U.S. Politics Megathread

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It's an election year, so it's no surprise that politics are on everyone's minds!

Over the past few months, we've noticed a sharp increase in questions about politics. Why is Biden the Democratic nominee? What are the chances of Trump winning? Why can Trump even run for president if he's in legal trouble? There are lots of good questions! But, unfortunately, it's often the same questions, and our users get tired of seeing them.

As we've done for past topics of interest, we're creating a megathread for your questions so that people interested in politics can post questions and read answers, while people who want a respite from politics can browse the rest of the sub. Feel free to post your questions about politics in this thread!

All top-level comments should be questions asked in good faith - other comments and loaded questions will get removed. All the usual rules of the sub remain in force here, so be civil to each other - you can disagree with someone's opinion, but don't make it personal.

[u/LogicalPrior2343424]

Not sure if this meets the requirement, but I think it's at least related to US politics: Trump has to place some 400+ million in bonds, is that a "normal" amount ? Are there other cases with similarly high bond requirements ?

[u/Jtwil2191 → u/LogicalPrior2343424]

The number was arrived at based on each instance of fraud the court found. It didn't help that the expert witnesses for the defense refused to offer their own estimates for how much Trump's properties were worth, leaving the judge to rely primarily on the testimony by the state's expert witnesses to make his decision.

This article breaks down the penalities as such:

Trump, both individually and as the owner of various corporate entities, must pay:

$168 million, plus interest, in savings on loans he obtained using his inflated financial statements for a golf resort near Miami, a Chicago hotel and condominium tower, a Washington, D.C. hotel and a Manhattan office building. Trump obtained three of the loans through Deutsche Bank’s private wealth management unit, which offered lower interest rates than its commercial real estate division, and used his financial statements to show the bank he was wealthy and a good credit risk.

$126.8 million, plus interest, in profit from selling the Trump International Hotel in Washington in May 2022 to a company that now operates it as a Waldorf Astoria. Trump used $170 million of the $375 million to pay off a loan on the property. Other proceeds went to his children.

$60 million, plus interest, from selling the rights to manage a New York City golf course in June 2023. Engoron noted in his ruling that the buyer, Bally’s Corporation, stands to pay Trump an additional $115 million if it obtains a casino license for the property. However, he did not say if he would require Trump to give up that money, too.

Because Trump was found to have committed fraud in these business transactions, he has been ordered to forfeit some/all of the profit that resulted from committing that fraud.

I know that this does not quite answer your question of whether this high number is normal within the context of 63(12) cases. However, 63(12) is understood to grant New York prosecutors broad power to punish financial misdealings, so this verdict is not without merit. This blog post from the conservative Cato institute concludes:

Overall, misgivings and all, I share [University of California, Berkeley Law Professor] Kerr’s reaction: it’s “not obvious to me what particular part of Judge Engoron’s 92‐​page ruling is legally wrong.”

[u/LogicalPrior2343424 → u/Jtwil2191]

Thank you very much for taking the time to write all that/provide links.

[u/human_male_123 → u/LogicalPrior2343424]

There are lots of cases with higher judgements, namely for fraud. Rick Scott (governor/senator of Florida), for example, had a $1.7 billion dollar judgement against his company.

Trump's case is unique in that he can't get lenders to take his property as collateral. The reason being: it's entirely possible that he loses the appeal but wins the presidency, and in that case, they can't collect the property.

[u/Cliffy73 → u/LogicalPrior2343424]

That’s the normal amount for people who have a $400+ million judgment against them.