Donald Trump

2022 - 9 - 21

Post cover
Image courtesy of "Politico"

5 juiciest takeaways from the Tish James lawsuit against Donald ... (Politico)

"James is playing hardball," but don't expect a showy Trump trial in this case.

“I’m not sure how the government is entitled to all of it,” said Duncan Levin, a former federal prosecutor and asset forfeiture chief in the Manhattan District Attorney’s office. Yet James is taking the aggressive stance that Trump should have to fork over every penny he (and his family members) made on the whole hotel investment. However, any difference in interest rates between what Trump paid and what the AG says he should have paid doesn’t come close to that figure. claimed he had no interest in the information and it became a chapter that was largely consigned to history after the Mueller report was released. In a section dubbed “Ongoing Scheme and Conspiracy,” James’s suit notes that some of the documents seized by the FBI from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate on Aug. Attorney’s office in Manhattan and other entities — emphasizing that “none of the investigations and inquiries … James is trying to get the suit heard by New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron, who issued orders requiring Trump and his family members to sit for depositions in the probe. Trump were produced,” according to the lawsuit. For one thing, James only has to prove Trump’s conduct was fraudulent or illegal by a preponderance of the evidence, not beyond a reasonable doubt as would be necessary in a criminal case. Trump seems to have an even stronger incentive to compromise, since the punishing sanctions James is seeking could amount almost to a death sentence for his business empire. Trump’s lawyers have already made a settlement proposal which James turned down, but her aides said her office isn’t seeking any immediate court action against Trump, like an injunction that would swiftly drive him out of business in New York. One break for Trump: It was only a civil suit and not criminal.

Post cover
Image courtesy of "The Guardian"

New York civil fraud suit could bring down the Trump Organization (The Guardian)

Restrictions sought by Letitia James include bans on Trump and his children that would tear his real estate empire from his control.

In the 30-year-old Trump Tower, the record sale at that time was a mere $16.5m.” The New York attorney general may not succeed in securing all the penalties. “We are confident that our judicial system will not stand for this unchecked abuse of authority.” “Trump thought he could get away with the art of the steal, but today that conduct ends.” [New York](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/new-york) attorney general include permanent bans on Trump and his three children from serving as executives in any company in New York, a move that would tear the Trump Organization away from his personal control. [the civil fraud suit](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/sep/21/trump-new-york-investigation-ivanka-donald-eric) brought by the New York state attorney general’s office against [Donald Trump](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/donaldtrump) and three of his adult children could potentially result in the end of the Trump Organization, his real estate empire, in its current form.

Post cover
Image courtesy of "The Independent"

These are the 20 properties in Donald Trump's alleged fraud scheme (The Independent)

New York Attorney General Letitia James sued the former president with allegations of 'staggering' fraud and 'grossly inflated' assets.

But in 2012, Mr Trump and the Trump Organization obtained a $107m loan on the building from Deutsche Bank. The units proposed by the Trump Organization accounted for 80 per cent of the company’s total valuation. Mr Trump also “specifically directed” employees to “reduce or eliminate” initiation fees to drive up memberships, according to Ms James’s office. “In some years these restricted funds accounted for almost one-third of all the cash reported by Mr Trump,” according to Ms James’ office. Meanwhile, Mr Trump “repeatedly submitted lower property valuation estimates to Nevada tax authorities and higher property valuations on his statements.” Valuations for Mr Trump’s namesake tower relied on “cherry-picked” data and inflated figures that did not match internal protections, according to Ms James’s office. 40 Wall Street was valued at $527m and $530m – more than twice the value calculated by the independent, professional appraisers.” The Trump Organization obtained a $170m loan from Deutsche Bank to turn the property into a luxury hotel, then sold the property for $375m in 2022 – resulting in “more than $100m in net profit, which was the result of the loan he was able to obtain by using his false and misleading statements,” according to the office of attorney general. In 2011, that depended on new members paying a nearly $200,000 fee, though most never did. The Trump Organization “falsely inflated the value” of Trump National Golf Club Los Angeles “by inflating the value for a substantial number of potential lots for sale in the areas around the golf course and, starting in 2013 to 2020, applying an undisclosed 30 per cent brand premium that inflated the value of the golf club,” according to Ms James’s office. But a 2020 financial statement valued the property at $135.8m. According to Ms James’s office, the property was appraised by a bank in 2012 with a value of $220m, “yet in the statement that year and the next year …

Post cover
Image courtesy of "Financial Times"

NY attorney-general files fraud suit against Trump and family (Financial Times)

Letitia James, New York attorney-general, said on Wednesday she had filed a lawsuit against Donald Trump for “engaging in years of financial fraud to enrich ...

[Purchase a Print subscription for 11,12 € per week You will be billed 107,91 € per month after the trial ends](https://subs.ft.com/spa3_uk3m?segmentId=461cfe95-f454-6e0b-9f7b-0800950bef25&utm_us=JJIBAX&utm_eu=WWIBEAX&utm_ca=JJIBAZ&utm_as=FIBAZ&ft-content-uuid=55108399-f70f-4e48-92fc-3e9cf7039143) [Purchase a Digital subscription for 6,64 € per week You will be billed 39 € per month after the trial ends](https://subs.ft.com/digital_edit?ft-content-uuid=55108399-f70f-4e48-92fc-3e9cf7039143) [Purchase a Trial subscription for 1 € for 4 weeks You will be billed 65 € per month after the trial ends](/signup?offerId=41218b9e-c8ae-c934-43ad-71b13fcb4465&ft-content-uuid=55108399-f70f-4e48-92fc-3e9cf7039143)

Post cover
Image courtesy of "Sky News"

Donald Trump sued for 'years of bank, tax and insurance fraud' (Sky News)

The suit, more than 220 pages long, details alleged efforts by Mr Trump to inflate his personal net worth to get better loan agreements while also deflating ...

Mr Trump in a social media post called the action "another witch-hunt." Mr Trump has denied wrongdoing and has said the investigation is a partisan attack. The Justice Department is conducting a criminal investigation of Mr Trump for retaining government records, some "While the AG's office says they are not seeking a dissolution of the Trump Organisation, the penalties they seek could amount to an effective 'death penalty' for the Trump Organisation to continue in New York," she added. The suit, more than 220 pages long, details alleged efforts by Mr Trump to inflate his personal net worth to get better loan agreements while also deflating his worth to gain better tax benefits - and could effectively be a "death penalty" for his organisation. Donald Trump and three of his children have been served with a lawsuit alleging "years of bank, tax and insurance fraud".

Donald Trump and children sued by New York for 'exaggerating ... (GB News)

Charges have been filed against Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump, Eric Trump, and the Trump Organization.

It’s the art of the steal," Ms James said in a press conference. The suit continues that Mr Trump allegedly claimed his Fifth Ave apartment in New York as spanning more than 30,000 sq ft, when it was in fact about a third of that. Donald Trump's children Ivanka, Eric and Donald Jnr are all named as defendants in the law suit alongside two if the company's executives, Allan Weisselberg and Jeff McConnery.

Post cover
Image courtesy of "The National"

Allegations of business fraud against Donald Trump includes ... (The National)

FORMER US president Donald Trump has been accused of inflating the value of his Aberdeenshire golf resort as part of a case being brought by New…

She is seeking to replace the current trustees of Trump’s revocable trust, which controls his business interests, with an independent trustee and to bar Trump and the Trump Organisation from entering into commercial real estate acquisitions for five years. James, who is a member of the Democratic Party, is seeking to remove the Trumps from businesses engaged in the alleged fraud and wants an independent monitor appointed for no fewer than five years to oversee the Trump Organisation’s compliance, financial reporting, valuations and disclosures to lenders, insurers and tax authorities. Attorney General Letitia James’s lawsuit, filed in state court in New York, is the culmination of a three-year civil investigation into Trump and the Trump Organisation.

Post cover
Image courtesy of "POLITICO Magazine"

The Best Way To Save The Constitution From Donald Trump Is To ... (POLITICO Magazine)

Donald Trump speaks. Trump may be an enemy of the Constitution but he is also the president who most zealously exploited its defects ...

The Supreme Court struck down much of FDR’s initial program, but the New Deal’s core assumption — that we live in a national economy with a robust and responsive national government — prevailed, helped along by a dramatically new understanding of the interstate commerce clause. Abraham Lincoln used the exigencies of war to eradicate slavery, even as slavery until that time had been regarded as a protected constitutional right. But the rural conservative voter in California — which had more Trump voters than any state, even as he lost it by nearly 30 points — has more in common politically with a rural conservative from South Dakota than either have with urban progressives in New York or San Francisco. The great concern of the framers was creating a system of government with the capacity for self-critique and self-correction. It takes three quarters of the states to approve an amendment, a provision that gives many small, conservative states wildly disproportionate power over the fate of the nation. The Constitution was written at a time when states were indeed foundational — a central part of people’s identity and way of life. Here, though, is where the breakdown in constitutional consensus becomes potentially climactic — as it did during the Civil War, and threatened to in the New Deal. Anyone who is not a Trump backer properly bemoans the breakdown in constitutional consensus that allows his supporters to tolerate or celebrate his election denialism, in addition to other efforts to insulate himself from rule of law. Correcting or circumventing what progressives reasonably perceive as the infirmities of the Constitution, in fact, seems likely to be the preeminent liberal objective of the next generation. 17 (you knew that, right?) and in the week before and continuing this week there have been a gusher of speeches and symposiums devoted to extolling the Constitution and illuminating the threats to it. Long-term, however, the more bracing challenge to constitutional consensus is likely to come from the left, from believers in activist government. He was in office in the first place because the presidency is chosen by the Electoral College rather than by the popular vote.

Explore the last week