ORANGE ALERT: A New York State judge ruled yesterday that Donald Trump, his adult sons, and company committed fraud building his real estate empire by massively overvaluing his assets and exaggerating his net worth on paperwork submitted for making deals and obtaining loans.

  Judge Arthur Engeron’s ruling grants Attorney Gen. Letitia James’s request for cancellation of Trump’s business certificate, meaning he could lose control over his flagship commercial property at 40 Wall Street in Lower Manhattan, a family estate in Westchester County, his Westchester golf club, and his signature Trump Tower in Midtown Manhattan where in 2015 he came down the escalator to announce his run for the presidency.

  In a summary judgment before a civil trial was to begin, Engoron found that Trump deceived banks, insurers, and others while building his business and reputation as a real estate mogul who ran on his brand to become President. He may have inflated the value of his assets by as much as $2.2 billion.

  Trump lawyer Christopher Kise called the ruling “outrageous” and “completely disconnected from the facts and governing law.” 

  Other issues remain to be tried, including penalties. James is seeking a penalty of $250 million. Engoron wrote that annual financial statements Trump submitted to banks and insurance companies “clearly contain fraudulent valuations that defendants used in business.”

 RACIAL LINES: For the second time in a year yesterday the Supreme Court turned down a request by the state of Alabama to reinstate a congressional map drawn by Republicans that has only one majority-Black district, thereby requiring a new map before the 2024 election.

  The state ignored lower court orders to re-draw the map and create a second majority-Black district or something “close to it.” On Monday a special master overseeing the new mapping submitted three proposed maps. A new map in Alabama could help tip the majority in the House of Representatives to the Democrats.

PRIME LITIGATION: The federal Trade Commission and 17 states yesterday sued online sales giant Amazon for creating “artificially higher prices” by blocking retailers from selling for less on other websites.

  “A single company, Amazon, has seized control over much of the online retail economy,” says the lawsuit filed in US District Court for the Western District of Washington. “It exploits its monopolies in ways that enrich Amazon but harm its customers: both the tens of millions of American households who regularly shop on Amazon’s online superstore and the hundreds of thousands of businesses who rely on Amazon to reach them.”

  Amazon started as an online bookseller and expanded into a $1.3 trillion behemoth selling everything from clothes and shoes to electronics, coffee and toilet paper.

THE WAR ROOM: Ukraine says it is “clarifying” its claim to have killed the commander of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet in a missile strike after Russia released a video appearing to show Admiral Viktor Sokolov at a meeting of top defense officials. 

  In the video, Sokolov appears by link from another location but does not speak. Ukraine now admits there’s some doubt about getting Sokolov but is sticking to its claim about having killed 34 officers attending a high level meeting.

MORE THAN ENOUGH: Former Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, who spilled the beans to the January 6th committee, says in her new book “Enough” that former President Donald Trump admitted to Chief of Staff Mark Meadows that he had lost the 2020 election. Hutchinson quotes Trump saying, “I don’t want people to know we lost, Mark. This is embarrassing. Figure it out.”

  Hutchinson is on the interview circuit hawking her book. The Republican loyalist who climbed from congressional aide to White House insider says she saw the final days devolve into chaos and lawlessness in which Chief of Staff Mark Meadows burned records and a near coup was engineered. Also in the book, she says former Trump lawyer and New York mayor Rudy Giuliani slipped his hand under her skirt during Trump’s address to the January 6^th crowd.

  Hutchinson chronicles her conversion from blind Trump loyalist to describing an unbalanced man screaming, shouting, and making crazy demands.

  Telling MSNBCs Rachel Maddow that the Republican party is in danger if it doesn’t separate from Trump, “We’re talking about a man who at the very essence of his being almost destroyed democracy in one day and he wants to do it again,” she said, and further, “I think that if they’re not willing to split with that, then we’re in serious danger for the party.”

  She also put to rest rumors that she has dated Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz. “I have much higher standards in men.”

THE OBIT PAGE: Brooks Robinson, the Hall of Fame third baseman for the Baltimore Orioles has died at 86.  He was known as the Human Vacuum Cleaner for his ability to snag any ball hit his way.

THE SPIN RACK: New Jersey’s Democratic Sen. Cory Booker has joined the chorus of politicians saying fellow Democrat Sen. Robert Menendez should resign as the result of his indictment on charges of corruption. Booker said, “The details of the allegations against Senator Menendez are of such a nature that the faith and trust of New Jerseyans as well as those he must work with in order to be effective have been shaken to the core.” — Fire that swept through a wedding hall yesterday in a predominantly Christian area of northern Iraq killed at least 100 people and injured more than 150 others. It was set off by celebratory flares. — North Korea says it will expel Pvt. Travis King, the American soldier who ran across the inter-Korean border in July. 

BELOW THE FOLD: An organized mob of looters hit a Foot Locker, Apple and Lululemon stores in downtown Philadelphia last night in what has become a nationwide phenomenon of mass shoplifting. The Target chain announced it is closing nine stores across the country because of theft and violence.

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