Ex-prosecutor: Trump striking out in civil cases 'sign of things to come' in criminal trials

09 March 2024

So far, former President Donald Trump's legal team is 0-3 in New York, losing three consecutive verdicts in civil cases both in the state and federal courts. One former federal prosecutor said that could hint at another loss in the Empire State with his first of four criminal trials starting later this month.

In a video posted to his official X/Twitter account on Saturday, Glenn Kirschner — a former assistant US attorney for the District of Columbia — said that Trump's back-to-back losses may be "really powerful foreshadowing" for how the former president fares in Manhattan District Court in a matter of weeks.

"Donald Trump lost the first E. Jean Carroll case, lost the second E. Jean Carroll case, lost the New York fraud case, and now in the UK, Donald Trump lost," Kirschner said, referring to a UK judge dismissing Trump's lawsuit against former MI-6 agent Christopher Steele in February. "There's no two ways about it — Donald Trump and his lawyers are not very good at this litigating thing."

"And if they can't litigate their way out of a paper bag," Kirschner continued, "that is a sign of things to come."

The former president recently had to post a bond of $91 million to satisfy the court in appealing his judgment from columnist E. Jean Carroll's defamation lawsuit. US District Judge Lewis F. Kaplan denied Trump's application for a stay on imposing the judgment earlier this week, in a ruling noting that Trump dragged his feet until almost the very end of the window to file his petition. He also observed that Trump gave no indication to the court "what expenses he might incur if required to post a bond or other security, on what terms (if any) he could obtain a conventional bond, or post cash or other assets to secure payment of the judgment, or any other circumstances relevant to the situation."

Now, Trump will have to come up with a bond of more than $450 million in order to appeal his judgment in the civil fraud case, where Judge Arthur Engoron ordered Trump to pay $355 million in disgorgement to the State of New York for artificially inflating the value of his real estate assets over a long period of time. In New York, all bonds come with a statutory 9% interest tacked on, dealing the former president a financial blow well over half a billion dollars when combining the two bonds.

Trump's bond for the E. Jean Carroll appeal was guaranteed by a subsidiary of insurance giant Chubb Group. That company's CEO, Evan Greenberg, once served on a White House trade advisory panel during the Trump administration. The Rainforest Action Network (RAN) found that Chubb has multiple overseas business interests with US adversaries like Russia, where it is insuring the Putin regime's oil and gas infrastructure. RAN accused Chubb of indirectly helping Putin finance his ongoing war in Ukraine.

On March 25, Trump will stand trial in Manhattan District Court for his first of four criminal cases. District Attorney Alvin Bragg indicted the former president on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records last year, in relation to "hush money" payments made to silence two women — adult film actress Stephanie Clifford and Karen McDougal — ahead of the 2016 presidential election. That charge is typically a misdemeanor, but Bragg escalated them to felonies under the justification that they constituted illegal campaign contributions.

Meanwhile, it's still unknown whether Trump's other three criminal trials will reach a verdict prior to the November general election, with no trial dates scheduled in either of Trump's two federal cases or in the Fulton County, Georgia RICO case. Because the Supreme Court is hearing oral arguments on April 25 in the matter of Trump's claim of absolute broad presidential immunity, Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith is unable to begin his DC election interference trial in US District Judge Tanya Chutkan's courtroom until the Court issues its decision. And while that decision may theoretically come any time after oral arguments, it may not be announced until the Court's term ends in June.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is also still in the midst of her own fight to continue her prosecution of the former president. Judge Scott McAfee is currently considering defense attorneys' efforts to disqualify her from the case after they alleged she engaged in an improper relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade. Should Willis prevail, it's likely she'll move for a trial date in May, as the initially scheduled May 20 trial date in Trump's classified documents trial has been scuttled.

Watch Kirschner's video below, or by clicking this link.

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