Donald Trump fined $10,000 for second gag order violation in civil fraud case

kescusay@lemmy.world to politics @lemmy.world – 600 points –
Donald Trump fined $10,000 for second gag order violation in civil fraud case
reuters.com
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Just waiting for Trump to not pay this like all his other bills and watch as the legal system decides to fine him for not paying fines because they don't have the balls to put him in a cell.

Oh no, not $10,000, he'll never financially recover from that... oh nevermind some moron just donated more than that to him, he's fine now.

Seriously, what's it going to take for them to finally throw him in jail? How many more times does he need to ignore court orders and threaten the safety of jurors, judges, and lawyers before they do something with actual consequences for him? If they're going to keep fining him they need to add a zero or two on there if they want him to actually stop.

Next time he gets two ice creams and a comic book! Way to fucking take the gloves off, judge.

The supreme court is extremely corrupt. What do you expect from every lower court when the top is bought and paid for by the oligarchy of which Trump is a front man stooge. This is all just a game of distractions created to control the conversation and maintain the lack of laws and protections at the abysmal state they have been in since the 1980's. The entire point of everything the GOP touches is the loopholes that allow 750 billionaires to rob the country blind. Everyone that aligns with this is either bought and paid for, or a convenient idiot. The clown show distractions all have fixed outcomes secured well in advance. That is why nothing ever comes of the constant barrage of radical headlines. The headline is not the purpose; controlling the rhetoric is the only goal.

What idiot upvotes an unhinged rant like this lol

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Fines need to scale with the net worth of the person, otherwise they only impact poor people.

Well, if it doubles every time, it shouldn't take too long to reach the point where he can't pay...

Fines Doubled

  • $5k
  • $10k
  • $20k
  • $40k
  • $80k
  • $160k
  • $320k
  • $640k
  • $1,208m
  • $2,560m
  • $5,120m
  • $10,240m
  • $20,480m
  • $40,960m
  • $81,920m
  • $163,840m
  • $327,680m
  • $655,360m
  • $1,310,750b

It would take Trump 19 times violating the gag order before hitting a billion dollars. Even if you add up the fines cumulatively, it would take 18 times before Trump had to pay over a billion dollars. A poor person would be crippled by the first fine.

Edit: Counting is hard.

You still believe the guy is a billionaire?

Would I be shocked that Trump had a billion dollars stashed away in various off shore bank accounts. No.

Would I be shocked that Trump didn't have two pennies to rub and was doing all this grifting to stay afloat. No.

Trump lies so much about his wealth. I would wager that Trump is only a multi-millionaire at best. Again, Trump grift game is pretty good and doesn't seem to pay his debts.

Yeah it would. He'd have to violate it 10 times for the doubling to even pass one hundredth of a billion.

Sounds like you're severely underestimating the vast gulf between 10,000 and however many billions his creditors are allowing him to have.

He's not remotely a billionaire. His whole life is a lie. Everything he's connected with is over valued and he has a ton of debt. He's a flim flam man, not a billionaire.

He's a fraud with a negative net worth but due to said fraud and his organised crime and rogue nations connections, billions are still made available for him

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I agree completely. Problem is that it's not an oversight, it's by design. They made it like this and keep it like this on purpose.

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I'm pretty sure that regular people would see the inside of a jail cell for breaking a gag order twice, but the guiltiest billionaire since Madoff get fined less than his yearly hamberder budget 🤬

You say that like Madoff didn't have to turn himself in because the SEC couldn't be bothered to look into the books of the DTCC while getting numerous tips about Madoff.....

When the punishment is a fine, it’s only a crime if you’re poor.

I mean not if the fine fits the crime. A big enough fine can cut the rich even harder than it can the poor. This was not big enough btw.

I think in some Scandinavian country like Finland there are wealth-proportionate fines. So a rich person could get a $30,000 speeding ticket if they’re not careful.

Which is still problematic. If I make a million a year and my fine is 10k, that's less meaningful to them than 300 is to someone who make 30k per year.

I don’t know the exact proportion but it is meant to be painful but not debilitating no matter your degree of wealth. Yes, it’s fundamentally more consequential to lower incomes, but it’s a hell of a lot better than the system we have in the US.

Edit: autocorrect

I agree it's better, but the impact on someone's life should be the same. Otherwise, you disproportionately target the poor.

That’s the entire point of it being wealth-proportionate. To hit everyone hard enough that it hurts without crushing them.

A big enough fine can cut the rich even harder than it can the poor.

I guess, in theory, but I've never seen that happen. And even if you did take more from them, it's only a "deeper cut" in the sense that they fell further to get to broke.

A $10k fine might be more than a poor person's entire net worth, forcing them into homelessness or extreme poverty.

I've never seen a billionaire forced to pay over 100% of their net worth in fines. Hell, I don't think I've ever seen a fine over $1B, except by a corporation.

Billionaires only go broke when they mismanage their own money. Jail time isn't even as big a threat if they are young, as they could well have more money when they come out, where any other Joe Schmo would come out broke and with limited job prospects.

Sure, it's certainly better to be rich than to not be. You're right when you are in the billionaire range it's pretty damn hard to touch that. But trump is a low end billionaire with lots of financial needs. You start cutting hard into his reserves and businesses could start to collapse, debt can accrue and friends start to dissappear. This pos can't keep his mouth shut and this is a major case with consequences for US democracy. 10million for any gag breech and we will start to see some behavior change after a couple mistakes.

Okay, but that's still not a "deeper cut" than the single parent living paycheck to paycheck getting a fine that puts them on the street.

Until fines are proportional to wealth, laws only apply to the poor. The rich can pay for an indulgence.

This is nickels to him. Many more nickels that he simply won't pay.

Put his ass in county on contempt charges. No bail. Let him fucking fester.

He still won't learn anything, but at least it'll be harder for him to run his goddamn mouth.

Someone in the thread about his previous $5k fine made a really good point that low but increasing fines may actually be more effective in the long run as there is still the ultimate threat of imprisonment, but the fines should still prove as a deterrent (eventually).

Besides that, straight to jail has the potential to galvanize his crazy supporters into action, whereas the fines are actually punitive and his supporters who believe he's got oodles of money should be able to shrug it off as no issue.

Basically it seems like the judge could be playing the long game by the books.

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This article doesn't cover the best part, which is that afterward he stormed out like the little baby he is.

If the fine doubles every time, we are in the "grains of rice on the chessboard" territory soon!

Next, the fine will be $20,000, then $50,000, then $100,000, then $200,000, then $500,000, then $1,000,000, then $2,000,000, then $5,000.000. then $10,000,000, etc. and see how long it takes before then finally throw the book at this asshole and put him behind bars.

Stop punishing rich people with fines, it doesn't work. It's like punishing me with naptime, I was probably gonna be asleep anyway!

They need to double it for every offense.

They could fine him a trillion dollars for all he cares, he won't pay one cent because its not like they are going to put him in jail or they would have done that already.

In that case it would be hilarious if he ultimately ends up serving jail time due to unpaid contempt fines

Should be sanctioned daily until he's in compliance. Where did they find this judge?

It's random selection. Reminder that Judge Engoron was the judge that hit the Trump Org with a default judgement and ordered the wholesale dissolution of his company.

So while this looks like a pittance (and it kind of is, TBH), this judge has already taken Trump to the cleaners.

I know it's random, but she's leaving her staff out in the rain. POTUS deserves a harder time in court than anyone else.

Absolutely. He's getting much more lenient treatment, whereas "average, non-white middle American" would have been in jail before a gag order was issued.

Once again, no real consequences, fascism wins again.

To an American billionaire ($1,000,000,000), $10,000 is equivalent to $10 out of an American million ($1,000,000), or $1, out of $100,000.

Until there is jail time, Trump doesn't care. He paid his hired help 10 X that to two models to not talk about their affairs with him.

This is the best summary I could come up with:


On Oct. 20, Engoron fined Trump $5,000 after finding he had not taken down a post disparaging the law clerk, and warned that future transgressions could bring "far more severe" sanctions including jail.

The judge, when he originally imposed the gag order, said that comments directed at his staff were "unacceptable, inappropriate and will not be tolerated under any circumstances."

Earlier on Wednesday, Cohen acknowledged under questioning by an attorney for the former president that he has a financial incentive to criticize his ex-boss but defended his credibility as he testified in the trial.

Habba on Wednesday asked Cohen about how much money he made from his political podcast and two books he wrote since bitterly cutting ties with Trump and becoming one of his fiercest critics.

Cohen's testimony could bolster the attorney general's argument that Trump, his company and several of its executives unlawfully inflated property values.

Cohen pleaded guilty to tax fraud, campaign violence violations and perjury in 2018 and was sentenced to three years in prison.


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