This Week Was the Worst Legal Week of Trump's Life as Investigations Against Him Now Span the Country

     The FBI search of Mar-a-Lago was the worst legal week of Trump's life of that point, and, after an initial few weeks of embarrassing legal blunders, Trump finally caught a break when he sued the DOJ before Aileen Cannon. The judge he appointed handed him a string of victories, appointing a "special master" to review documents and essentially putting the investigation on hold. This week, and particularly Wednesday, things changed for the better for the American people.

     Judge Cannon's partisan rulings have now earned criticism from a wide variety of liberal and conservative legal scholars and authorities, including Bill Barr and a plethora of former Bush officials. Judge Dearie, a Reagan-appointed New York federal judge, was the only judge the two sides could agree on to be special master, and he promptly made it clear he wasn't happy with Trump or Cannon. Moving surprisingly quickly, he asked for both sides to lay out their arguments and chastised the Trump team for refusing to provide, on documents in which perjury is a criminal offense, evidence that Trump had declassified classified documents. As far as Dearie was concerned, Trump broke the law if he didn't put up or shut up.

     The problem remained that Dearie, as special master, reported to Cannon, who could cook up some excuse not based in the law to protect HER "special master." That changed on Wednesday, when the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, a court on which the majority of judges were appointed by Trump, reversed Cannon's ruling, allowing the DOJ to resume its work immediately, and slammed Cannon's rationale. The Trump legal team could, in theory, appeal to the Supreme Court, but that would take months only for SCOTUS to likely decline to take the case or to rule in the DOJ's favor. In the meantime, the DOJ investigation would be allowed to continue unmolested.

     In other terrible legal news for Drumpf, E. Jean Carroll became one of thousands of alleged victims of sexual assault who plan to use legislation removing the statute of limitations for civil cases of sexual assault and related offenses in federal courts signed by Biden last week. Carroll has for years famously accused Trump of sexually assaulting her only to run into a wall of technicalities. With Trump out of office and the statute of limitations eliminated, there's nothing stopping her from pursuing justice.

     Speaking of the pursuit of justice, in January 6th news, Ginni Thomas, a QAnon conspiracy theorist and wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence "Uncle Tom" Thomas, announced that she would testify before the January 6th Committee, which announced that it will hold its next meeting on Wednesday, September 28th. Also this week, the House passed the Presidential Election Reform Act to prevent future coups.

     Finally and perhaps most significantly, New York Attorney General Letitia James announced a lawsuit against Trump, Ivanka, Eric, Don Jr., and the Trump Organization that seeks $250 million redress, a five-year ban on the aforementioned from investing in real estate, a lifetime ban on the aforementioned from running any business in New York, and a plethora of other actions. This comes as she discovered that Trump inflated the value of his properties to earn loans and underreported the value of his properties for tax purposes. If James is successful, she could essentially wipe out the entirety of Trump's business empire in a single lawsuit. It is also worth noting that she has sent criminal referrals to the Manhattan and Westchester DAs, the SDNY, and the IRS for potential criminal investigations, as her civil suit has provided ample evidence of fraud committed by the Trumps.

     The bar for proving liability in civil cases is lower than that for proving guilt in criminal cases. In this case, that fact is a doubled-edged sword. It will make winning the lawsuit easier, for sure; however, it also raises the question as to whether or not the civil case is built on evidence strong enough to lead to an indictment. I believe so. The Trump Organization is already under criminal indictment and CFO Allen Weisselberg has already pleaded guilty to felony crimes related to fringe benefits. Even the few of the more than 200 specifics James has charged all scream of fraud to people with even the most basic understanding of how the law works: this wasn't standard practice fudging a few numbers like "everyone does." He misreported hundreds of millions of dollars in real estate, sometimes by two to three times its value, after being repeatedly told he was wrong by objective experts. 

     In Florida, Georgia, Washington, D.C., and New York, Trump is in legal and financial peril. He is growing increasingly desperate as the walls close in and may try to pull a repeat of January 6th by resorting to violence when the law is not on his side. We need to be prepared for anything yet remain hopeful that the justice system will work. It certainly did this week.