Donald Trump may not know what a syllogism is, but even he must be aware of the irony of his having taken the fifth amendment hundreds of times during his deposition on Tuesday by lawyers of Leticia James, the New York State Attorney General.
The mob takes the fifth amendment.
Donald Trump took the fifth amendment hundreds of times.
Donald Trump is a mobster.
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The Trump Organization
Actually, it would not be that much of a stretch to contend that Trump actually is a mobster. He has long been accused of running the Trump Organization as a criminal enterprise.
In this case, the Trump Organization stands accused of repeatedly misleading lenders, insurers, and tax authorities by providing them with wildly misleading financial statements. By doing this, the organization underpaid its taxes by hundreds of millions of dollars and saved additional hundreds of millions by inflating the value of its real estate holdings.
Additionally, for decades the Trump Organization systemically underpaid its hundreds of construction contractors by refusing to pay more than three quarters of what it owed. The large majority of contractors could not afford to go to court, and certainly not to go through a lengthy appeals process, so they agreed to accept just three quarters of what they were owed.
Of course, Trump’s four personal bankruptcies also enabled him to bilk his creditors out of billions of dollars. Put that together with Trump’s likely money laundering for Russian oligarchs and he would surely qualify as the kingpin of a criminal organization.
While Donald Trump is well within his rights to take the Fifth Amendment, doing so hundreds of times in a single day certainly appears to confirm guilt. The only question now is how much he will be forced to pay for his crimes.
