Donald Trump, who continues running for president despite the large portions of Americans who don’t want him in the race amid his four criminal cases and dozens of accusations of felonious criminal misconduct, is still acting as though he should receive preferential treatment in civil litigation and the broader justice system.
With his numerous complaints about the various processes he is facing, Trump is targeting what in reality is the routine procedure of criminal charges and civil litigation. There’s still no specific evidence that the many allegations made against Trump have been handled procedurally in some manner meaningfully distinct from charges and cases brought against others, and he has had ample opportunity to raise his complaints in court. The special master his team wanted in the classified documents investigation? Shut down. Multiple times, it’s gone to the U.S. Supreme Court in some context — and multiple times, including in semi-related disputes originating in New York, he’s lost.
After a ruling this week from New York Judge Arthur Engoron saying that Trump had perpetrated fraud at his business, Trump posted screenshots on Truth Social of a lengthy, earlier screed that ended with the insistence: “THIS IS NOT AMERICA!” He also again pointed to supposedly protective disclaimers provided with claims about his financial condition in a business context that drove the original allegations of fraud brought by New York state Attorney General Letitia James. “THE DISCLAIMER CLAUSE TELLS ANYONE REVIEWING THE DATA, INCLUDING FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS, TO DO THEIR OWN RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS – IT IS A NON RELIANCE CLAUSE, AND COULD NOT BE MORE CLEAR,” Trump claimed.
Engoron specifically refuted this argument, noting that the actual language of the disclaimers left responsibility with the Trumps for information left out of the accompanying statements of financial condition. According to the judge, the disclaimers were also insufficiently reaching to establish actual protections against serious legal consequences for Trump — with whom the information misrepresented in the documents rested. “In sum, the Mazars disclaimers put the onus for accuracy squarely on defendants’ shoulders,” Engoron said. There are remaining claims to resolve at an upcoming trial, in addition to the question of consequences.
