Trump “Finally Being Held to Account” After Half-Century of Criminality: David Cay Johnston

this is democracy now democraticnow.org I'm Amy Goodman with Juan González a New York judge has set April 15 as the start date for Donald Trump's hush money trial the first of Trump's four criminal trials that day Trump is Will become the first former president of the United States to ever face a criminal trial, he is accused of falsifying business records and violating New York law to cover up money payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels. Trump was in court Monday when the judge rejected requests to delay the trial and the judge directly criticized Trump's decision. legal team for alleging that prosecutors had improperly with

held

documents from them, meanwhile, in a separate case, a New York state appeals court reduced Trump's bail to $175 million compared to more than $450 million to cover a sentence of civil fraud.

The court also gave Trump 10 more days to pay. If Trump doesn't post bail, New York Attorney General Leticia James could start seizing some of his property to talk more about this and more. We're joined by David K. Johnston, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter, co-founder of DC Report, who has covered Donald Trump since 9/8. His books include the great hack of how Donald Trump fleeced America and enriched himself and his family. his latest piece for the new Republic is today is the day that 50 years of scamming

finally

comes to an end so start by talking about the meaning of this money reduction has to be PID, do you think he will publish it in the next 10 days and what exactly does it mean, David?

Well, it is not unusual for courts to reduce the size of a bond from the full amount owed to a smaller amount. There have been several cases of this and it is discretionary on the part of the courts, the bail is not intended to be punitive, it is to ensure payment and Trump has other assets, so I think it was a reasonable decision by this court as much as I am upset. many people who criticize Donald, the appeal probably won't take that long, a matter of months and having carefully read Judge Eng Goran's decision, I and I'm not a lawyer, I'm a law professor, but no. a lawyer, and many lawyers see no meaningful reason to appeal, the best Trump can hope for is that the roughly $350 million base bail award for

half

that amount could be reduced a little, but that's about it.

What Trump can expect. for and and David when asked how he would pay the $175 million bonus in his fraud case, Trump said at a press conference on Monday: I don't need to borrow money, I have a lot of money, his answer to that Well, this goes straight to the heart of how there is no sense of objective truth or facts in Donald's world, if Donald says something that means it is like that and if you don't agree, you know Juan's fake news, his lawyers told the court that he He couldn't get bail for 454 million, he couldn't make more than 100 million at most and then he turns around and says: I have 500 million dollars in cash.

Donald just makes these things up and has done so all his life. In the 35 years I've known him, he just makes up for it. I guess somehow he's going to borrow this money. He has another bond for $83 million from a Swiss insurer in the second Egene Carrol defamation case and in this case, he has met at least once with Jeffrey Yas, a guy who is worth about $25 billion and owns the 7% bik dance, the father of tick tock, when President Donald issued an executive order banning Tick Tock, a court threw that out. because he doesn't have the authority to do that uh he said it was a threat to national security now he says we need tick tac how interesting he makes friends with the guy who has his fortune tied up in Tik Tock and suddenly he's pro-Tik Tock, too we've heard recently what Steve Minuchin, um, one of his cabinet members, Trump's former cabinet members, is trying to put together a team, uh, to buy tents, it's like that, so you have billionaires who own X, you're right, Elon Musk, uh.

The right also owns Tik Tock, yes, what you are seeing in the United States due to a series of Supreme Court decisions, the most important of which was citizens united, is the conversion of American democracy into a business of cash registers. Whoever has more money can buy. the government policies they want and there is a desperate need to change this. Steve Minuchin was Trump's Treasury secretary. He became very rich by taking over a failed Savings and Loan and then enforcing the most trivial rules to force people out of their homes so he could. He obtained the value of the houses from him as Secretary of the Treasury he used government money to be able to fly on a shopping plane to see a celestial event.

I mean, these are people who have no regard for Amy in the public interest, no sense of sacrifice, just watching. to the government and boy, how rich can I get from manipulating the government and David, your opinion on the importance of uh, the most likely first trial now is the criminal trial on the secret money case in New York, well, Judge Juan Marshon has done it is very clear that he is sick and tired of the Trump lawyers game, they literally put themselves in the position of someone who murders their parents and then begs for mercy because they are orphans, they caused the, they were the ones who chose to wait until the last minute to seek certain documents not from state prosecutors, by the way, but from federal prosecutors, the case against Donald Trump in this matter is extraordinarily strong in large part because Michael Cohen, Donald Trump's mediator and lawyer in that moment he went to prison for these exact same events, but when Trump is convicted and I think it is extraordinarily likely that he will appeal because there are 34 misdemeanor charges that are then rolled together under one federal charge, not a state charge, that Trump was trying of subverting the 2020 election. or the 2016 election by paying porn star Stormy Daniels, Trump will certainly go to trial, he will go to court, after the trial and say, well, that's not fair, he can't do that because , of course, anything that law enforcement or the attorney general is distressed about.

The parties coming after Trump is not fair because Donald is special, he is above the rules, in fact he tells his audience that he is their savior. I wanted to go to Donald Trump, uh, leaving the courthouse on Monday, this is all about election interference, this is everything Biden is running. I'm talking about Biden and his bullies because I don't know if he knows he's alive and it's a shame, it's a shame what's happening to our country. This is election interference, so we only have one minute left. You have written three books about Donald Trump. You won the Pulitzer Prize for your reporting, you co-founded the DC Report, where do you think each is headed?

Let's be clear about this hush money trial that he thinks he'll be convicted of, he can't forgive himself if he becomes president because it's a state court, this is a state ruling, I don't think even this Supreme Court will uphold a pardon. federal to Donald Trump when this is over if he does not return to the White House and he can do so even if he loses by 10 million. votes as I hope in the fall because we elect through the Electoral College Donald Trump does not return to the White House, so what awaits him is financial ruin, bankruptcy and prison, multiple long prison sentences from state and federal criminal courts . because Donald Trump has committed serious criminal acts his entire life and

finally

, finally, after

half

a

century

of lying, cheating, stealing, giving liquor to 12-year-olds to gamble, doing extraordinary favors for one of the biggest cocaine traffickers In the United States, he is finally

being

held

account

able.

Finally, David K ​​Johnston, why don't you consider that Laura Trump, who now helps lead the RN C, is married to Eric Trump? She benefits from the money that goes directly to Trump because he also has to pay millions of dollars, you know, over nine years. um Amy ago on your show I said that Donald Trump uh is a wannabe dictator and when you're a dictator you surround yourself with the people you trust and the people you trust the most are family so now he's installed his daughter-in-law. at the Republican National Committee, which is close to brother in terms of how much money it should have and has no money for unvoted candidates, which is bad for the party David K ​​Johnston, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist who designed for our Happy Birthday Nur sh program