Wednesday, September 27, 2023

Former Speaker Paul Ryan says Republicans will lose if Donald Trump is nominee

Story by By SCOTT BAUER, Associated Press

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Former House Speaker Paul Ryan said Tuesday that Republicans will lose the presidential election if Donald Trump is the nominee and that he expects hard-right followers of Trump to force a government shutdown within days.

Ryan, who left office in 2019 and had a sometimes contentious relationship with Trump, said he hoped that another Republican nominee would gain enough momentum early next year to overtake Trump after the first primaries. Ryan represented southeastern Wisconsin in Congress for 20 years, the last four as speaker.

"The party that puts the first fresh face forward wins this election," Ryan said at an event on the University of Wisconsin campus organized by the Robert M. La Follette School of Public Affairs.

If the race is between Trump and President Joe Biden, Ryan said, “I think Biden wins.”

“I think leaders should endeavor to be honest, ethical, moral people who try to set standards for themselves and lead by example across the country," Ryan said. "Donald Trump doesn’t try to do any of that. He does the opposite, frankly. So I just don't think he's fit for the job here.”

Ryan said in the small number of swing states, including Wisconsin, the election will come down to winning over suburban voters.

“Do you think those suburban voters like Donald Trump more since Jan. 6?" Ryan said. "I mean, good grief. They didn’t vote for him this last time, they’re not going to vote for him again.”

Ryan also had harsh words about Trump's followers in Congress, who he said were not interested in governing or finding a solution to avoid a government shutdown.

But with just five days to go before Saturday’s government shutdown deadline, the Senate is trying to stave off a federal closure as hard-right lawmakers seize control of the House. Senators unveiled a bipartisan stopgap measure to keep offices funded temporarily, through Nov. 17, to buy time for Congress to finish its work.

Ryan was speaker of the House during the last government shutdown in 2018, which lasted a record-long 36 days.

“There are a bunch of people who I think feel this is in their interest," Ryan said of a shutdown. "So I fear that is going to happen.”

Ryan faulted Republicans in Congress for not proposing an alternative.

“It's nihilism, is what it is,” he said. “We look like fools. We look like we can’t govern.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/former-speaker-paul-ryan-says-republicans-will-lose-if-donald-trump-is-nominee/ar-AA1hj7Na

Will the Trumps lose their homes? NY judge who dissolved Trump Org is cryptic at a tense hearing

Laura Italiano

Sep 27, 2023,

Will the Trumps lose their homes? NY judge who dissolved Trump Org is cryptic at a tense hearing

Lawyers for Donald Trump asked for clarity on Wednesday from the Manhattan judge who ordered the Trump Organization be dissolved in a stunning ruling the day before.

That clarity was not forthcoming. But concern – including over the fate of the Trump residences that are held as LLCs under the Trump Org umbrella – was present in abundance.

Would all the defendants' homes need to be sold? Are they even covered under the ruling?

All New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron would say was, in essence, check back with me later. Also: he's happy and available to sit down with everyone to "work things out."

"I'm not prepared to make a ruling at this time," Engoron told Trump's lawyers with a slight smile, shifting the focus of the hearing instead on more mundane matters of pre-trial logistics.

New York Attorney General Letitia James won a staggering victory Tuesday night in her $250 million fraud lawsuit against Trump, his golf and real-estate empire, his two eldest sons, and two longstanding executives.

Just five days before the scheduled trial is set to start, Engoron decided early – based on three years of pre-trial investigation and litigation – that Trump had committed years of fraud by inflating his worth to banks and insurers, by adding as much as $3.6 billion in fictional value to his annual net worth.

Experts are calling his ruling "the corporate death penalty," as it orders the cancellation of the New York state "certificates" that allow Trump Organization and its hundreds of underlying trusts and LLCs to function as corporate entities.

The ruling also orders that within 10 days, Trump's side submit to the court the names of three possible "independent receivers to manage the dissolution of the canceled LLCs." Two former Manhattan financial fraud prosecutors told Insider that by "dissolution," the order means the selling off of corporate properties.

At Wednesday's morning-long hearing, the judge gave Trump's side the 30 days they requested to agree to a receiver.

The judge also said that, barring any conflict of interest, he was open to retired judge Barbara Jones, currently the independent monitor, assuming the receiver role, an idea that the attorney general's side also favored.

But there was no guidance on how dissolution will work in a multi-billion-dollar organization whose assets include not just interests in skyscrapers – such as Trump Tower in Manhattan, where Trump Org is based, and a ground lease in 40 Wall Street – but home addresses, too.

"Certain of the entities, entities that own physical assets like Trump Tower and 40 Wall – is the court under the impression that those are to be sold or are they to be managed under the monitor?" Trump attorney Chris Kise asked Engoron.

It was at this point the judge said he was not yet prepared to make a ruling.

"Which entities are covered here?" Kise pressed. 'You have New York entities that just own a house or a townhouse. Maybe Don Jr. 's or Eric's residence… are those covered?" Kise asked.

"At least under a technical reading of the order, those entities should be surrendering their GBL 130s" – legalese for corporate licenses – "even though they have no connection to this," Kise said.

Again there was no specific guidance from Engoron.

"I try to be very accessible and work things out," the judge said, speaking generally. "I'd be happy to sit down with Judge Jones when she is available," he added of Trump Org's potential receiver-in-waiting.

The state has alleged fraud involving two of Trump's residences, at Trump Tower and Mar-a-Lago.

Trump owns and sporadically lives in the triplex penthouse atop Trump Tower.

The AG has alleged, and the judge Tuesday found, that the former president fraudulently tripled the apartment's size, claiming it was 30,000 square feet, in five years of his annual financial statements.

The statements were relied on by banks to collateralize and maintain hundreds of millions of dollars in loans.

The judge also found Tuesday that Trump valued Mar-a-Lago as high as $739 million based on the false premise that it was free of any development restrictions. Trump had personally signed deeds giving up any residential development rights, collecting a tidy tax benefit by doing so, the AG and judge found.

The actual value should have been closer to $75 million, the AG has estimated.

Trump and his lawyers have repeatedly denied that his valuations were fraudulent, instead claiming that he was a "visionary" who saw value beyond what non-visionaries could see. His team has promised to fight the fraud claims and appeal the dissolution order.

eric donald trump jr — Eric Trump (L) Donald Trump (center) and Donald Trump, Jr. (R)

Trump's lawyers were back on Wednesday before the NY judge who on Tuesday "dissolved" Trump Org.
One asked the judge if the LLCs that own the Trumps' homes are covered under the dissolution.
"I'm not prepared to make a ruling at this time," the judge answered.

Judge revokes Trump’s NY business licenses, finds he committed fraud by inflating wealth

THE MURDOCH TABLOID NY POST is reporting....

Judge revokes Trump’s NY business licenses, finds he committed fraud by inflating wealth

Judge revokes Trump’s NY business licenses, finds he committed fraud by inflating wealth

Ben Kochman

Published Sep. 26, 2023

A Manhattan judge on Tuesday found Donald Trump committed fraud by exaggerating the value of his wealth — and canceled the former president’s New York business licenses, which could hamper his longtime company’s ability to operate in the Empire State.

Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron found Trump, 77, his family and his business, the Trump Organization, liable for fraud — the key claim in New York Attorney General Letitia James’ sprawling lawsuit against the defendants.

In a 35-page ruling, Engoron sided with James, who argued that Trump made several indisputably false statements in business documents to secure favorable terms with banks — including by claiming that his soaring triplex penthouse at Trump Tower was 30,000 square feet when it was in fact closer to 11,000 feet.

“A discrepancy of this order of magnitude, by a real estate developer sizing up his own living space of decades, can only be considered fraud,” Engoron wrote.

The judge revoked the New York “business certificates” belonging to the Trump Organization and any other New York-based business run by Trump or his family — while ordering that an independent third party will be tasked with “managing the dissolution of the cancelled LLCs.”

It means Trump could be stripped of control over some of his namesake properties — including Trump Tower in Midtown.

“The widespread, radical attack against me, my family and my supporters have now devolved to new, un-American depths,” Trump ranted on Truth Social Tuesday night, calling Engoron “deranged” and James a “completely biased and corrupt ‘prosecutor.’”

“We are rapidly becoming a communist country, and my civil rights have been taken away from me,” he continued.

“This is Democrat political lawfare and a witch hunt at a level never seen before.”

Trump plans to appeal the decision, his attorneys said.

“Today’s outrageous decision is completely disconnected from the facts and governing law,” Christopher Kise, a lawyer for Trump, said in a statement. “President Trump and his family will seek all available appellate remedies to rectify this miscarriage of justice.”

Trump’s effort to get the court to dismiss James’ fraud and other claims — including by arguing that the statute of limitations on them had run out — was also denied in Tuesday’s ruling.

And the judge issued sanctions against several of Trump’s lawyers, ordering five of the former president’s attorneys to pay $7,500 each for making “frivolous” arguments in the case.

A non-jury trial is set to start Oct. 2 for Engoron to hear arguments on the other claims in the suit, before deciding on those allegations.

James’ office has previously claimed that the former president, the Trump Organization, and Eric and Donald Trump Jr. overstated the value of his assets by as much as $3.6 billion a year.

The lawsuit aims to force Trump to pay back to the state millions in penalties, halt Trump’s ability to run businesses in New York and bar him and his team from buying commercial property for several years.

James, in a statement, said she looks forward to presenting the rest of her case at trial.

Trump spokeswoman Alina Habba called the ruling “fundamentally flawed at every level” and “an affront to our legal system.”

“We intend to immediately appeal this decision because President Trump and his family, like every American business owner, is entitled to their day in court,” she said in a statement.

https://nypost.com/2023/09/26/trump-committed-fraud-by-inflating-wealth-ny-judge/