I’m going to rely on reporting from The Messenger in telling you this. I’ve seen a bunch of reporting that Trump’s financial fraud trial in New York is being decided by a judge rather than a jury because no one on Trump’s defense team requested a jury trial. I think that is partially accurate, at best. New York Attorney General Letitia James filed the charges under New York Executive Law 63(12) which doesn’t provide for jury trials.

12. Whenever any person shall engage in repeated fraudulent or illegal acts or otherwise demonstrate persistent fraud or illegality in the carrying on, conducting or transaction of business, the attorney general may apply, in the name of the people of the state of New York, to the supreme court of the state of New York, on notice of five days, for an order enjoining the continuance of such business activity or of any fraudulent or illegal acts, directing restitution and damages and, in an appropriate case, cancelling any certificate filed under and by virtue of the provisions of section four hundred forty of the former penal law or section one hundred thirty of the general business law, and the court may award the relief applied for or so much thereof as it may deem proper.  The word “fraud” or “fraudulent” as used herein shall include any device, scheme or artifice to defraud and any deception, misrepresentation, concealment, suppression, false pretense, false promise or unconscionable contractual provisions.  The term “persistent fraud” or “illegality” as used herein shall include continuance or carrying on of any fraudulent or illegal act or conduct.  The term “repeated” as used herein shall include repetition of any separate and distinct fraudulent or illegal act, or conduct which affects more than one person.

However, it’s true that Trump’s attorney’s could have and definitely should have requested a trial by jury. They probably would have lost the challenge but we’ll never know for sure because, as Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron noted in court today, they didn’t even try. Chalk it up to Trump hiring cut-rate attorneys.

Judge Engoron has already ruled that Trump and his elder sons engaged in “repeated fraudulent or illegal acts,” and he already canceled Trump’s certificates to do business in the state. What remains is really just to determine “restitution and damages” or whatever “relief” Engoron might “deem proper.”

Trump’s New York businesses will go into a kind of receivership, somewhat similar to what happens in a bankruptcy.

The judge also ordered Trump’s attorneys to identify potential candidates to serve as a receiver in the case and “manage the dissolution of the canceled LLCs,” or limited liability corporations. In the Wednesday court appearance, Trump attorney Christopher Kise asked for clarity, saying there are 400 or 500 entities that could possibly be affected by that order, including LLCs that might own the homes of Trump’s sons. “Are they covered?” he asked Engoron, who did not provide an answer.

But that’s not the end of it. After the trial, which began with opening statements and the first witness on Monday…

…Engoron will consider even bigger penalties that James has requested, among them $250 million in fines; a prohibition on Trump and the company from obtaining new loans by any bank chartered in New York for five years; and a ban on Trump, his adult sons and executives from operating or owning businesses in the state in the future.

Naturally, Trump can appeal whatever is decided in this case, but it’s obvious that things can get worse for him, so it’s crazy to relentlessly antagonize Engoron. Yet, despite his lawyers entreaties that he stop, Trump can’t help himself.

“We’re going to be here for months with a judge that already made up his mind. It’s ridiculous,” Trump complained to reporters during the lunch break, amping up his attacks on Engoron, whose rulings could cost Trump’s company hundreds of millions of dollars and affect its ability to do business in New York.

“This is a judge that should be disbarred. This is a judge that should be out of office. This is a judge that some people say could be charged criminally for what he’s doing. He’s interfering with an election, and it’s a disgrace,” Trump said.

He’s clearly inciting people to do harm to Judge Engoron, and his comments about Attorney General Letitia James were even more ominous. And that’s probably relevant to Special Counsel Jack Smith’s January 6 coup-plotting case in Washington DC, because U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan is considering putting a gag order on Trump. She will preside over a hearing on the issue on October 16th.

Prosecutors and attorneys for Donald Trump will debate a proposed “narrow” gag order that would limit the former president’s speech regarding his criminal case tied to trying to overturn the 2020 election at a hearing on Oct. 16, a federal judge ordered on Friday.

Among other public statements by Trump, Smith’s office cited the former president’s Aug. 4 post to his Truth Social platform just three days after his indictment in the case: “IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I’M COMING AFTER YOU!”

Smith’s proposed order would bar “statements regarding the identity, testimony, or credibility of prospective witnesses” and “statements about any party, witness, attorney, court personnel, or potential jurors that are disparaging and inflammatory, or intimidating.”

The more Trump misbehaves with respect to charges he’s facing in Florida, Georgia and New York, the more likely Judge Chutkan is to put some kind of muzzle on him. If her persists, she could even revoke his bail and let him stew in prison.

I don’t think she’ll leap to that decision lightly or immediately, but I can see it coming. I can see it very clearly. He was seething today, as angry as I’ve ever seen him, and he’s getting desperate. I don’t think he can restrain himself and he’s going to cross the line.

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