"It's a Disgrace."

 

 "John, I can't believe it, it's a disgrace. He's a tremendous person." -Trump, quoted by ABC News reporter John Santucci.

(By American Zen's Mike Flannigan, on loan from Ari.)

For perhaps the first and only time in our lives, Donald Trump had a common emotional experience with the rest of the country: It was something the nightmarish  pandemic or seeing our nation's Capitol getting sacked couldn't do- Seeing Allen Weisselberg, the Trump Organization's CFO, getting led to his arraignment in handcuffs and being shocked at the spectacle.

    It's the opening salvo in what will surely be a war between Trump, NY AG Letitia James and outgoing Manhattan DA Cy Vance, Jr that will consume the rest of the year and perhaps beyond into the 2022 elections. Early yesterday morning, Weisselberg surrendered to law enforcement at the DA's office. Trump's reaction as he was watching Weisselberg's heavily-covered perp walk was rather expected, if comically clueless.

    Perhaps it was the only honest emotional reaction that Trump's ever had in real time. It came from someone so insulated his whole life from accountability that he couldn't believe it was happening to him. And yes, as he watched his Chief Financial Officer being led away in handcuffs as if he was an ordinary purse snatcher, it was himself he saw in those cuffs, surrounded by cops.

    Of course, Weisselberg will only continue being "a tremendous person" as long as he keeps his trap shut. And the man who financially speaking knows where all the bodies are buried has several incentives for keeping his trap shut. As Kurt Eichenwald pointed out on Twitter the night before last, the very threat of Trump pulling the plug on paying Weisselberg's legal fees, as he'd done with Michael Cohen the nanosecond he began cooperating, could constitute possible extortion charges. As Eichenwald stated, "Trump O execs have contracts which require company to pay their legal fees for bizness related cases. As soon as Cohen turned on Trump, company cut him off."

   There's also the savaging he'd get from Trump, albeit a muted one, if he did start singing like a blinded canary. There are at least as many reasons to do so as to not do so. However, the investigation is now in the indictment phase. That's when the sweetheart plea deals suddenly turn into, "Take what you can get, sonny, because it's the only cookie left on the table."

     And, maybe, like Trump, Weisselberg honestly didn't expect that it would come to this. Maybe he counted, like Trump, on his wealth and prestige insulating him from actual comeuppance and that things didn't start to feel real until he felt the cold, stainless steel of the handcuffs on his tender wrists. Standing before a judge, hands cuffed behind his back like an ordinary criminal, listening to a lengthy list of indictments (15 against him, another 10 against the Trump Org) was also another jolt back to Earth One.

     Of course, the very fact that Weisselberg was hit with 15 very serious indictments is proof positive that he hadn't turned over state's evidence that the state has likely had for months. As it stands right now, Weisselberg so screwed the pooch on his once-possible salvation, he'll be lucky to successfully negotiate for a fan in his prison cell.

     But, wait! you might ask. Where are the charges against Trump? Patience, Constant Reader. Vance has his tax returns. And Trump zealously hid them from prosecutors, lawmakers and the American  public for over six years for, obviously, some pretty good reasons.

"(A)n Article 460 case."

 

David Cay Johnston, a regular feature on MSNBC and the rare non-right winger always infesting Nicolle Wallace's show, had some insights that made what he usually says more interesting than usual: That there's the very real possibility that Trump and Weisselberg kept the stereotypical double ledgers.

   "Donald is notorious for destroying records. He tears up his calendar at the end of the month, we saw him tear up notes by a translator when he met with Vladimir Putin with no one else in the room but the translators. This shows that they kept two sets of books. That is a classic thing for prosecutors to do to show fraud and knowing intent to defraud, that you kept two sets of books."

   Johnston, also a tax attorney, brought up this even more tantalizing morsel: 

   "I think more broadly that by indicting the organization, it's a further indication they are looking at bringing a New York state racketeering charge, an Article 460 case, which would have very significant ramifications, including the power to get a receiver to take control of the Trump Organization."

  Again, that's, "state racketeering charges." That's where Letitia James, the New York Attorney General, comes in to close the show. In fact, that was probably the reason for James joining forces with Vance- She'd smelled the tantalizing aroma of a racketeering case. Imagine that- A "former president's" privately-held family company hit with racketeering charges then put under receivership.

   For those of you who aren't pragmatic in terms of finance, these are the basic features of receivership: It's when an outside guardian or custodian is placed in charge of an entity when said entity is unable or unwilling  to discharge its fiduciary responsibilities or is negligent to the point of impinging on the human rights of those who depend upon said entity to fulfill those responsibilities. There are two basic reasons for receivership: When a person is incapable of managing their affairs or when "(t)he court seizes control of property due to breaches of law or regulation."

    And that, boys and girls, is where the NY Attorney General, and Article 460, come into play.

     And once one begins bandying about words such as "racketeering" and "RICO", well, you're pretty much kaput as a businessman. Again, no one in the Trump crime family has been charged... yet. And it's obvious Trump will never see any jail time, and perhaps never even see the inside of a courtroom. After all, how do you arrest a man with Secret Service protection? If Weisselberg was ever going to flip on the fat man, he would've done so while the getting was good. 

     But Wall Street banks stopped dealing with him decades ago and Deutsche Bank came to the same conclusion years ago when Trump sued them for $3 billion when all they did was call in a note that he'd personally guaranteed. Now that he's out of office, he's of no further use to Putin so he can forget about that illicit Russian cash that was laundered by the aforementioned Deutsche Bank.

     And, once again, the notes are going to come due, about $1.1 b, according to Forbes. And Trump's out of tricks, out of time and out of allies.