The judgement really is quite breathtaking with regards to rebuking Trump’s lawyers for their conduct. It’s not a question of “oops…we didn’t mean it” excuses…they really pushed the boundaries to the point where the judge had no other choice but to sanction them.
In response to both OAG’s request for a preliminary injunction and to defendants” motions to
dismiss, this Court rejected every one of the aforementioned arguments. In rejecting such
arguments for the second time, this Court cautioned that “sophisticated counsel should have
known better.” However, the Court declined to impose sanctions, believing it had “made its point.”
Apparently, the point was not received.
One would not know from reading defendants’ papers that this Court has already twice ruled
against these arguments, called them frivolous, and twice been affirmed by the First Department.
Defendants’ conduct in reiterating these frivolous arguments is egregious. We are way beyond
the point of “sophisticated counsel should have known better”; we are at the point of intentional
and blatant disregard of controlling authority and law of the case. This Court emphatically
rejected these arguments, as did the First Department. Defendants’ repetition of them here is
indefensible.
Here estimates tend to be lowballed because they are intended for the bank - it’s what the bank can’t lose on if valued at that. That’s how it works when they are made for the ordinary person looking for a mortgage or probate. Problem with that is of course you get a worse mortgage rate and a higher tax bill if you sell. But that’s only a problem for the little person.
The thing is, his lawyers knew they had a losing case and that there was nothing they could do to stop it from going down. Their behavior is the legal equivalent of a ‘Hail Mary’ and they had no other choice but to continue to press frivolous arguments as their desperation grew throwing anything they could against the wall hoping it would stick.
The judge even called out that this is not their first rodeo when it comes to being sanctioned:
There is also a larger context to the sanctions issue. Several defendants are no strangers to
sanctions and why courts are sometimes constrained to issue them. In the investigatory special
proceeding this Court found Donald Trump in contempt of Court and sanctioned him $10,000
per day for failing to comply with his discovery obligations. This Court lifted the contempt after
11 days.
New York legal parlance would be called “a motion to reargue,” pursuant to which Donald
Trump asked Judge Middlebrooks to vacate sanctions imposed on him and his legal team totaling
close to one million dollars. Judge Middlebrooks wrote, on the first page thereof, that “Movants acted in bad faith in bringing this lawsuit and that this case exemplifies Mr. Trump’s history of abusing the judicial process.”
Notice how all of the judges running his cases are “anti-Trump” except for one? I’m completely unsure why that would be.
And considering how extremely solid that case is, I’m not sure even she at her most generous will be allowed to favor her benefactor…and then will be, of course, an anti-Trump judge.
Important history note - Trump has been involved with over 3,500 cases in his life, nearly all of them he either lost or settled.
Perhaps Trump’s lawyers (knowing their client was a dead duck no matter what) felt that emulating Trump’s obtuse, baseless aggressiveness and seething discourtesy in the face of legal authority, would at least have a chance at proving to him (and his bloody-minded stormtroopers) that they were doing their job. What else can you do when you have the worst client in history, and you need the dough.
(excerpt) Several legal experts told Newsweek that Cannon was out of her depth in the Trump case, with one New York University professor comparing her to a contestant on a cooking show who has previously only ever baked a pop tart.
I’ve been reading a ton of articles about this today and I don’t think the magnitude of this court order is getting enough attention right now.
This order essentially means the end of the Trump Organization. Donald Trump is effectively out of business in the state of New York. No more Trump Tower. No more 40 Wall Street. No more Seven Springs. All NY Trump assets are going into receivership and will be liquidated and his business licenses are revoked.
This. Is. HUGE!!
Barring a miracle appeal or intervention from another court, Trump’s days of New York real estate mogul are finished. It’s really hard to overstate the significance of this ruling. Sure, it’ll take years to fully settle out but I don’t see how he manages to weasel his way around this.
Trump has a long history of not paying for services. To that extent, I really don’t see him paying his lawyers anything more than a taste… and then maybe – MAYBE – his lawyers see the rest of it. Per his MO, if any money was actually handed over, would only be after a service was rendered.
