Don Jr. And Jared Are NOT In Serious Legal Jeopardy

Josh Marshall over at TPM has a pretty good post postulating that Trump and his extended family still don't have a real sense of how much legal trouble they are facing and the dire consequences that could result. He believes that their lack of understanding has to do with the realities of the New York real estate industry and that the success they've had there makes them all both reckless and feeling invulnerable.

Says Marshall, "A lot of the big New York real estate families of today became that way because they held on to investments and stayed in the city in the dark days of the 1970s and early 1980s when it seemed like the city and even the concept of the big American city was falling apart. Whether that required much courage or prescience, staying in meant they reaped a windfall when the city started rebounding about a quarter century ago. It also spurred an ethos or pride in these families that they had the guts, prescience, loyalty or whatever else to stick with the city when others didn’t...".

In addition, the vagaries of NYC real estate and the Trump and Kushner families own approach to business has almost required them to continually break or skirt the law for years. Marshall again, "Trump has skidded on the edge of legality for decades. He at least worked with and took money from crooks and organized crime figures for decades. Other than having to settle a few lawsuits, he’s never paid any price."

But, of course, they aren't invulnerable and eventually some of their crimes do catch up with them, as it did to Charles Kushner, Jared's father. He ended up being sentenced for up to two years in jail for obstructing justice by trying to blackmail his brother-in-law and sister, who were cooperating with a campaign finance investigation into Charles Kushner. But, even that, according to Marshall, does not seem to have dented Jared's hubris and sense of invulnerability.

I think the key point that Marshall is missing is that they are, in fact invulnerable. In fact, the Kushner case would reinforce that idea to Jared, rather than it being a cautionary tale. Kushner was convicted in a plea deal of 18 counts of tax evasion, illegal campaign contributions, and witness tampering. He paid around a half million dollar fine and served 14 months in prison and the remaining portion of his sentence at a halfway house in New Jersey. After that two year, admittedly tough, hiatus was over, Kushner resumed his role in the Kushner Cos. and he and his family are now reported to be worth nearly $2 billion. The Kushner Cos. continued to thrive and Charles is back to life as usual, with the exception of his disbarment, prohibiting him from practicing law in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. But he is not a lawyer, he is a real estate tycoon.

In the same way, Trump has clearly violated the law on countless ways. He and his family illegally discriminated against minority tenants. He has probably engaged in tax evasion and violations of securities law in the whole failure of his casino businesses. He has endured six bankruptcies. He constantly and continually stiffed his creditors. He has lied under oath. He has engaged in massive fraud a la Trump University. His current business relies on money-laundering organized crime and stolen foreign monies. He has illegally used his foundation for personal enrichment. He has more than probably conspired with a foreign adversary to gain political power. And, besides paying some fines to settle cases for far less than what he should, what price has he paid for all this criminal behavior? Simply becoming President of the United States.

Why should the Trump and Kushner families feel vulnerable for conspiring with the Russians and lying on their security clearances? They, and their fathers, have gotten away with far worse and, even when caught, hardly paid a price for it. Certainly, their family businesses have not suffered in any way.

Trump is in no danger of being impeached any time soon. The Republicans in Congress are happy to abet his ongoing criminal activity, enriching himself through his office, and his past treasonous behavior colluding with the Russians, in order to pass massive tax cuts for the 1% and to gut the safety net built over the last 75 years. And does anyone have any doubt that Don Jr. or Jared will be pardoned, preemptively or otherwise, if it becomes clear that either of them might really face serious legal jeopardy or jail time. The families know that, whatever they do or have done, they will not pay a price for it.

This sense of privilege, entitlement, and invulnerability is not just limited to the Trump and Kushner families. It extends to wealthy Americans all over. Only one senior executive was ever even taken to court for creating the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression. All the rest simply walked away with their millions in ill-gotten gains. I think I can safely say that a similar situation will occur with the executives of the pharmaceutical industry that basically created the devastating opioid epidemic in this country. Yes, the rich and powerful have always been judged under a different standard by the legal system, but in the past they at least paid a social or economic price for their bad behavior. Nowadays, they just move on with their millions and their lives and are even celebrated for their "accomplishments".

Just like the Wall Street tycoons, the Trump and Kushner families know they will be able to get away with it. They will keep on enriching themselves using their closeness to the office of the President. They have had and will have no compunction about lying to law enforcement to protect themselves and Trump. Because they know that, as long as he is President, they will get a free pass.