musk.

Though some may try to argue that Klippenstein’s post broke X guidelines by publishing hacked materials and is thus “doxxing” Vance, Twitter actually changed its terms of service years ago, in part thanks to the Hunter Biden laptop story and claims of “anti-conservative” bias. The page regarding the platform’s hacked materials policy no longer exists. Musk heavily criticized Twitter’s supposed suppression of the laptop story, later elevating the so-called “Twitter Files” with right-wing journalists Matt Taibbi and Bari Weiss to expose the social media company’s previous content-moderation strategies.

At the time of publication, Klippenstein’s account is still suspended.

Donald Trump says he has a plan for the economy, but that doesn’t mean it’s any good.

According to independent nonprofit nonpartisan researchers, Trump’s policies on tariffs, deportations, and the Federal Reserve would, if put in action, seriously hike inflation, wipe out jobs, and slow U.S. production and economic growth.

In even the most generous modeling, inflation would reach 6 percent by 2026 and consumer prices would balloon 20 percent by 2028.

According to an analysis from the Peterson Institute for International Economics published Thursday, the devastating effects on the economy could last through 2040.

Trump promises to carry out “mass deportations” if elected president. Doing so could “cause a large inflationary impulse and a significant loss of employment (particularly in manufacturing and agriculture) in the US economy,” the researchers found. The deportation plan on its own would provide no economic benefit to Americans.

Warwick McKibbin, a senior fellow and co-author of the study, told CNN that the institute estimates that deporting undocumented workers would cause a pandemic-like “shock,” especially in the agriculture industry.

“Can you imagine taking 16 percent out of the labor force in agriculture?” McKibbin said, who noted the ripple effects would include rising cost of food or even permanent loss of supply.

Trump’s isolationist approach to the economy through deportations and tariffs on U.S. imports would hurt the American people most. “We find that ironically, despite his ‘make the foreigners pay’ rhetoric, this package of policies does more damage to the US economy than to any other in the world,” wrote the authors.

Of course, the Trump team denied the findings, with Trump campaign senior adviser Brian Hughes telling CNN the exact opposite: “Trump policies will fuel growth, drive down inflation, inspire American manufacturing, all while protecting the working men and women of our nation from lopsided policies tilted in favor of other countries.”

A Cornell University student is on the verge of losing his student visa and being deported over taking part in a pro-Palestine protest.

Mamadou Taal, a Ph.D. student in Africana Studies, was suspended Monday by the university after he took part in a protest against a career fair attended by defense contractors L3Harris and Boeing last week. Taal is studying at Cornell on an F-1 student visa, which can be terminated by a suspension.

On Thursday, Taal posted on X that his appeal to the university was rejected by the vice president of student and campus life, Ryan Lombardi, and that there was no investigation or due process.

“I maintain that all my actions have been peaceful and in accordance with my First Amendment rights,” Taal’s post reads. “This is a deliberate targeting of a Black Muslim student at an institution where those two identities are increasingly unwelcome. When it comes to Palestine the university will abandon all commitments to academic freedom and free speech to protect its corporate interests.”

Taal is still able to appeal to the university’s provost, but believes he’ll be deported if that appeal is rejected. The university accuses Taal and other protesters of entering the career fair by pushing and shoving campus police officers, but Taal told The Nation he had no part in this. According to student journalists at the Cornell Daily Sun, there wasn’t any physical violence toward police, although recruiters, students, and administrators appeared to be distressed.

“I can say categorically that I shoved no police officer, nor did I not listen to a lawful directive, like they’re claiming,” Taal said. He told the Sun that he only gave a speech outside before taking part in the career fair protest, and only attended that protest for five minutes before leaving.

If Taal is deported, it would be a drastic new step in university attempts across the country to tamp down on pro-Palestinian protests. Taal’s case has already drawn backlash, with a petition calling on the university to reverse its suspension drawing 2,700 signatures from Cornell students and faculty. It seems that many campuses will go to any lengths to make these protests go away, even if it means deporting students and ignoring the First Amendment.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams held a chaotic, short-lived press conference Thursday morning to address his damning public corruption indictment—only for the charges to be made public while he was speaking to the press.

Adams  was indicted Wednesday in a federal case, though the specific charges against him were not immediately released. 

“I always knew that if I stood my ground for New Yorkers that I would be a target—and a target I became,” Adams said in a statement that night. He said that charges against him were “entirely false, based on lies,” though it was not yet clear what those charges were. 

“Despite our pleas when the federal government did nothing as its broken immigration policies overloaded our shelter system with no relief, I put the people of New York before party and politics,” said Adams, suggesting this might be the reason he’d been “targeted.”

The next morning, the mayor held an official press conference on a public street outside of Gracie Mansion in Manhattan. Flanked by supporters, who were there to voice their confidence in the embattled mayor, Adams was also greeted by protesters. 

“This is not a Black thing! This is not a Black thing! This is a you thing! This is a you thing, Eric Adams!” shouted one protester as Adams chuckled awkwardly. 

“Your policies are anti-Black. You are a disgrace to all Black people in this city!” the protester continued. “This is not a Black thing, this is a justice thing!”

As Adams began speaking, he insisted he was “not surprised” by the indictment. “This is not surprising to us at all. The actions that have unfolded over the last 10 months. The leaks. The commentary. The demonizing,” he said.

Adams confirmed that he would not be stepping down as New York City’s mayor but instead “continue to do the job for 8.3 million New Yorkers that I was elected to do.” (The indictment alleges that Adams swindled more than $10 million in public funds for his 2021 mayoral campaign.) 

Adams enlisted several speakers, including the Reverend Herbert Daughtry; Hazel Dukes, head of the NAACP New York State Conference; and activist Jackie Rowe Adams, who had to scream to be heard above the hecklers and protesters. 

When a reporter notified Adams that the indictment had been unsealed, his face fell. The reporter also asked him to clarify his suggestion that he’d been targeted by the federal government. 

“I think we should ask the federal investigators and prosecutors who directed them to the actions that we are witnessing right now,” Adams responded. 

“You know I have ran many campaigns. I have been part of many campaigns. And um, the scrutiny of those campaigns always revealed the same thing. I follow the rules, I follow the law. I do not do anything that’s going to participate in illegal campaign activity. And I will not do that.

“And I’ve instructed not only in writing, but in verbal conversations with the team, we do not participate in straw donors, we do not participate in foreign donors,” Adams said. “We know what those rules are, we comply with those rules. And I think that my attorneys are going to reveal that as we move forward.”

The 57-page indictment alleged precisely the opposite, claiming that Adams had sought out and received luxurious trips and straw-man payments facilitated by a senior Turkish official. Those perks were then allegedly covered up by Adams and members of his staff. In return for all the favors, Adams allegedly pressured the New York Fire Department to sign off on a new Turkish consulate skyscraper without a fire inspection. The full indictment includes other charges as well, alleging hefty straw-man payments from a construction company owner and the owner of a Turkish university.

One reporter asked Adams to respond to the charges, which went back to before his 2021 mayoral campaign, despite Adams implying the indictment was payback for complaining that the federal government had helped to create an immigration surge in New York City. The mayor was also asked, point-blank, whether he had taken kickbacks from foreign countries or intervened on behalf of the Turkish government—and that seemed to be all he could take. 

“My legal team will peruse the entire indictment. We got it today when it was released,” said a pained-looking Adams. “The news media received information before we did.”

“It appears as though the goal is to try to try this case publicly, and not in the criminal justice system that’s in place,” he said. 

“If it’s campaign violations, I know I don’t violate the campaign. If it’s foreign donors, I know I don’t take money from foreign donors,” Adams said. 

Adams then abruptly ended the news conference and shuffled away with his herd of supporters, as some in the crowd cheered, “RESIGN! RESIGN! RESIGN!”

Democratic Senator Ron Wyden proposed a new bill Wednesday that would pack the Supreme Court and dramatically overhaul the nation’s highest court.

Wyden’s bill would expand the court from nine justices to 15 over 12 years, and require two-thirds of the Supreme Court and federal circuit courts of appeals to overturn any law passed by Congress. The bill would require the Senate to automatically schedule a vote on nominees to the high court if they are held up in committee for more than 180 days.

Senators would be barred from blocking nominees to the court by refusing to vote on them. Federal judicial circuits would be expanded to 15 from 13, which would add 60 appellate court judges and 100 to district courts.

The bill would also increase financial transparency measures for Supreme Court justices, requiring them to make their tax filings public. The IRS would be required to audit their tax returns and release the results. Anyone nominated to the court would have to disclose three years of tax returns.

Court proceedings would also be affected, with a two-thirds majority of the court having the ability to force a fellow justice to recuse themselves from a case. Justices would be required to release opinions to the public and detail their votes on issues decided on an emergency basis, upending the infamous “shadow docket.”

The bill stands little chance of passing, particularly in the Republican-controlled House. But it is the strongest proposal from Democrats for reforming the judiciary, not only tackling the Supreme Court but making changes to the federal circuit as well. In July, President Biden announced his own ideas for judicial reform, but only called for 18-year term limits for Supreme Court justices as well as a binding code of conduct.

Calls for court reform blew up after April 2023, when a ProPublica investigation revealed Thomas received previously undisclosed luxury vacations from billionaire Republican donor Harlan Crow. Four months later, more revelations of undisclosed gifts followed, including at least 38 vacations and 26 private jet flights given to Thomas from an array of right-wing billionaires. Thomas in 2003 also accepted a free trip to visit Vladimir Putin’s hometown in Russia.

Justice Samuel Alito has had his own scandals, involving political advocacy in the form of political flags flying outside of his home, and he was also implicated for receiving gifts from Crow and other right-wing billionaires. Wyden’s proposal may not survive Congress or even legal challenges, but it is the first serious proposal to expand the court. The question is whether Wyden can get any other Democrats to sign on.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams’s indictment was unsealed Wednesday, revealing his five damning public corruption charges. 

Adams, who was once lauded as the future of the Democratic Party, was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, federal program bribery, and to receive campaign contributions by foreign nationals.  He was also charged with one count of wire fraud, two counts of solicitation of a contribution by a foreign national, and one count of bribery. 

The 57-page indictment alleged that starting in 2014, when Adams was the Brooklyn borough president, he “sought and accepted improper valuable benefits” as contributions, including luxury travel. In 2015, Adams traveled to Turkey and began to “establish corrupt relationships,” according to the filing. 

The indictment refers to “a senior official in the Turkish diplomatic establishment” who “facilitated many straw donations” to Adams. Adams allegedly sought and received benefits from this Turkish official, who apparently organized for Adams and associates to fly for free, or at a discount, on Turkish Airlines and set them up with lavish accommodations around the world. 

Adams allegedly provided “favorable treatment in exchange for the illicit benefits he received” from his foreign-national benefactors, according to the indictment. 

Throughout 2016 and 2017, Adams allegedly received free flights and discounted hotel accommodations (he once paid only $600 for a $7,000 room at the St. Regis Istanbul), but he did not report receiving any gifts to New York City’s Conflicts of Interest Board.

Adams allegedly received more than $60,000 worth of free or discounted airline tickets on Turkish Airlines between October 2016 and November 2017.

In 2018, when Adams made clear his intention to run for mayor in 2021, he allegedly received unlawful campaign contributions through “straw” donors, who contributed money to his campaign on behalf of foreign nationals and businesses.

Through New York City’s program to match small-dollar campaign contributions from New York City residents, Adams also allegedly misused public funds while falsely certifying their compliance with campaign finance law. 

“As a result of those false certifications, ADAMS’s 2021 mayoral campaign received more than $10,000,000 in public funds,” the indictment alleged. 

In 2021, Adams’s campaign employees allegedly coordinated with the head of a construction company, who was not Turkish but “a prominent member of a different ethnic community in New York City,” to contribute $10,000 worth of straw-man contributions. The businessman purportedly donated $2,000 and had four of his employees donate the rest, which he then reimbursed—and was matched by the city. In return, Adams helped the businessman to organize events and appeared to assist him in lifting a work-stop order, according to text messages between the two.

The indictment alleged that Adams and some others working at his behest attempted to conceal his wrongdoing by insisting that they had actually paid for free services, creating a fake paper trail and even deleting text conversations. Adams allegedly “deleted messages with others involved in his misconduct, including, in one instance, assuring a co-conspirator in writing that he ‘always’ deleted her messages.”

In September 2021, the senior Turkish official who’d allegedly plied Adams with free trips attempted to cash in on all of the favors to Adams. The official asked the mayor to pressure the New York City Fire Department to open a new Turkish consular building, a 36-story skyscraper, without a fire inspection. Adams allegedly acquiesced.

“Because of ADAMS’S pressure on the FDNY, the FDNY official responsible for the FDNY’s assessment of the skyscraper’s fire safety was told that he would lose his job if he failed to acquiesce,” the indictment said. “And, after ADAMS intervened, the skyscraper opened as requested by the Turkish Official.”

Donald Trump has never seen a silly little item he didn’t want to peddle.

Yesterday, it may have been assassination-themed sneakers, NFTs, or Bibles, but today it is watches. And of course, the Republican presidential nominee promises that “these Watches are truly special.”

As he lags behind Kamala Harris in fundraising and with Truth Social stock plummeting, Trump is desperate to raise money for his campaign and legal fees any way he can.

Trump promoted the ugly new merch on Thursday morning, encouraging customers to “Join President Trump’s Watch Community” and “Be a part of history.” 

The “Trump Victory Tourbillon” watch is for sale for the low price of $100,000 and is available in gold or rose gold. It features “classic sophistication combined with President Trump’s symbol of success: Gold.” The caseback features a personalized thank-you message from Trump himself.

Alternatively, if you can’t drop that much for a limited-edition watch, you could always grab the much less grand “Fight Fight Fight” watch for $499, including one color in MAGA red. The back of this watch features the image of Trump, post–assassination attempt, with his fist in the sky. The copy of the website reads, “With its timeless design and flexible style, you’re ready for any situation, just like President Trump!”

Despite being shared by the former president on Truth Social, and like the heavily marked-up “Trump Coins” he introduced the day before, the website claims it “is not political and has nothing to do with any political campaign.”

J.D. Vance is not polling well among 18- to 29-year-olds nationwide.

A Harvard Youth poll found that only 18 percent of respondents had a favorable view of Donald Trump’s running mate. The Bulwark editor Jonathan V. Last argued Wednesday that this was a particularly bad number for Vance, especially when compared with the favorability of North Carolina Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson.

A recent Elon University poll found that 27 percent of female respondents had a favorable opinion of the now-disgraced Republican gubernatorial candidate. The poll was taken before Robinson’s scandal broke last week—but after he’d said and done a slew of other insane things.

“The guy who says the Holocaust was overblown and Hitler was great, who wants to own slaves, who was a frequenter of backroom porn video booths, and who bragged about banging his wife’s sister.… That guy was able to get to 27 percent favorable with women in North Carolina,” Last wrote.

A closer look at the Elon University poll found that 15 percent of female respondents found Robinson “very favorable” and 13 percent found him “favorable.” Forty-two percent of female respondents said Robinson was “very unfavorable.”

Meanwhile, in the Harvard poll, 46 percent of respondents found Vance to be “unfavorable” and only 33 percent found his opponent, Tim Walz, unfavorable.

Last tried to throw Vance a bone.

“This Harvard poll did not test favorability ratings for the Taliban, or Vladimir Putin, or herpes. If they had, I’m sure all three would have been less popular than JD Vance,” Last wrote. “But not by much.”