• Telorand@reddthat.com
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    1 year ago

    Obligatory reminder that his company has already been found to have committed egregious and continuing fraud, and it has been ordered to be dissolved and the company assets sold off. This trial is punitive damages on top of that.

    • Eufalconimorph@discuss.tchncs.de
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      1 year ago

      Mostly correct. Trump was found guilty of significantly inflating the value of his properties already. There are still charges over falsification of business records, insurance fraud, and conspiracy to commit fraud. Those don’t have guilty verdicts yet. Damages haven’t been decided, as you note.

      It’s also worth noting that this is a civil trial. That means that refusal to answer questions can result in “adverse inference” where the assumption will be that the worst possible answer was given (an admission of guilt). It may still be worthwhile to refuse to answer, e.g. under 5th amendment protections to avoid incriminating oneself on criminal charges. Criminal charges can be brought based on testimony given in civil trials, but adverse inference isn’t enough to get criminal charges.

    • PeleSpirit@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 year ago

      Does anyone know if they could go after more people from their testimonies too? I guess Ivanka got out by way of the statute of limitations and not recalling anything, but maybe the evidence they produced could bring her back in.

      • Telorand@reddthat.com
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        1 year ago

        NAL: Possibly, but my guess is probably not, since this is a case against the whole company (which includes the officers, etc.), so it would be like suing the group and then suing individually for the same things. Maybe civil trials involving companies are different, but my understanding is that you can’t do that because of double jeopardy.

        But losing his empire means grifting from his followers, a well that must be showing signs of drying up by now, is his family’s primary means of making money going forward.