Where New York’s destruction of Donald Trump and his family goes from here

| 9:09 am EST February 18, 2022
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Yesterday, attorneys for Donald Trump and his family complained to the New York Supreme Court about how unfair it was that they were being forced to testify against the Trump Organization (and essentially against themselves) in the New York Attorney General’s civil probe into the Trump Organization’s finances. They pointed out that any such testimony will then be used to help prosecute them in the related criminal case. They also pointed out that if they refuse to testify, New York will use this as a basis for ruling against the Trump Organization and dismantling it. The court didn’t dispute any of this, but ruled that they must testify anyway. So now what?

The Trumps will try to stall this a bit more in court, but that won’t last long. From there, the most likely outcome is that the Trumps will repeatedly invoke the Fifth Amendment during their testimony against the Trump Organization, under the premise that it’s better to lose their money than their freedom. Letitia James will then use this as the basis for ruling against the Trump Organization, dismantling it, and effectively taking away the Trump family’s assets.

This will leave the Trump family without income or assets, fighting off creditors, even as New York prepares to bring inevitable criminal charges for financial fraud. Donald Trump is surely a lock for indictment, and conviction. The big questions are which if any of Trump’s kids will also be indicted, and whether any of them will end up cutting a plea deal against him in exchange for some kind of immunity.

None of this will happen tomorrow or the next day, of course. The legal process still moves at the speed that it moves. But this New York Supreme Court ruling clears the way for Letitia James to drop the hammer against the Trump Organization on her timeline, not on Donald Trump’s timeline. And it means new Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg can bring criminal indictments as soon as his case is ready. Even before Bragg took office last month, the case was reportedly already deep into the grand jury process. At this point the Trumps don’t control the timeline or the outcome.