Donald Trump and his kids hit with civil RICO suit

| 1:51 pm EDT October 29, 2018
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Just eight days before the election, the Trump family is getting hit with some bad news, and some particularly ugly publicity. Donald Trump, Ivanka Trump, Donald Trump Jr, Eric Trump, and the Trump Organization have just been slapped with a civil RICO suit in federal court in relation to a pyramid scheme.

The Trump family stands accused of having dishonestly promoted a pyramid scheme called ACN in relation to Celebrity Apprentice. The lengthy court filing was spotted by Judd Legum, former editor of ThinkProgress and current editor of Popular Information. It’s important to understand that this is not a criminal case, and it’s not being brought by the government. Instead it’s a civil RICO lawsuit being filed by the investors who say they’ve been defrauded.

The most negative possible result for the Trump family in this suit is a loss of money. However, the suit could serve to expose criminal fraud on the part of Donald Trump and his kids, which could in turn make it easier for federal or state prosecutors to bring related criminal charges. For instance, when Stormy Daniels brought civil litigation against Michael Cohen and Donald Trump, it set off a chain of events which helped built a federal criminal case against Cohen, prompting him to plead guilty and flip on Trump.

It’s also worth keeping in mind that, despite the serious nature of this civil RICO suit against Donald Trump, this may not initially get as much coverage from the mainstream media as one might expect. This kind of litigation takes time to work its way through court, meaning it doesn’t necessarily make for a television friendly narrative. The best thing that could happen for the Resistance is if Trump makes this civil suit a more ratings-friendly story by tweeting something defiant about it.