New York (Manhattan D.A.) v. Trump Organization - criminal case

[Chilidog]

Legal question here, as a resident of Florida, if he wants to sue a state official of New York, doesn't it have to be in a federal court?

[jemcanada2]

Is he shopping for a Loose Canon?

My first thought too!!

Over/under on Loose Cannon taking the bait?

[chancery]

Legal question here, as a resident of Florida, if he wants to sue a state official of New York, doesn't it have to be in a federal court?

No, but James could remove (transfer) the action to a federal court. And she probably will.

[Chilidog]

He actually did file it in the state court

https://cdn.nucleusfiles.com/0b/0bc6322 ... RZBkI4vEwV

[Chilidog]

Oh fucking brother!!!

As a private company, nobody knew very much about the great business that then–businessman Donald Trump had built but now it is being revealed by James and much to her chagrin. The continuing witch hunt that has haunted and targeted Donald Trump since he came down the “golden escalator” at Trump Tower in June of 2015 continues. President Trump built a great and prosperous company but a company nevertheless that must be carefully, delicately, yet powerfully managed, and the appointment of a political monitor or the interference by a political hack like James who is using this lawsuit for political gain, would bring great harm to the company, the brand, the employees and its overall reputation. Likewise, it could virtually destroy the highly profitable Florida properties, which include the legendary Trump National Doral Golf Club and Resort (one of the most successful in the world), Trump International Golf Club in Palm Beach, Florida, Trump Jupiter Country Club in Jupiter, FL, and, of course, one of the greatest and most successful clubs in the world, The Mar-a-Lago Club. In addition to greatly affecting the real
estate values of these properties, a monitor or supervisor representing a failed and poorly rated Attorney General’s office from distant New York, would jeopardize the more than 1,000 employees that operate these properties and would totally destroy the “pipeline” of future projects not only in the great State of Florida, but throughout the United States, and indeed the world.

There's Trump DNA all over the place.....

[Chilidog]

Legal question here, as a resident of Florida, if he wants to sue a state official of New York, doesn't it have to be in a federal court?

No, but James could remove (transfer) the action to a federal court. And she probably will.

Would she get to pick the circuit court she would file to remove to?

[noblepa]

IANAL, but he can sue her in a Florida state court, and the Florida statute does specifically include non-residents.

However, the problem with suing someone from another state in your local state court, is enforcement. He filed a civil suit, not a criminal complaint, so, even if she were to ignore the case and the judge handed down a summary judgement in favor of Trump, how would it be enforced?

From what I saw of the complaint, he seems to be arguing that she is interfering in his estate planning trust. He has been a resident of Florida for less than two years. I can't believe that he didn't have that trust for a long time, which means it was probably created pursuant to NY law, which seems like it would further reduce the nexus to FL.

How easy is it to move a trust from one state to another? It seems to me that, to the extent that NY and FL estate planning law differs, at the very least, his lawyers would have to review the terms of the trust and possibly rewrite some of it. Then again, I am woefully ignorant of probate law.

[SuzieC]

Interference with a trust or with an estate plan is a thing, but I believe the plaintiff has to be a person that would have benefitted from the estate. I don't think Ms. James is one of Trump's heirs. Just one of many moronic aspects of this lawsuit.

[chancery]

IANAL, but he can sue her in a Florida state court, and the Florida statute does specifically include non-residents.

However, the problem with suing someone from another state in your local state court, is enforcement. He filed a civil suit, not a criminal complaint, so, even if she were to ignore the case and the judge handed down a summary judgement in favor of Trump, how would it be enforced?

The Full Faith and Credit clause of the Constitution guarantees that one state's judgment is enforceable in every other state. So that's not the issue.

The problem is using a civil action to intrude on a criminal prosecution. IANACrL, but that's usually not a thing that a criminal defendant can do, even within the same jurisdiction, and there are sovereignty issues when you ask the court of one jurisdiction to interfere with criminal proceedings in a different jurisdiction.

There are exceptions, but I'm confident that none applies here. The general concept was applied in Younger v. Harris, 401 U.S. 37 (1971); the short wikipedia article will give you a non-technical notion of the general idea. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Younger_v._Harris

Note that one of the exceptions is a prosecution commenced in bad faith, e.g., against a defendant the prosecutor knows to be innocent.

Trump has of course alleged that the NY prosecution was brought in bad faith, but I don't think he's going to be able to persuade any non-MAGA judge of that claim.

[Maybenaut]

IANAL, but he can sue her in a Florida state court, and the Florida statute does specifically include non-residents.

However, the problem with suing someone from another state in your local state court, is enforcement. He filed a civil suit, not a criminal complaint, so, even if she were to ignore the case and the judge handed down a summary judgement in favor of Trump, how would it be enforced?

The Full Faith and Credit clause of the Constitution guarantees that one state's judgment is enforceable in every other state. So that's not the issue.

The problem is using a civil action to intrude on a criminal prosecution. IANACrL, but that's usually not a thing that a criminal defendant can do, even within the same jurisdiction, and there are sovereignty issues when you ask the court of one jurisdiction to interfere with criminal proceedings in a different jurisdiction.

There are exceptions, but I'm confident that none applies here. The general concept was applied in Younger v. Harris, 401 U.S. 37 (1971); the short wikipedia article will give you a non-technical notion of the general idea. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Younger_v._Harris

Note that one of the exceptions is a prosecution commenced in bad faith, e.g., against a defendant the prosecutor knows to be innocent.

Trump has of course alleged that the NY prosecution was brought in bad faith, but I don't think he's going to be able to persuade any non-MAGA judge of that claim.

Until recently, one would have thought so.

[Gupwalla]

Legal question here, as a resident of Florida, if he wants to sue a state official of New York, doesn't it have to be in a federal court?

Franchise Tax Board of California v. Hyatt, 587 U.S. ___ (2019)

Held: Nevada v. Hall is overruled; States retain their sovereign immunity from private suits brought in courts of other States.

Opinion by J. Thomas, joined by the other four conservative justices then on the court. The liberal dissent (by J. Breyer) would have upheld Nevada v. Hall on grounds of stare decisis.

Trump is a private individual suing an official from another state. So he has a hill to climb before his case gets anywhere near the merits.

Edit: I should credit our temporarily absent friend M. Dunford for the case cite on Twitter.

[humblescribe]

Need some estate and trust attorneys to weigh in here.

My understanding with revocable trusts is that these are essentially estate-planning tools to avoid probate and hasten the transfer of assets to the beneficiaries of the estate, whether individuals or other trusts. One of the nice features of revocable trusts is that the grantor can contribute assets and remove assets at will without any penalty. Of course these assets need to be retitled in these instances. For income tax purposes revocable trusts are ignored; that is, a separate fiduciary tax return is not filed. (I am sure there are exceptions, though.)

I can see why Letitia James wants to see the trust document. Could the trust be defective? Since a lot of his holdings are in the State of New York, could there be provisions that frustrate New York law? Are there potential beneficiaries that might be able to hide assets from the State, especially if tfg keels over or becomes mentally disabled? (Well, more than he currently is, I mean.)

I recall in the appendices to the complaint that there was reference to a March 2022 amendment or revision to his trust in the email correspondence. I assume that his original revocable trust was established pursuant to NY law; what changes were made now that he is allegedly a resident of Florida?

I think it is entirely within her powers to view the document and have the State's estate and trust section render opinions on the document.

I think James should threaten to slap lis pendens on the titles of all his New York real estate.

[bob]

Legal question here, as a resident of Florida, if he wants to sue a state official of New York, doesn't it have to be in a federal court?

No, but James could remove (transfer) the action to a federal court. And she probably will.

Would she get to pick the circuit court she would file to remove to?

A removed state suit will be filed in the federal judicial district that contains the court in which the state action was originally filed.

In this case, S.D. Fla.

If he was trying to shop for Loose Cannon, he could have just filed in federal court directly.

* * *

Under the lawsuit's "reasoning," a bank robber could place their (legally obtained) firearm into a revocable trust and a prosecutor wouldn't be able to introduce the gun into evidence at the robber's criminal trial.

In other words, I presume Florida law somewhere says valid legal proceedings cannot be a tortious interference of a trust.

[June bug]

Unless I’m missing something, doesn’t all this discussion of Trump suing Letitia James belong in the NY State civil case thread?

The criminal case is the Manhattan District Attorney. As far as I know, Trump’s not suing them. Am I wrong?

[Kendra]

Unless I’m missing something, doesn’t all this discussion of Trump suing Letitia James belong in the NY State civil case thread?

The criminal case is the Manhattan District Attorney. As far as I know, Trump’s not suing them. Am I wrong?

and all here, but I believe you are correct. It is getting complicated with so much court stuff going on.

[RTH10260]

how do his lawyers keep things apart?

[Ben-Prime]

how do his lawyers keep things apart?

By promoting his own beliefs that it's all Fake News and lawfare against him personally no matter what the headers and stylings on the cases say.

[raison de arizona]

how do his lawyers keep things apart?

By promoting his own beliefs that it's all Fake News and lawfare against him personally no matter what the headers and stylings on the cases say.

He mixes and matches too, like when he had Bobb sit in on "the raid" due to her physical proximity despite her not being on that particular case's team. I suspect he pulls Habba into everything, he seems particularly fond of her.

[RTH10260]

in the appeals court against the order for an overseer of the Torg:

https://twitter.com/frankrunyeon/status ... 2410892288

Frank G. Runyeon@frankrunyeon

Ivanka Trump’s lawyer argued the injunction makes her look like a “persistent fraudster” and that she will suffer severe damage to her reputation if she’s not removed from the order (+ no claims *she* committed fraud + she resigned 5 yrs ago from Trump Org).
2:46 AM · Nov 10, 2022

[Dave from down under]

So it portrays her accurately

[neonzx]

in the appeals court against the order for an overseer of the Torg:

https://twitter.com/frankrunyeon/status ... 2410892288

Frank G. Runyeon@frankrunyeon

Ivanka Trump’s lawyer argued the injunction makes her look like a “persistent fraudster” and that she will suffer severe damage to her reputation if she’s not removed from the order (+ no claims *she* committed fraud + she resigned 5 yrs ago from Trump Org).
2:46 AM · Nov 10, 2022

Um.

Ivanka Trump got paid $1.4 million by the luxury Washington, D.C. hotel owned by her father's company during President Trump's final year in office (2020), new financial disclosures reveal.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... -2020.html

[Dave from down under]

That’s a lot more that she got than Stormy got from Donnie

[raison de arizona]

No, but James could remove (transfer) the action to a federal court. And she probably will.

Would she get to pick the circuit court she would file to remove to?

A removed state suit will be filed in the federal judicial district that contains the court in which the state action was originally filed.

In this case, S.D. Fla.

If he was trying to shop for Loose Cannon, he could have just filed in federal court directly.

* * *

Under the lawsuit's "reasoning," a bank robber could place their (legally obtained) firearm into a revocable trust and a prosecutor wouldn't be able to introduce the gun into evidence at the robber's criminal trial.

In other words, I presume Florida law somewhere says valid legal proceedings cannot be a tortious interference of a trust.

https://twitter.com/DonLew87/status/1593258497566818312

DELICIOUS. Trump filed a laughable lawsuit against Letitia James in Florida State court. James had the case moved to a Florida Federal court. The federal judge was just assigned. It's the same judge who just sanctioned Trump's lawyers for a frivolous lawsuit v Hillary Clinton.

This is the same judge who Trump tried to get disqualified or kicked off his Hillary Clinton lawsuit. The judge said no and basically accused Trump of judge-shopping while specifically mentioning Judge Aileen Cannon. More here:

WHOA! Trump filed a baseless lawsuit v. Hillary Clinton, ex-FBI Agent Peter Strzok et al in Florida. Back in April, Trump tried to get the assigned judge kicked off the case. The judge said no & basically accused Trump of judge-shopping. For what judge? Yup, Aileen Cannon /1

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

[RTH10260]

Do we know if the attorneys for the former guy happen to be the same?