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| credit: B. Plante |
Der Leader's political fortunes took a bad turn this week with a dismal performance in the mid term elections. As expected the traditional switch to the other party during a presidential term occurred in the House of Representatives. Repugnants may have a slim majority after all the votes are counted.If that comes to pass it means the end of the Select Committee investigating the events of January 6th and the plotting that lead up to it. It's work is largely done, however and it must produce a report to Congress. The pregnant question is: will they recommend the criminal prosecution of the coup leader, the former President. Now that his political influence is waning (and its his wife's fault), Repugnant hypocrites like Mitch McConnell are coming out of the woodwork to voice their disapproval of the deranged grifter. Just a tad late, guys!
On the legal front this week, Trump fared little better. His appeal of the appointment of a fiduciary in the prosecution of his company was denied. A monitor of the company's assets was ordered after he created Trump Org 2, which could receive assets in an attempt to move them out of the jurisdiction. His former controller, Jeffery McConney, testified in court that Trump knew about the efforts to avoid taxes because he discussed reducing CFO Allen Weisselberg's salary in compensation for in-kind perks such as paying for private school tuitions according to what the CFO told him. Mc Conney is testifying in return for immunity from prosecution. McConney is nevertheless a reluctant witness, who had to be prompted for the truthful answer to the question by "refreshing his recollection" with his grand jury testimony.
McConney also testified that some executives were treated as independent contractors for tax purposes when bonuses were paid. The abusive practice dated back to the 1980s. A former general counsel of the company received bonuses as a non-employee until an accountant told McConey to stop. Trump signed off with his initials to a reduction in executive Mathew Calamari's salary by 72,000, the amount of his apartment rent.