• InfiniteLoop@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    I really just wanna see the judge eviscerate this “no victims” defense BS. We do NOT wait for someone to be hurt to enforce the law. Can you imagine how many speeding tickets would be pled out of if this was a legitimate defense?

    Even if you scope it down to the case at hand, we’d keep letting people commit financial fraud until the bank is finally harmed. And guess what happens when banks get fucked? The govt uses the common people’s tax dollars to bail them out.

      • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        You can argue the same about blasphemy. Either there is a god and it is so far beyond us nothing we could ever do could hurt it or there isn’t one in which case what doesn’t exist can’t be hurt.

    • Tammo-Korsai@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      The ‘no victims’ defence is right out of the Sovereign Citizen playbook and is often used in a futile attempt to get out of driving related charges and violations. I’ve seen videos of such world salad bombardments when the cops pull them over; it usually ends in a smashed window and handcuffs.

    • btaf45@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Everyone who uses the banking system was a victim. The money that Convicted Sex Offender Treason Trump defrauded the banks out of was paid for by other bank consumers.

      • KevonLooney@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Not really. It’s a federal crime to lie on a bank document because they are federally chartered. Each document (or lie or something) can be punished with 2 years in jail.

        If you say “I have this much money” on a bank document and sign it, you can go to jail for 2 years. It’s not punished often, usually when a bank employee steals something.

    • TechyDad@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      And the “no victims” defense is garbage anyway. He still committed fraud.

      Suppose I steal $100 from you. I take that $100 and use it to bet on horse racing. My bets pay off and I win $1,000. Now, I return your $100. Can I be arrested for theft? After all, you got your money back so you (by Trump’s “logic”) aren’t a victim. So I should be allowed to walk free with my $900 profit, right?

      Of course not. I still committed theft. Returning the money later doesn’t absolve me of my crime. Maybe, I’d get a lighter sentence for returning the money, but that’s up to the judge.

      So maybe Trump gets off slightly easier because the banks got their money back, but he still got loans based on fraudulent information and profited off of his fraud. No amount of loan repayment absolves him of the fraud that got him those loans.