A court-ordered financial auditor has caught Donald Trump quietly moving $40 million from the Trump Organization into a personal bank account—seemingly so the former president could pay his whopping $29 million tax bill.

Trump isn’t supposed to be moving any money around without alerting Barbara S. Jones, a former federal judge in New York tasked with babysitting the Trump Organization for its relentlessly shady business practices. But on Wednesday, she notified a New York state court about some major bank transfers that were never brought to her attention by the Trumps.

  • BertramDitore@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    Cool cool cool, that’s just great. So there are going to be immediate legal consequences, right???

    Fuck I’m so tired of this.

    • noride@lemm.ee
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      11 months ago

      Oh yes yes, consequences aplenty! They are facing a fine of several thousand dollars here! Justice at long last!!

    • Chainweasel@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      I’m honestly starting to think he was sent to us as some sort of test to see how much bullshit we’ll put up with before we revolt, and we’re fucking failing.

      • Mnemnosyne@sh.itjust.works
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        11 months ago

        Makes me think of Vault 11 from Fallout New Vegas where the population has to sacrifice one person every year or everyone would be killed.

        Only it was a test and if they refused then nobody is killed. But they send sacrifices for almost 200 years.

    • shalafi@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      But on Wednesday, she notified a New York state court

      Just how fast you want them to move?! This was reported to the court TODAY.

      • Butt Pirate@reddthat.com
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        11 months ago

        And he stole classified documents three years ago. He orchestrated a failed coup three years ago too. At the rate this is going he’s going to be elected grand emperor and he will just dismiss the cases against him.

    • Stupidmanager@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      the legal ramifications for Trump is so great, that it’ll spill over to people who shouldn’t be in trouble but sadly had the letter ‘T’ in their name. So sorry Tommy and Tina, you’re going to jail cause our Orange Idiot is too rich.

      Oh, you too Anthony and Bridgette, don’t think we didn’t see those T’s hiding!

    • stolid_agnostic@lemmy.ml
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      11 months ago

      This is already done and has been for months. They are just trying to figure out exactly how fucked over here is.

        • stolid_agnostic@lemmy.ml
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          11 months ago

          You’re wrong. Anything can happen with the federal cases but this New York one will stick. The law they are using was created specifically for people like Trump that they can’t take down criminally.

          • ripcord@kbin.social
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            11 months ago

            I hope you’re right but the last 6 years have eliminated 100% of confidence that you will be.

            • Telorand@reddthat.com
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              11 months ago

              Your cynicism is totally understandable, but all the lawyers I’ve listened to on this one say he’s fucked. It’s just that Justice moves too slowly for the average person, so it feels like nothing is being done about his lawlessness.

              • DogMuffins@discuss.tchncs.de
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                11 months ago

                Dude he’s about to be elected perpetual supreme grand emperor so he can just cancel democracy.

                Cross all the t’s and dot all the i’s but penalise him already.

                • Telorand@reddthat.com
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                  11 months ago

                  I feel you. Justice moves slowly, especially for people who have immense privilege. I want him behind bars or hidden away somewhere, never to be seen again. We’re too close to fascism to be giving people like him the benefit of the doubt.

            • eestileib@sh.itjust.works
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              11 months ago

              Hey, he actually paid E Jean Carroll her proceeds from the lawsuit (this was part of the transactions listed here).

              So he was actually out a little under $6M from a legal loss, and actually paid.

              Anyway, toss that toothpick on the scales opposite the sequoiah of judicial indifference.

    • Kbin_space_program@kbin.social
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      11 months ago

      Because the US has never had a former president get caught so badly and there isn’t precedent for this.

      Particularly in that he’s running for president again, is the presumptive GOP nominee based on poll data, and the Supreme Court is functionally in his pocket.

      • PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        That last part is important. Courts are bending over backwards to accommodate him, because they don’t want to give him any way to claim his trials were unfair. You can only appeal a ruling on the basis of mistrial. Basically, you have to show the appeals court that your previous trial was unfair in some way. So the lower courts are doing everything they can to avoid giving him ammo for that appeal.

        Because the lower courts know that if it successfully gets appealed, the courts get exponentially more conservative as they go up. So his chances of getting away with it dramatically increase with each subsequent appeal. And if it makes it all the way to the SCOTUS, they’ll happily light the constitution on fire to let him walk. So their best chance is to nip it in the bud now, by making the courtroom proceedings as appeals-proof as possible. And the only way to do that is to avoid seeming unfair at every opportunity.

      • lolcatnip@reddthat.com
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        11 months ago

        In a legal sense, it’s only unprecedented if you start from the assumption that the law doesn’t apply to former presidents the way it does to anyone else.

        The real issue is they’ve never tried to prosecute a tinpot dictator with an army would-be terrorists and a bunch of collaborators in key positions in the federal government.

      • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        There is precedent, the GOP just likes to forget that. Ulysses S Grant was prosecuted as a sitting president. It was for a misdemeanor of “speeding on horseback while in the city limits of Washington DC,” but that just reinforces that we absolutely can and will prosecute even a sitting president for minor crimes, much less a “former president,” which is just a normal citizen, for 96 felonies.

        • Kbin_space_program@kbin.social
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          11 months ago

          Fair. Didn’t know about that(the grant speeding arrest).

          Looking it up, there is a marked difference in that Grant accepted that he’d been fairly caught(even if his compatriots didn’t) whereas the guy who gives orange a bad rap looks for all appearances to be willing to get rid of the democratic process entirely to evade consequences.

          It is unfortunate that Watergate and the Bush Administration’s legalizing of Torture never got their proper treatment. Perhaps if they did the current situation wouldn’t have happened.

          • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            I only know about the Grant thing because I found out that was the third time he had been pulled over, the previous two he was a General, and there was a small war going on at the time, while I was looking into the illegal shit that caused Qualified Immunity.

      • eric@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        I’m no fan of the current court, but to say it’s in Trump’s pocket is ludicrous. If they were, they would not have rejected his election challenge appeals related to the 2020 election.

        • Riccosuave@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          Have you considered a career in the CIA? I hear they really appreciate this combination of creativity and questionable personal ethics 🙃😅

        • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          They were, yes. But you’d be surprised how much that fails in practice.

          For example, it was concluded that it took 7 seconds for death to actually happen, and that’s with a sharp blade. A dull one might not even be lethal.

            • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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              11 months ago

              [Thunk]
              “HEY BASTARD, DIDN’T YOU SHARPEN THIS THING?”
              has been a conversation that has been had before. just saying.

      • grue@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        This ain’t R*ddit. Lemmy is, for the moment, still small enough that single-digit numbers of votes are significant.

        • FrostyTheDoo@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          Some people down vote because they want comments that actually add to the discussion to be at the top, and comments that ask the same rhetorical questions ad nauseum to be at the bottom, so they don’t have to scroll as far to find meaningful discussion. At least that’s why I downvoted you

          • killeronthecorner@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            How is that question rhetorical?

            A question isn’t rhetorical because you or others like you haven’t been able to answer it. It’s the most important question in American politics right now.

            • FrostyTheDoo@lemmy.world
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              11 months ago

              Wikipedia: A rhetorical question is a question asked for a purpose other than to obtain information. In many cases it may be intended to start a discourse, or as a means of displaying or emphasizing the speaker’s or author’s opinion on a topic

              The question wasn’t asked to obtain information. It was asked to emphasize the point of the post, and there was already another comment from an hour earlier asking the exact same question (scroll up in this thread.)

              Or do people really not know why Donald Trump is getting special treatment at this point? It’s the most obvious answer in America politics right now. It’s been clear that America has 2 criminal justice systems for centuries now, and Trump is clearly in the one where you don’t go to real jail, ever.

              The complaint that he deserves to be in jail is valid. I’m saying I prefer a thread where we talk about the topic of the article (what he did) and not a thread where every other comment is some variation of “this is ridiculous!” “Why isn’t he in jail!” “Call me when he’s actually in jail and I’ll listen!!!”

              It just gets old so I downvote the comments that I don’t want to see in every single thread, so other people that actually add to the conversation can get seen. But here I am wasting words on that exact thread, so I guess I learned to not take the bait and reply to a downvote whiner next time at all.

              • killeronthecorner@lemmy.world
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                11 months ago

                You’re confusing the information not being readily available with people not actual wanting it.

                You can prefer whatever you like in terms of discourse by scrolling past the parts you don’t like. It doesn’t mean you get to mislabel people’s questions to denigrate them. It’s intellectually dishonest.

                • FrostyTheDoo@lemmy.world
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                  11 months ago

                  Man I’m allowed to downvote shit I don’t want to see at the top of every post. Like that’s why they put that functionality on this site, I am allowed to use it to vote on what’s the most relevant comment. You’re not the ruler of Lemmy.

                  It was a redundant, pointless, low effort comment that repeated the one at the top of the thread so I downvoted it and I did scroll past it and move on without saying anything. Then the dude whined and labeled everyone downvoting him as a coward, presumably because he assumed they supported Trump (remember how you feel about people being mislabeled and denigrated?) so I corrected him about my reasoning. What the fuck is wrong with that?

                  The irony of you not scrolling past my comment and instead chastising me is palpable.

            • FrostyTheDoo@lemmy.world
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              11 months ago

              It triggered you enough to edit your post to whine about ‘cowards’. You’re the one that asked for an explanation from your downvoters, I was just standing up and explaining myself to be counted by you like you demanded.

                • FrostyTheDoo@lemmy.world
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                  11 months ago

                  So you do care about up votes then, or you wouldn’t be using it to claim you “came out on top”. You called me a coward for downvoting you so I responded and called you out for being thin skinned, and you’ve done nothing but prove me right since. But if that feels like a win to you then that is just super cool man.

    • johannesvanderwhales@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      The actual answer is “because the law moves very slowly in general and Trump knows it’s to his advantage to draw out the process”. There’s nothing particularly unusual about this process. The people who go to jail right away are people who can’t afford lawyers and take bad deals, or who can’t afford cash bail (which usually leads to them taking bad deals).

  • ryrybang@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    Not just a tax bill, but insurance bills and attorney bills for the Carroll case.

    But the rest apparently went to cover Trump’s mounting legal costs following a searing jury verdict in May that determined he sexually assaulted the journalist E. Jean Carroll—and slapped him with a $5 million penalty.

    “I have also confirmed that the other transfers were for insurance premiums and to an attorney escrow account,” Jones wrote, referencing the Carroll case.

    What a guy.

    • Sanctus@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      I feel like there should be a little more headlines about that, but after typing this who am I kidding? Thats not gonna damage him in anyway.

    • Bleeping Lobster@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Does this imply that his funds generated from begging to his supporters are drying up?

      I’m under no illusion that it’d be due to change 9f heart, but maybe they’re tapped out at this stage.

      • somethingsnappy@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        He says he’s a billionaire, so all of this is supposed to be a rounding error at most. It’s becoming more clear he isn’t even a billionaire, and is in serious trouble with major banks. The NY trial could rout his “business empire.” Unfortunately he’ll still win the regressive nomination.

  • KeriKitty (They(/It))@pawb.social
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    11 months ago

    Weird headlines for days around here O.o I had to come see what was going on because “Trump caught paying taxes” just sounds like a joke 😅

    The only really surprising thing I see is that he’s paying taxes at all. Also, what’s the difference between quietly and loudly moving $40 million around? I honestly have no idea what kind of sound that makes.

    • spaceghoti@lemmy.oneOP
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      11 months ago

      He’s under an injunction against quietly transferring funds around in case he tries to hide it. Let’s be honest, he probably has accounts he hasn’t declared that should be accounted for. If it’s a legitimate expense all he had to do was let the observer know what he was doing and why. But instead he did it hoping it wouldn’t be noticed.

      He’s a moron.

    • AFK BRB Chocolate@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Because of the financial fraud trial involving the company, they’re required to notify the judge anytime they move money around. “Quietly” in this case means they didn’t do that.

  • Rapidcreek@reddthat.com
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    11 months ago

    Stop it, you’re killing me…Next you’ll tell me he’s disseminated classified materials to foreign nationals.

    • Neato@kbin.social
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      11 months ago

      Keeping secret materials in your pool house bathroom is something from a scrapped episode of Arrested Development.

    • gregorum@lemm.ee
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      11 months ago

      He does now. Most of his ability to dodge taxes is either under investigation or shut down right now. Being under 91 active indictments isn’t the best time to be cheating on your taxes, but this is Trump after all…

    • stolid_agnostic@lemmy.ml
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      11 months ago

      He only didn’t pay taxes through a combination of fraud and astronomical losses that you can pass forward for a period of years. That’s over now.

  • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    I wish there was some way to cut off any funds to him via fundraising and crowdfunding. John Barron spent years lying about his wealth and now his supporters act like he’s some kind of charity case. Do they even hear themselves when they justify sending a so-called billionaire their cash?

  • Treczoks@lemm.ee
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    11 months ago

    What does surprise me more? That he circumvents court orders to move around money, or that he actually pays (significant) taxes for a change?

  • Dimok@reddthat.com
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    11 months ago

    Headline could reach “Wealthy person found loopholes and illegal ways to keep more of their money.” I mean, if you’re gonna eat the Candy Korn, EAT EM ALL :)