I commented on another diary yesterday and engaged in some back & forth about the RICO Statute. IANAL and sometimes when I delve into legal issues here actual lawyers who are active on Kos will correct me, but sometimes I get it right. And sometimes they bring up nuances or additional factors that I hadn’t thought of. Whether what I have to say now is “on-point” or not (or downright stupid) I figure those actually trained in the law will chime in if this diary gets read.
As we know, the President had a particularly epic meltdown after news broke that the Trump Organization itself had been subpoenaed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Now, it must be remembered that the subpoena itself had been issued a couple of weeks or so before the news broke. I’m guessing here, but given his attention span and the fact it’s well-known his legal team uses the tactic of blowing sunshine up his ass to try and control him and/or prevent him from spewing forth verbal statements and tweets that make their job of defending him that much harder it’s possible Trump didn’t get the full potential impact of the subpoena right away. Even if it did, he could take comfort in the fact that it wasn’t public and that people wouldn’t get into speculation such as what I’m doing with this diary. However I think that it’s possible and even likely his legal team held off (as long as they could) but eventually wound up (or had to) telling him that by going the subpoena route up in New York Mueller was not only playing hardball now but sending a message. Which included the fact that everything was on the table, including looking at using the RICO law.
So, what exactly is the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act? ( en.wikipedia.org/...)
Well, if you don’t like to click on links here’s a summary understandable by us lay people:
The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, commonly referred to as the RICO Act or simply RICO, is a United States federal law that provides for extended criminal penalties and a civil cause of action for acts performed as part of an ongoing criminal organization. The RICO Act focuses specifically on racketeering, and it allows the leaders of a syndicate to be tried for the crimes which they ordered others to do or assisted them in doing, closing a perceived loophole that allowed a person who instructed someone else to, for example, murder, to be exempt from the trial because they did not actually commit the crime personally.
Although originally enacted to keep Mafia bosses from avoiding prosecution and jail over time use of the law expanded beyond what we think of as old-school organized crime like we see in movies. More bluntly, it is a way to hold people accountable by preventing them from employing a “I didn’t specifically do/order any of that stuff myself” defense. Allowing it to happen and enjoying the fruits of the criminal activity is enough to get someone convicted under the terms of the RICO statute. Oh, and btw in case you’re wondering about pardons and such over thirty states have state level RICO statutes. In New York State where the Trump Organization is headquartered RICO goes by the name of “Enterprise Corruption” but the law is there and NY State AG Eric Schneiderman is surely preparing a case should Trump completely lose it and fires Mueller. Or gets talked into it by the CT spouting Faux Nooz talking head (Joseph diGenova) that has just joined his legal team. From the beginning Schneiderman and Mueller have been quietly working together.
So how does RICO apply to Trump? Among the offenses that are included under the statue are bribery (perhaps in getting some of his real estate deals approved?), embezzlement (already being looked at via Trump’s and his son’s “charities”), fraud (again his business dealings which include “valuation” of his assets for loans), obstruction of justice (need I say more) and money laundering. And Mueller has an all star team that includes “following the money.” There’s more crimes in the statute but to me these seem the ones that most likely, and more importantly can be proved in court. A pattern of activity is required to trigger the RICO statute. Specifically (from Wikipedia):
Pattern of racketeering activity requires at least two acts of racketeering activity, one of which occurred after the effective date of this chapter and the last of which occurred within ten years (excluding any period of imprisonment) after the commission of a prior act of racketeering activity. The U.S. Supreme Court has instructed federal courts to follow the continuity-plus-relationship test in order to determine whether the facts of a specific case give rise to an established pattern. Predicate acts are related if they "have the same or similar purposes, results, participants, victims, or methods of commission, or otherwise are interrelated by distinguishing characteristics and are not isolated events." (H.J. Inc. v. Northwestern Bell Telephone Co.) Continuity is both a closed and open ended concept, referring to either a closed period of conduct, or to past conduct that by its nature projects into the future with a threat of repetition.
I’ll close out this part with an interesting tidbit that we’ve just seen with the firing of Andrew McCabe who was just a high level official involved in investigating the President but a witness as well. Both McCabe and others who can corroborate James Comey have been subjected to firing or demotion, and one manner in which RICO has been successfully used is to prosecute for behaviors/actions against witnesses.
Considering all that it seems to this lay person that if it’s not a slam dunk there’s sure plenty of reason to explore a RICO (federal) or Enterprise Corruption (state) case against Trump, and also his sons who are currently running (not that daddy isn’t still involved) the Trump Organization. Like anyone who is reading this (we Kossacks tend to be political junkies) I follow the talking heads on TV and I do in fact recall RICO having been discussed in the past albeit briefly. But lately, including since that Trump Organization subpoena dropped I haven’t head it brought up even briefly. If it has I’m sure someone will point it out. However, the reason I find the lack of discussion remarkable is that there was a week’s worth of talk about the weekend meltdown after the subpoena. And I find this remarkable because when it comes to RICO I haven’t gotten to the best part!
If the RICO statute is used to prosecute it brings asset forfeiture into play!
Think about that. If Trump or even one/both of his sons gets “RICO’d” their “little family business” (and remember, the Trump Organization isn’t a public corporation but a privately held family corporation) could have its assets seized! According to DOJ there are several classifications/justifications for asset forfeiture: www.justice.gov/… Actual lawyers who know more about this than me can (and surely will) weigh in but it seems to me that “Trump & Sons” could be subject to all three types — Criminal, Civil judicial and Administrative forfeiture. It’s also worth mentioning that the class action suit against Trump “University” was brought as a civil RICO case. He was ALWAYS going to settle, and I for one think he was lucky as hell to get away with only shelling out 25 million. However, even with the second rate lawyers he has relied on all these years I’m sure somewhere along the line it was explained that he could lose a whole lot more if the case ever went to trial. IOW, there’s no “ignorance of the law” and asset forfeiture on Trump’s part.
Now, like most of you I’d love nothing more than to see the human sized flaming orange rectum otherwise known as Donald J. Trump wearing a scratchy organ prison jumpsuit. And while we’re at it Uday & Qusay & “princess” Ivanka too. But I’d be just as delighted to see them completely broke having had their businesses/assets seized via the asset forfeiture provisions that are part of the RICO statute. If I had to pick it would be a tough choice and I’ll bet it would be a tough one for you too. Then again, thinking back to Joe Kennedy III and the tag line of his response to the State of the Union I say “We choose both!”
My point though is that the President loves money, and being seen as having tons of it because he’s a “bigly successful business tycoon” is essential to his mental state & well-being. In dark moments when he thinks he might lose that image he’s created not just in his own mind but with the goobers out there who are still in thrall to him, or worse lose all that money he goes off the deep end. Whether it’s his master Vlad threatening to pull the plug and causing the whole thing to implode or due to prosecution by either Mueller or Schneiderman. Not seeing that discussed by the talking heads recently kind of surprises me. Unless they have made some tacit agreement not to start speculating and cause Trump to totally lose it. He does after all have the nuclear launch codes.
What we do know is that (as I’ve said) Trump had quite the meltdown. In retrospect, I think it could well be that he was confronted with the prospect of not just his fraudulent little “university” but his core business could be the target of a RICO prosecution. That would cause far tougher people than Trump to “lose it” for a while.
Anyway, I thought it might be worth opening a discussion of both RICO and the prospect of asset forfeiture. I might wind up badly embarrassed by lawyers here point out I’m as full of crap as Trump. OTOH I might be at least partially right, and if I am the closer he gets to facing the music the crazier and more dangerous Trump will get so we need to be ready for far worse than we’ve seen so far.
Oh. One last thought. If I’m right about the applicability of RICO and/or asset forfeiture for Trump I’ve got one last tidbit of good news. It all also applies to Jared Kushner!