For Donald Trump, it is always a game of war, and unlike most people, he relishes it. The ex-president never stops the con, the grifting. As we have seen him do around the January 6 insurrection, he denies, intimidates, and threatens those who dare to go against him. And of course, there are his many lawsuits.
The Turning Point Action (TPA) group in Phoenix chose Donald Trump to speak before them this previous Saturday. And what a joy it was. He rambled all over the place, mentioning “router” a total of 14 times. Most pundits believe that he does not even understand what a router actually is. And of course, he griped about his last consume fraud case lawsuit.
The federal appeals court refused Trump’s attempt to stall a lawsuit against the ex-president and his top three children Ivanka, Don Jr., and Eric. He was, as The Politico reported:
‘[Trying to force] arbitration in a class-action lawsuit accusing him of fraud during the decade he spent as a pitchman for ACN, a business services company featured on “Celebrity Apprentice.”‘
New York’s 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decided on Wednesday that Trump’s Organization, Trump, and his three eldest kids could not take advantage of an arbitration clause. ACN had written its contracts with independent business owners who opted to “sell telephone and other services to other businesses.”
In a 2018 federal lawsuit file against him and his company, Trump was accused of “making false public claims” about ACN. He also withheld the fact he had been paid millions endorsing “the multilevel marketing company.”
Judge Robert Sack wrote his opinion in uscourts.gov, along with Judges Raymond Lohier and Denny Chin:
‘Central to the plaintiffs’ theory of fraud is that the defendants misled the plaintiffs to believe that the defendants and ACN were independent of one another and that the defendants were endorsing and promoting ACN based on an objective outside assessment of the value of ACN’s business opportunity.’
‘Consistent with this understanding, there is no evidence to suggest that the plaintiffs treated the defendants as if they were effectively parties to the … agreement.’
The plaintiffs indicated they “signed up to sell ACN’s services and paid significant sums of money for the opportunity but saw virtually no income.”
ACN said in a statement that it had been unfairly pulled into a lawsuit fueled by politics.
‘ACN is not a political organization and is proud to welcome individuals from all walks of life. ACN’s business relationship with Mr. Trump started and ended before his run for national office.’
‘It is unfortunate that ACN’s name and business have been impugned in connection with this politically-motivated and funded lawsuit. To be clear, ACN categorically denies the allegations made in the lawsuit against it and its business.’
A nonprofit group criticized documents from the company after they sought them via subpoena. The 2nd Circuit ruled 3 to 0 that third parties can “sometimes avail themselves of arbitration, which is generally seen as friendlier to large businesses than the courts.” However, Trump, his business, and his company did not qualify for the arbitration clause coverage.
The plaintiff’s lead counsel saluted the appeals court’s ruling in this statement:
‘We … are excited to resume discovery in this important case about a years-long consumer fraud on hard working Americans perpetrated by Donald Trump and three of his adult children.’
‘We have pending subpoenas out to ACN and MGM and look forward to receiving the documents and Celebrity Apprentice tapes responsive to those subpoenas. And we similarly intend to press the Trumps to complete their document production so that we can begin taking depositions as soon as possible.’
The document continues at uscourts.gov.
Three White Lions podcast, Gloria Christie reads her week’s most important news/ commentary stories in the liberal online newspaper The Bipartisan Report. Gloria Christie Report her newsletter for people on the go. Written in her own unique style with a twist of humor in a briefer version of Bipartisan Report. Christie’s Mueller Report Adventures In Bite-Sizes a real-life compelling spy mystery. Find her here on Facebook.
