It was a bad week for the Trumps — but a potentially good week for people waiting for the family to face consequences for [waves in the gentle direction of the last five years]. New York Attorney General Letitia James found “significant evidence” of the Trump Organization committing fraud (“That’s believable, certainly more believable than a pattern of business at the former-president’s fraud,” Stephen Colbert joked), while the Supreme Court rejected Trump’s request to block the release of White House records to the House January 6 committee. The committee also asked Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, to cooperate with its investigation; she’s reportedly “annoyed” by the request.
Things seem pretty bad for the former-president, but Trump biographer Tim O’Brien cautioned against counting any fried chickens before they hatch.
“Every time there is an investigation of Trump, the media becomes invested in [it] being a possible death knell,” the author of the 2005 book TrumpNation: The Art of Being the Donald, told the Washington Post. “Donald Trump has nine lives not because he’s a master dodger, but because it’s hard to prove fraud. It’s worth stepping back and looking at the realities of the legal proceedings and at the bars the prosecutors have to overcome to make a case.” He added, “Bad behavior doesn’t amount to fraud.”
“It hinges on whether [James] can prove Trump or the children knew they were doing something wrong and did so anyway,” he said. “Behaving badly is not a crime.”
No, but ordering your steaks well done should be a federal offense.
(Via the Washington Post)