Today opens up the penalty phase of the fraud case Trump was inexplicably found guilty of without the benefit of a jury, based on the assumption that Trump has overvalued the worth of Mar-A-Lago to his creditors.

The wondering world was left scratching our heads at the outrageous claim that the former President’s famous resort location was pegged at a paltry $18-$26 million.

“The market is screaming over this because it’s obviously incorrect,” Nash said of the judge’s ruling. “People in real estate are scratching their heads: How do you come up with this number? There is a lack of supply that continues on the island. It is a sought-after destination by people from all over the world.”
g
Mendy Katz, founder of Monarch Estate Services of Greenwich, Conn., which helps owners manage their luxury properties in the Northeast, Florida and elsewhere, said the market dictates value. The demand for homes in Palm Beach, he said, remains high.
f
“Clearly supply and demand is what drives up the price,” he said. ”The assessor will determine what the taxes cost. That has no thing to do with the actual value of the property.” — Sun-Sentinel

That takes us to the penalty phase, where that same judge gets to use his authority to wring that proverbial pound of flesh out of Trump… possibly even forcing the liquidation of Trump’s business assets in what’s called, colloquially, the ‘death penalty’ of civil legislation.

Predictably, Trump has no intention of going down quietly.

The same can be said of his lawyers.

Trump, too, had something to say

 

Someone brought a camera into the courtroom, and nobody seems to be able to account for WHY it was permitted in the courtroom. Watch as it pans the various participants.

Trump is no stranger to courtrooms and is as stoic as you might expect him to be in this situation. The camera pans across his legal team, to the prosecution, and to other relevant people in the room.

Starbuck describes the absurdity of the expression on the New York DA’s face and notices the weird way the presiding judge himself lit up and started hamming when the camera turned on him, too.

That judge has the same energy in the clip above as this famous Gotham villain who set out to destroy a different heroic Billionaire:

Which seems appropriate, somehow.

The whole thing is a circus.

But make no mistake — it’s that way by design. They WANT a spectacle because they are hoping beyond hope to humiliate Trump and make him go away — one way or another.
xc
Cross-Posted with Clash Daily