Claytoonz: Trump's turdlings
A New York state judge issued a ruling Thursday that Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr, and Ivanka Trump must sit down and face questions from investigators over potential bank fraud, tax dodging, and shady real estate values. The judge wrote in his order that they must also turn over documents, those that haven’t been flushed yet, and the three turds must sit for depositions, probably in chairs, within the next 21 days. In case you’re a Republican, 21 days is three weeks.
The Trumps are also facing other investigations, criminal and civil, in Manhattan, Washington, D.C, and Atlanta. The Trumps don’t believe they should have to provide testimony, documents, or be held accountable for anything because they’re royalty and they smell better than us lowly commoners.
New York’s Attorney General Letitia James has a civil investigation that’s been going on since 2020 and she claims to have “significant evidence of financial fraud.” Eric Trump has already been forced to testify. When Eric did testify, he invoked his Fifth Amendment right over 500 times. Remember when his father claimed anyone who had to invoke the Fifth was lying and probably a member of the mafia? Yeah, good times.
Trump and his turdlings have been smearing James to distract from the case. She responded by documenting how the Trump Organization has, allegedly, faked the value of at least six of its New York state properties. Last week, the Trump Organization’s longtime outside accounting firm, Mazars, ditched them as a client stating they can’t trust the documents the Trump Organization has given them. This is yet another example of someone close to Trump saying you can’t trust him. Duh.
The state’s civil investigation is also linking up with the Manhattan District Attorney’s criminal investigation into alleged tax dodging and financial fraud by the Trump Organization.
Trump, Ivanka, and Jr. will be forced to testify about how so many family real estate development projects and properties had wildly fluctuating values that seemed high whenever they needed loans but low whenever it came time to pay taxes.
As the great John Fogerty sang:
Some folks are born silver spoon in hand
Lord, don’t they help themselves, yeah.
But when the taxman comes to the door
The house look a like a rummage sale
During the two-hour court hearing over the decision to force the Trumps to testify, part of their lawyer’s argument that they shouldn’t have to is because Hillary Clinton spied on Donald Trump. Shockingly, that lawyer wasn’t Sidney Powell, Rudy Giuliani, the MyPillow Guy, or Mr. Hanky.
Before the hearing, Eric tweeted, “On Thursday, our team will be in front of a New York Judge outlining the blatantly unethical behavior of @TishJames the NY Attorney General. There are 81 pages of videos, tweets & fundraising solicitations (some as recent as two weeks ago) in our lawsuit for the judge to see.”
It didn’t work.
Hopefully, the family that goons together goes to prison together.
Music Note: I listened to The Beatles’ "Revolver " album while drawing today’s cartoon. It’s probably the only Beatles album where I don’t like any of Paul’s songs.
Clay Jones is the 2022 recipient of the RFK Human Rights Journalism Award in Editorial Cartooning, and won a 2021 Sigma Delta Chi Award for Excellence in Journalism from the Society of Professional Journalists. He was a finalist for the Herblock Prize in 2019 and a finalist for the National Headliner Award in 2020. See more award-winning editorial cartoons from him at Claytoonz.com.
