Author: Graham Fitzgibbon

Background Briefing: October 2, 2023

 

Trump’s Day in Court Lashing Out Against New York Fraud Charges

We begin with Trump’s latest day in court before which he made baseless claims that the DOJ was behind the New York fraud case against him. In court he sat a few feet away from New York’s AG Leticia James who he has repeatedly vilified. Joining us to discuss today’s hearing that will determine whether Trump and his sons will lose their real estate empire in New York built on lies and fraud is Lloyd Green, an attorney based in New York who was opposition research counsel to George HW Bush’s 1988 campaign and served in the Department of Justice from 1990 to 1992. A contributing writer at The Guardian, his latest article is “As Trump’s presidential chances get better, his legal and financial woes get worse.”

43 Million With Student Debt of $1.65 Trillion Now Have to Make Loan Payments

Then we look into what 43 million student loan borrowers who are $1.65 trillion in debt now face following the Supreme Court’s striking down of debt relief since loan payments have begun after a three and a half year moratorium. Joining us is Persis Yu, Deputy Executive Director & Managing Counsel at the Student Borrower Protection Center who was previously a staff attorney at the National Consumer Law Center and the director of its Student Loan Borrower Assistance Project.

Will the Supreme Court Give Predatory Payday Lenders a Win as They Rule to Deconstruct the Administrative State?

Then finally, as the Supreme Court’s new term begins with Tuesday’s hearing in the case of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau versus the lobbying group for the predatory payday lenders, we speak with Christopher Peterson, Professor of Law at the University of Utah’s S.J. Quinney College of Law where he teaches contracts, commercial law, and consumer protection courses. From 2012 to 2016, he served in the Obama Administration as a Special Advisor in the Office of the Director at the United States Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, in the Office of Legal Policy for Personnel and Readiness in the United States Department of Defense, and as Senior Counsel for Enforcement Policy and Strategy in the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Office of Enforcement. He is the author of a number of books including Taming the Sharks: Towards a Cure for the High Cost Credit Market and we discuss how much more is at stake in this case as powerful plutocratic interests want the Supreme Court to go further in deconstructing the administrative state.