Former President
Donald Trump is hoping that the Truth Social merger will give him a large enough wealth infusion to get a handle on his multiple legal judgments, at least as long as he can get them appealed — and he claimed on Truth Social that he has already come up with the half a billion dollars he needs in any case. But the sheer amount of money he owes is only one of the problems for him, MSNBC reporter Adam Reiss told anchor Chris Hayes on Friday. Another is the eagle-eyed scrutiny and restrictions the courts have placed his real estate empire under. "He says he has the cash on Truth Social," said Hayes. "If he had the cash, we probably wouldn't be in this situation, right? Is that a fair determination?" ALSO READ: Here's why conservative elites are bailing on Trump now "Yeah," said Reiss. "When the E. Jean Carroll case happened, he had the bond but was still asking the court for more time. It's possible he actually has the money right now. I don't think that's the case. So we're going to get to Monday, and it's going to be a showdown." "Showdown like where?" said Hayes. "Showdown at court? Like with Judge Engoron?" "We need to keep a close eye on the docket," said Hayes. "Judge Engoron is tightening the screws on him. The Trump Organization, essentially, can't do anything without the court and the monitor knowing. She is on top of it. She's been there for about 16 months. Anything they do. Transfers of funds. Financial accounting. Moving money from one source to another." Watch the video below or at the link here. Adam Reiss says Trump Organization is at the mercy of the courts youtu.be Donald Trump's niece is spilling her family's beans. Mary Trump , a psychologist by profession, has become known for her critiques of her uncle. Recently, she noted that the ex-president is being pushed "closer to the edge" due to the
New York fraud case in which he was found to owe hundreds of millions of dollars. On Friday, Mary Trump announced a memoir touching on all these family issues and much more. ALSO READ: Here's why conservative elites are bailing on Trump now Mary Trump said in a post on her Substack that the new book, which will reportedly be published by St. Martin's Press in September, is called Who Could Ever Love You - a Family Memoir. She calls the project "an intimate, heartbreaking memoir of a father, a mother, and a family's exile." "Mary Trump brings us inside the twisted family whose patriarch ignored, froze out, and eventually destroyed his own. Freddy Trump’s decline into alcoholism and illness, along with Linda’s suffering after their divorce, left Mary dangerously vulnerable as a very young girl," according to the preview. "Inadequately and only conditionally loved, there were no adults in her life except for the father she loved, but lost before she could know him; and a mother abandoned by her ex-husband’s rich and powerful family who demanded her loyalty but left her with nothing." The summary continues: "Mary Trump grew up in a family divided by its patriarch’s relentless drive for money and power. The daughter of Freddy Trump, the highly accomplished, dashing eldest son of wealthy real estate developer Fred Trump, and Linda Clapp, a flight attendant from a working-class family, Mary lived in the shadow of Freddy’s humiliation at the hands of his father." Finally, the preview touches on her uncle's behavior. "Fred Trump embodied the ethos of the zero-sum game and among his five children, there could only be one winner. That was supposed to be Freddy, his namesake, but Fred found him wanting — too sensitive, too kind, too interested in pursuits beyond the realm of the real estate empire he was meant to inherit," it says. "In Donald, Fred found a kindred spirit, a 'killer,' who would stop at nothing to get his own way." Read the post right here. CONTINUE READING Show less Former President Donald Trump appears to have an insurmountable grip on the
Republican Party, emphasized by his easy victory for a third presidential nomination earlier this month. But look closer, argued Trump-skeptic conservative analyst Charlie Sykes for MSNBC on Friday: the former president's grip on power is shakier than it appears. "Trump’s outsize control in the party is formidable — but it’s far from complete. That means figures who could pry those fissures open — such as former congresswoman Liz Cheney and former Vice President
Mike Pence — could have an outsize influence on the 2024
election," wrote Sykes. "An
NBC exit poll in Ohio this week found that almost 1 out of 5 Republican primary voters — including nearly half of Nikki Haley’s supporters — say they will not vote for Trump in November." ALSO READ: Here's why conservative elites are bailing on Trump now "While 18% is not a majority, it’s not chopped liver either. And it’s consistent with what happened at ballot boxes across the country," he continued. "Even though Trump is running unopposed, large numbers of
Republicans continue to refuse to vote for the ex-president. In Kansas, nearly a quarter (24.5%) of Republican voters came out to cast ballots for somebody else. In
Florida , opponents who had dropped out of the race received 18.8% of the vote; in Ohio , it was 20.8%; in Illinois , 19.2%. And, in the crucial swing state of
Arizona , 22.1% of Republicans voted for a non-Trump alternative, a result that led Haley’s zombie campaign to put out a congratulatory tweet ." All of this is occurring against the backdrop of Trump installing his own loyalists in the Republican National Committee leadership, and the party's new joint fundraising committee with Trump allows him to siphon off donor money for his legal expenses — an arrangement a large number of GOP officials had reportedly wanted for some time . But a large number of Republican voters don't want it, Sykes said — enough that they could deny Trump victory in November. Particularly if disaffected GOP leaders like Liz Cheney step up and encourage it. "Cheney and Pence are hardly alone. Just run through the extraordinary list of former Trump Cabinet members, chiefs of staff, defense secretaries and national security advisers who are refusing to endorse him," wrote Sykes. "Their warnings about the dangers of a second Trump presidency aren’t coming from
Democrats or the hosts on MSNBC — they are coming from inside the house. And in a close election, that could make all the difference." CONTINUE READING Show less New York Attorney General Letitia James has made it clear that if the courts don't intervene in her plans to seize former President Donald Trump's assets, she will begin that process as soon as Monday. And it's likely she'll start with his cash. In a Friday report , Politico's Erica Orden broke down how James would begin with her asset seizure. Assuming Trump's appeal for a last-minute stay is unsuccessful, the New York Attorney General's office would then seek Judge Arthur Engoron's approval to access the former president's bank accounts. "In order to seize a defendant’s bank accounts, a judgment creditor typically first goes through a discovery process to identify where they are. Then the creditor asks the banks to freeze the accounts — and asks a judge to have the money in the accounts turned over," Orden explained, adding that the typical process for asset seizures involves "a brief hearing and then a decision within about a week." READ MORE: Trump owes almost $450M in judgments. Here's how much he'd get for selling his properties The appeal is not likely to yield results in Trump's favor. Former federal prosecutor Mitchell Epner told Politico that defendants after adjudication usually have "extraordinarily limited appeal rights" that he's "never seen anybody pursue." But because the ex-president has already essentially admitted that he doesn't have the cash to cover the judgment, James' seizure of Trump's bank accounts is just the beginning. At that point, she would then file a lien against any property she deems necessary to satisfy the judgment, and then the court would appoint someone to oversee the sale of the property with all proceeds going toward the State of New York. But James isn't limited to just seizing New York properties, and Trump owns multiple pieces of valuable real estate in several US states. "They can go after any assets anywhere," New York-based criminal defense attorney Adam Konta told Politico. However, in order to seize an asset out of state — like Trump's casino hotel in
Las Vegas, Nevada, for example — James' seizure would have to be "domesticated" by a judge within that state. And former Manhattan prosecutor Diana Florence said that James isn't likely to be able to seize Mar-a-Lago in Florida, as it's Trump's primary residence. READ MORE: Trump begs supporters for cash to keep his assets out of the 'filthy hands' of AG James If James wants to seize any asset to satisfy the judgment, creditors overseeing the process would deputize local sheriffs to physically take any property, including buildings, vehicles,
golf resorts or even Trump's private jet. Sheriffs would likely coordinate with the former president's Secret Service detail to ensure they have access to properties affected by the judgment. And while Trump is likely to net a multibillion-dollar windfall from his Truth Social platform's initial public offering (IPO), he's unlikely to use the cash from that deal to pay the judgment. According to language from the IPO, Trump is prohibited from actually using the cash from his shares in the company as collateral or judgment payment for six months. The alleged billionaire has been fighting tooth and nail to prevent James from seizing his properties, including pleas to his supporters asking for their money. In a recent email appeal entitled "Keep your filthy hands off
Trump Tower," Trump complained that "Insane radical Democrat AG Letitia James wants to SEIZE my properties in New York," including "the iconic Trump Tower." READ MORE: 'Fine with me': Trump's small donors don't care he's using their money to pay his lawyers CONTINUE READING Show less