Trump Explodes as Judge Rips Control of His New York Empire Away!!!

So we just got the ruling, it is 92 pages long, and I'm scanning through it right now. But when I'm looking at these numbers, the totals that the judge is ordering collectively in the case, so this will include all of the defendants, I'm getting a total of $362 million. And I'm just scrolling through this now, I can see that there's the dollar amount specific to Donald Trump. I'm gonna use a calculator to do some rough math, gets us to, for Donald Trump about $354 million. That's for him, the company, the Trump organization. So very close to what the New York Attorney General's office was seeking of $370 million. There's a lot of zeros here and a lot of other numbers, but roughly $354 million is the judgment against Donald Trump. The judge also found that his son, Eric Trump, is liable in the amount of $4 million. Donald Trump Jr. is liable in the amount of $4 million. And Allen Weisselberg, the former chief financial officer, is liable in the amount of $1 million. But a crooked New York state judge just ruled that I have to pay a fine of $355 million for having built the perfect company. Great cash, great buildings, great everything. It affects New York. It's mostly talking about New York, where we have a totally corrupt attorney general. 92 pages, a calculator on air, $362 million for the group. Trump and the company alone, about $354 million, almost exactly what Letitia James demanded. Eric, $4 million. Don Jr., $4 million. Weisselberg, $1 million. No jury. The court read the books and ruled this was not subjective valuation. It was a years-long scheme to get cheaper loans, cheaper insurance, and a counterfeit aura of wealth. The shock is not only the day one number. The shock is New York's 9% interest clock. Every unpaid day piles on tens of thousands more. Before the appeals dragged on, the tab was shoved toward half a billion. Trump sold the story that riches prove he wins. The decision yesterday in New York, you may have read about it. Crooked judge. He's a crooked judge. By a radical left-wing judge was a lawless and unconstitutional atrocity that sets fire to our laws like no one has ever seen in this country before. That happens in banana republics. It doesn't happen in this country. The case is a complete and total sham. It's a sham case. There were no victims, no defaults, no damages, no complaints, no nothing. There was nothing. This document says the fortune he pointed to was padded, inflated, and sold to lenders as fact. Do not look away yet. The next words from that newsroom are colder than the total. They explain what the court says that money actually is and why his own sons were ordered to give a share of it back. I haven't had a chance to read through the language of what the judge said here, but really this was about the money because the judge had already found that Donald Trump, his sons, and Allen Weisselberg had engaged in fraud by issuing fraudulent financial statements, giving them to banks and insurers in order to obtain favorable rates. He ruled that before the trial, but we did go through a three-month trial. The judge was looking to determine how much in ill-gotten gains, is what this word of disgorgement means, the money that they benefited from. So now the judge issuing the significant ruling, more than $350 million against Donald Trump and the Trump organization and against the sons. I'm going to just see if I can quickly search to see what the judge said about any ban. That was the other outstanding question here. I'm not able to find that very quickly, but that is another issue that we're looking for here of what the judge says about whether he's banning Trump from doing business or his sons. But this ruling, there was a question of whether the sons would be found to be liable because the judge said at the end of the trial, during closing arguments, he asked the attorney general's team if they, he said he wasn't sure there was sufficient evidence against the sons. This ruling here indicating that he believes that they did at least receive improper profits and asking them to disgorge that as a result of this case. This is a significant win for the New York attorney general, Letitia James. Disgorgement is not a vibe and it is not a political fine. It is the court ordering the return of money obtained through a lie. It's a scam, it's a sham. Just so you know, my financial statements are phenomenal. They are actually less in terms of the numbers used than the actual net worth. The actual net worth is substantially more. No bank was affected, no bank was hurt, there was no victim here. The banks were represented by the best, biggest, most prestigious law firms in the state of New York, actually in the country, some of the biggest and best law firms, in all cases the biggest and best law firms, that's who represented them. The banks got back their money. Again, there was never a default, there was never a problem, everything was perfect. The judge had already found the fraud before the three-month trial even started. Donald Trump, his sons, and Allen Weisselberg issuing false financial statements and handing them to banks and insurers to lock in better rates. The trial was not a debate about whether it happened. It was an accounting of how much they pocketed because it happened. That is why the number landed so close to what Letitia James asked for, north of $350 million against Trump and the organization. The state was not inventing a punishment out of anger. It was adding up the spread between honest terms and the terms the paperwork bought. Cheaper credit, softer insurance, deals clean numbers would not have purchased. Listen to the detail the anchor almost treats as a footnote. At closing, the judge himself questioned whether the evidence against the sons was strong enough. Then the ruling still made Eric and Don Jr. disgorge improper profits. Four million each is not a courtesy line. The court did not need them to be the masterminds. It needed only this. They took the fruit of a machine that inflated assets and sold that inflation as fact. The family alibi, dad did the books, the boys were just around, did not survive the order. Weisselberg, the lock on the ledger, was told to put a million back. James' win is therefore not a headline. It is a finding that the scheme was operational, documented, and shared at the top of the company. What comes next is colder than the math. The newsroom names the real target. Not just the check, but the identity he built the White House on. She'd been investigating this case ever since Michael Cohen testified before Congress when he made this first allegation that Trump had inflated the value of properties to get better loans, rates on loans and insurance, and to pay less in taxes. So she is now justified by this finding by the judge. And again, this was a judge trial. This was not a jury trial. So we've been waiting for Judge Arthur and Gorin to issue this ruling. And now we have it. We still have to continue to read through it. Our team is doing that as I speak. But, you know, a real significant win for the New York attorney general and a loss for Donald Trump in this case that goes to the heart of his reputation, the reputation that he was a successful real estate businessman, that he wrote to the White House. The judge finding here that, you know, there was fraud, there was liability in saying that Trump needs to pay back more than $350 million. Boris Brianna? Yeah, it goes so much to his identity. This is clearly one of the cases, one of the legal issues that he's facing that bothers him the most here, as the attorney general in New York had argued that it was the marketplace that was harmed here and was seeking to recoup this disgorgement or these ill-gotten gains. This case does not sting because it is one more filing in a crowded docket. It stings because it attacks the origin myth, the self-made titan of real estate who turned gold letters into a presidency. The investigation did not begin with a campaign ad. It began when Michael Cohen told Congress that property values were inflated to win better loans, better insurance, and a lighter tax story. Letitia James followed that thread for years. Judge Engeron, no jury, no audience to charm, then put the finding on paper. Fraud, liability, more than $350 million to be paid back. The marketplace, the attorney general argued, was the injured party. Banks and insurers were handed a costume of wealth and asked to price risk as if the costume were skin. That is why reporters said it goes to his identity. Look at the exhibits. The Trump Tower triplex, square footage pumped by thousands of feet, as if extra rooms could be invented on a page. Mar-a-Lago, priced like a development gold mine, while the deed locks it down a gap of many times what the law would actually let him sell. 40 Wall Street, marked up on the order of 200 million to dress alone. Strip the businessman legend and the political brand has to stand on something else. Towers with his name become props. If the numbers that finance the legend were cooked, he can rage that the case is personal. The record says the statements were. Let's go ahead and bring in Paula Reed, our chief legal correspondent, to talk about what she is seeing here. With our understanding here, Paula, that this is really kind of hot off the presses, this ruling. Yes, the paper is still warm, but we're going through it right now. As you and Kara were talking about, this case is so personal because it represents such a threat to Trump's business, his family business, and his identity. Remember, it was his identity as a businessman that brought him fame before he arrived at the White House. But in looking at the summary of this ruling, we see, in addition to the monetary penalties that Kara just laid out, they have found him liable for fraud. And they are going to continue the appointment of an independent monitor. So back in 2022, the judge installed a monitor to keep an eye on exactly what the Trump organization was doing when it came to its business dealings. Now, among the things this monitor uncovered were a $40 million loan, for example, to the company itself, but there was no paperwork. They couldn't really find any information. That was just one thing that came up. Now, Trump lawyers have insisted, because they loaned the money to themselves, they didn't have the paperwork that they needed, and insist that the monitor has found no fraud. Now, the judge also here orders the installation of an independent director of compliance. But I also want to note that they are saying here, the judge is saying that they're going to limit the defendant's right to conduct business in New York for a few years. Now, it's probably going to take a few minutes before we unpack exactly what that means. That does not appear to be an indefinite ban, the so-called corporate death penalty. But it does appear that the judge is going to put some restrictions on Trump and the Trump organization's ability to do business in the state of New York. But let's go back to the idea of this independent director of compliance, that appears to be maybe an executive-level person who will ensure that they are being honest when evaluating their assets, when applying for insurance or loans from banks. Because, of course, that is what the judge here found Trump liable for last fall, before this trial started. They said, you are liable for fraud. They believe that he was not honest about the value of his assets, because he was trying to get more favorable terms from banks, from insurance companies. Now, Trump's defense here was that these are subjective valuations, that ultimately there was no victim. And I want to note, when it comes to barring anyone from doing business in the state of New York, the so-called corporate death penalty is something that is rarely handed down in the state of New York, especially when there is no obvious victim. So we're going to keep reading to learn more about the limits that they're going to put on his ability to conduct business in New York over the next few years. The paper was still warm. In 2022, the court put a monitor inside the Trump organization. One example made it onto live television, a $48 million loan to the company itself, and almost no paperwork. Lawyers shrugged. They lent the money to themselves, they said, so of course the file was thin. The monitor, they insisted, found no fraud. Here the confession inside the excuse. The books were a family drawer. Banks and insurers were still expected to treat the statements as truth. The court did not buy the drawer. It kept the independent monitor in place. Then it added an independent director of compliance, an outsider with a seat at the altitude where values get invented, loan applications get signed, and insurance files get blessed. The job is not etiquette. It is a break on the exact habit already branded fraud numbers bent one way on a statement and another way in the real world when a bank or an insurer is across the table. Do not mistake the missing corporate death penalty for mercy. An overnight shutdown is rare in New York. What landed instead was a leash. Limits on doing business in the state for years, plus strangers in the books. For a man whose power was the skyline, that is a public branding. You are not trusted to run this cleanly here. Now you get this civil fraud ruling in almost the full amount requested. Over $360 million against Donald Trump, his businesses, associated persons and entities. And it does have significant sanctions on Donald Trump and others, including his sons, continuing to do business. So Donald Trump cannot serve as an officer or director of a New York company for three years. He cannot take out loans for three years as part of the penalty. However, the one bright lining in here for Donald Trump is the judge rolls back his prior determination of removing the certificates to do business, the so-called corporate death penalty that would have shut these companies down. He had gotten appellate pushback. And of course, now all of this will be reviewed on appeal. And I wanna bring in Renato, just sort of with a technical question. And Paula, jump in too, if you know this. As we understand now that the judge has ordered Trump to pay nearly $355 million in this civil fraud trial, in these ill-gotten gains, in disgorgement, as it is called. What happens, because obviously he's appealing this. Is there some kind of bond that is posted? What is the process for securing the money, even as this appeals process continues? Does he have to do that? So that's typically the case in most states, is that you do have to post a bond, a pending appeal. And that often is something that you'll post a certain amount of capital. You won't post the entire amount in order to obtain that bond. Here, I would expect, for example, there not only to be a bond that's posted. But of course, in the meantime, he's going to have to comply with some of the conditions that the judge has already imposed. So then that's gonna limit his ability to continue to make money and run his business. I mean, as a practical matter, businesses have to be nimble. And having an independent compliance director and a monitor and so on is gonna also, I would say, hamper his ability to be nimble and act in a way that he ordinarily might want to in his business. So I think it's a very significant impact on him in the short run, regardless of his financial situation. I don't see any way, despite Trump often spinning things as a win, I just don't see how any lawyer with a straight face could tell their client that this is a great result. This is a devastating result for Trump and his businesses. The last voice on that desk refused the spin. No lawyer with a straight face, they said, could tell the client this was a great result. It was devastating for Trump and for the businesses that carry his name. Hear the package as it was read in the room. Nearly the full amount James sought more than 360 million against Trump, the company, and the people around him. He could not serve as an officer or director of a New York company for three years. He could not take out loans for three years. A monitor already inside the firm. A compliance director bolted onto the C-suite. The so-called corporate death penalty, the nuclear option that would have ripped the certificate and shut the doors was pulled back after appellate pressure. That is the only soft line in the order and it is not a trophy. It is the difference between execution and a cage. Then the technical question that decides whether a judgment is a headline or a hunt, the bond. In most states, if you want the collection machinery paused while you appeal, you post security, not a press conference about net worth. Collateral, a bonding company can seize if you lose and do not pay. Cash or assets that are real, unencumbered, and liquid enough to stand behind hundreds of millions of dollars. That is the trap the paperwork built for him. The same statements the court called fraudulent were the ones that addressed the empire as bigger, safer, richer than the deeds and the square footage would support. Inflated assets look magnificent in a brochure. They are wretched collateral when a surety asks what it can actually grab. Mortgage buildings put the lender first. Restricted stock does not clear in an afternoon. A brand is not a lockbox. If posting the bond were easy, the stay would have been easy. The friction around that bond is the confession the talking points will not give you. Without a firm stay, New York's tools are not theoretical. Liens can cloud title so a sale or a refinance cannot close until the judgment is fed. Accounts and rent streams can be chased. Buildings with equity, not buildings mortgaged to the paint, become the rational targets. 40 Wall Street was already being discussed in public as a place the Attorney General was watching. Trump Tower does not have to go on the block at dawn to do the political damage. The gold letters only have to sit inside a story about fraud, interest, and collection. The mythology was always the building is proof. Proof that can be lined is no longer a myth. It is inventory. The three-year bans matter in a different register. A man whose brand is motion new deals, new paper, new leverage is told he may not sit as officer or director in New York and may not borrow on the old terms. Add a monitor who has already flagged a $48 million internal loan with a file that would embarrass a corner store, and nimble dies. Businesses live on speed and opacity. This order buys the opposite, slowness and witnesses. Appeals exist. They can shrink a dollar figure. A later court can call a penalty excessive and still leave the fraud finding on the page. Do not let the edit fool you. The clip you just heard is the day the state of New York on a judge's findings said the businessman legend was built with statements that were not true. That the sons would give money back, that the CFO would give money back, and that the company would operate under supervision. Interest, while the fight dragged, turned a fortune-sized judgment into something that marched toward half a billion before anyone wrote a check. That clock is not commentary, it is statute. So when this channel says power crumbles, it does not mean a sheriff has to carry a sofa out of the lobby on camera this afternoon. It means the two fuels of the Trump operation liquidity to wage lawfare and the fable that he is too rich to be caught were both punctured in the same ruling. He can call it persecution. The newsroom, the monitor, the compliance order, and the bond problem call it a business that could not survive an honest spreadsheet. If you want this case explained without the pardon in advanced language, stay here, subscribe, turn the bell on. In the comments, answer one question with a straight face of your own. If the numbers on those statements had been real, would posting a bond have been the crisis, or would it have been a Wednesday?