Michael Cohen testified against Donald Trump today in the state AG civil fraud case. The complaint in the case is here.

As expected, Cohen testified Trump purposefully and arbitrarily inflated the worth of his assets. It reminds me of a "paint by numbers" art set, with Trump Org. assets as the painted objects.

“I was tasked by Mr. Trump to increase the total assets based upon a number that he arbitrarily elected,” Mr. Cohen testified, saying that it was his responsibility to “increase those assets in order to achieve the number.”

[More...]

CNN reports that Republicans have nominated LA Congressman Steve Scalise to replace McCarthy as Speaker of the House. His success is not guaranteed as a majority of the House will need to vote for him.

Hamas today launched the biggest strike against Israel since the 1973 Yom Kippur war -- and maybe since 1948. Israel has responded, saying "We are at War."

Some guests on CNN said this is a massive failure of intelligence by Israel. Others said because the Palestinians don't use cell phones and have gone off the electronic grid to avoid being tracked, Israel has never been able to conduct surveillance inside Gaza. That sounds like a weak explanation to me. What value is their intelligence if it can't detect imminent danger from its enemies?

Hamas must have been planning this strike for months, or even longer. It clearly wasn't a "fly by the seat of your pants" kind of attack. [More...]

Hamas sent 150 rockets just to Tel Aviv. CNN said 200 Israelis were killed in the Hamas strike.

It's time for a new open thread. In non-Trump news:

• Sen. Diane Feinstein has died at age 91.
• El Chapo's youngest son, Ovidio Guzman, has been extradited to Chicago, charged with many crimes, related to cocaine and meth. It's the same 2009 case that began with Vicente Zambada-Niebla, the son of El Mayo, Ismael Zambada-Garcia, who along with El Chapo, led the Sinaloa cartel for many years. Ovidio is charged in the 12th Superseding Indictment in the case. He's pleaded not guilty and is represented by Jeffrey Lichtman, the New York lawyer who was the lead lawyer for El Chapo at his trial, and who then represented El Chapo's wife Emma, who is already done with her prison sentence and back in Mexico with her daughters.
• The Washington Post reports Yiddish is making a comeback. I only know a few words, since no one in my household spoke it, but here's a phrase I never heard before: "zolst vaksn tzibbeles im pipik" which translates to: "You should grow onions in your belly button".
  It would make a great ending to any post about Donald Trump and his supporters.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

A state appeals court in New York denied a request by the Trumps to continue the civil fraud trial set to begin Monday. The allegations include that Trump and Trump International and at least two of his children fraudulently lied to lenders and insurers by overvaluing their assets by billions of dollars. The original Complaint is here.

Trump has likely lost the case already, given the Court's grant of summary judgment on several counts last week. The judge also imposed monetary sanctions on his lawyers, for repeatedly making arguments it and higher courts had ruled frivolous. [More...]

Hunter Biden yesterday sued Rudy Guiliani and his companies and a variety of "John Does" for violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

In the lawsuit, filed in the Central District of California, the younger Biden says that Giuliani and his former lawyer Robert Costello had spent years “hacking into, tampering with, manipulating, copying, disseminating, and generally obsessing over data that they were given that was taken or stolen from” his devices.

The basis for the claims includes Giuliani and Costello separately bragging about how they did it on podcasts and in newspaper articles. The Complaint is here.

Just another episode of "Rudy, How Low Can You Go?

Former Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows has lost his motion to move the Georgia state criminal case against him to federal court.

"The court finds that the color of the Office of the White House Chief of Staff did not include working with or working for the Trump campaign, except for simply coordinating the president's schedule, traveling with the president to his campaign events, and redirecting communications to the campaign."

Meadows has filed an emergency motion to appeal to the 11th Circuit. It is available here.

The Judges 49 page ruling is here. [More...]

Every Labor Day, since 2007 I post the same photo. It is a sculpture on a Labor Union memorial walking trail in downtown Omaha. I was in Omaha a lot during 2006-7 due to a drug case there that I was defending. Every morning before court or going to the jail to see my detained client, I'd walk the trail, stopping to read all the placards under each signpost and when I got to the sculputre, I would just stand in awe.

The sculpture is huge, 30 feet wide by 40 feet tall. Here is a photo of it from the web page of the artist who created it, Matthew Plazcek. It is called "Labor Monument".

This massive design – featuring five larger-than-life bronze sculptures – depicts the dignity, inspiration and dedication of the American work force.

Next is Labor Day music. We have a rich history of protest songs but the one that resonates with me the most on Labor Day wasn't even written by an American. [More...]

Donald Trump has shaken up his legal team, hiring one of the best trial lawyers in Georgia to be his lead lawyer.

Steven Sadow is absolutely top-notch. This case is also right up his alley.

I haven't spoken to Trump's former lawyer, Drew Findling, in a long time, but I hope he feels relieved. Drew gives his all to his clients, the famous the not-so-famous, and and to NACDL. After 30 plus years, he still has fun at work every day and despite his famous clients, he is still down-to-earth...no pretense, just a neighborhood-kind of guy. [More...]

Update 5:57 pm: Donald has left the room. The motorcade is leaving the scene. Watching the over-the-top security of 18 motorcycles and a motorcade of black vans for Donald, his staff, and what CNN calls "prep vans", it all seems so unnecessary. Why doesn't one van with Donald and two secret service agents suffice? Why does his staff get their own motorcade? Have they never heard of Uber? This is almost as ridiculous (but not quite as bad) as Biden's entourage into Aspen a few years ago.

Update: Donald's mugshot was taken. According to CNN, his daughter-in-law Lara Trump said they are prepared to use it for merchandise to raise funds. His weight is listed at 215 pounds (In his dreams).

Original Post: It's finally happening. An event we've all been waiting 8 years for, since the man with no respect or regard for others and no government experience managed to take over the oval office.

He's about to arrive at the Fulton County Jail to be booked in. Mug shot or not, he's being booked with tens if not hundreds of viewers around the world watching his motorcade. [More...]

Donald Trump's Atlanta's lawyers were at the courthouse in Atlanta Monday hammering out a bond agreement with prosecutors in his election interference case. This is the case where he and 18 others, including Rudy Giuliani (I smile every time I type the words "defendant Rudy Giuliani") are charged with violations of Georgia's version of the federal organized crime statute known as "RICO".

Here's the final bond order , signed by the Judge.

The $200,000. is no big deal since Trump can elect to pay just 10% of it. And the Secret Service may well prevail over jailers at the Fulton County Jail as to whether Trump has to be mug-shotted and booked just like ordinary defendants. rules for ordinary defendants and refuse to allow him from being booked at the infamous, filthy, violent Fulton County jail, which just last month was notified by the DOJ's that the agency's civil rights division has placed the jail under investigation over its filthy conditions and abhorrent treatment of inmates, including the mentally ill.

The "non-financial conditions" of the bond order are what puts the zing to the court's order. The full 3 page order is here. [More...]

Trump indicted again???
Yes, this time in state court in Georgia. The Indictment is here.

Trump is charged in 13 counts, including a state RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) count and conspiracy to commit first degree forgery.

Giuliani also has 13 counts, but they are not all the same as the charges against Trump.

Also indicted: Lawyers Sidney Powell (7 counts), Jenna Ellis (2 counts) and Trump-ites Mark Meadows (9 counts) and John Eastman (2 counts).

Not indicted: Donald Trump, Jr.

My first reaction: Never have I ever had a client charged in four separate indictments in four jurisdictions simultaneously. For any criminal defense lawyers reading this, raise your hand if any of your clients ever faced four indictments in separate jurisdictions at the same time ("Raise your hand" means tell us in the comments section).