Donald Trump, according to records from his April deposition in a New York civil fraud case, was too busy avoiding nuclear holocaust to run his businesses.
New York Attorney General Letitia James filed papers on Wednesday afternoon alleging Trump, along with his sons Eric and Donald Jr., inflated his net worth by up to $2.2 billion. At first Ivanka Trump was also part of the lawsuit, but a state appeals judge dismissed her.
James claimed that the fraud occurred between 2011 and 2021. Trump’s company allegedly would falsely inflate and then deflate the value of its assets in order to pay less taxes and improve insurance coverage. James wrote in the lawsuit:
While this is just the tip of a much larger iceberg of deception Plaintiff is prepared to expose at trial — which would result in carving off billions more from Mr. Trump’s net worth — it is more than sufficient to permit this Court to rule as a matter of law that each [statement of financial conditions] from 2011 to 2021 was false or misleading.
The AG is seeking $250 million in penalties. The lawsuit also seeks to barr Trump or his children from serving as officers or directors of New York-registered or licensed corporations.
Of course Trump et. al. are innocent until proven guilty. The truth will emerge after the trial begins on October 2.
Trump sat for his deposition for this lawsuit back in April, of which excerpts from the transcript were released late on Wednesday. During the seven-hour interview in James’s office, he made some very interesting claims. Like he was too busy saving the world to take care of business.
Kevin Wallace, a senior lawyer from the AG’s office, questioned the former president:
KEVIN WALLACE: Mr. Trump, are you currently the person with ultimate decision-making authority for the Trump Organization?
DONALD J. TRUMP: No.
MR. WALLACE: Who would that be?
MR. TRUMP: My son Eric is much more involved with it than I am. I’ve been doing other things.
And the “other things” would be …
MR. TRUMP: I was very busy. I was — I considered this the most important job in the world, saving millions of lives. I think you would have nuclear holocaust, if I didn’t deal with North Korea. I think you would have a nuclear war, if I weren’t elected. And I think you might have a nuclear war now, if you want to know the truth.
Okay then.
As for his properties — Trump said that he owned “the greatest pieces of property in the world.” That would include Mar-a-Lago, his Florida estate, which he claimed someone wanted to buy:
MR. TRUMP: I’ve had people say, if you ever sell Mar-a-Lago, please call me. That’s not for sale.
MR. WALLACE: Who, for example, has told you that?
MR. TRUMP: Well, I rather not say because I don’t want to embarrass them, and I may be putting some of these people on the stand.
However, Trump did admit that he didn’t know who the specific persons were, except that “they’re very rich people.”
When attorney Wallace asked if anything might have been left out of the financial statements, Trump replied that “They list everything in the kitchen sink here.” But then he remembered something else. His brand, naturally!
The biggest thing that is not included is my brand. My lawyers never bring it up, but the brand is the biggest, and cause you can, maybe you can double or triple my statement. But my brand is — if I wanted to create a good statement, I would put — I’d start off with Sentence 1, my brand is worth billions and billions of dollars.
Could it be possible that DJT is exaggerating a wee bit? Oh, perish the thought! His organization fully complies with the law because he hires the very best legal minds. Besides, he’s the Most Honest Person Ever.
And friends of mine have said, you are the most honest person in the world. So we’ve done a good job. Don’t get credit for it. That’s OK.
Hurricane Idalia has battered the state. But Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has been handling it like a boss, even though a 100-year-old oak tree fell on the governor’s mansion in Tallahassee when Idalia hit. Moreover, DeSantis’s wife Casey and their three young children were inside when the tree fell. Fortunately, no one was hurt.
A 100-year-old oak tree fell on the governor's mansion in Tallahassee, Florida, as Hurricane Idalia made landfall in the area, said Casey DeSantis, the wife of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. https://t.co/KjuMLbTYN7
— CBS News (@CBSNews) August 31, 2023
But he carried on. Meanwhile, during a briefing, a reporter asked DeSantis about Trump, but the governor didn’t take the bait. This was not the time for politics, he said:
It’s not my concern. My concern is protecting the people of Florida, being ready to go and we’ve done that. And look, in Florida you just have to do this. I mean this is something we put a lot of time and effort into throughout the course of each year, knowing that there’s going to be time where you’re gonna have to activate it.
When asked about his thoughts on fmr. Pres. Trump, who is a resident of Florida, not commenting on #HurricaneIdalia, Gov. DeSantis says it’s “not my concern”:
“My concern is protecting the people of Florida” https://t.co/dk4JEHsGM2 pic.twitter.com/QqXMs33n0r
— CBS News (@CBSNews) August 30, 2023
DeSantis also issued warnings to would-be looters:
I’d also just remind potential looters that you never know what you’re walking into. People have a right to defend their property. This part of Florida, you got a lot of advocates and proponents of the Second Amendment. I’ve seen signs in different people’s yards in the past after these disasters, and I would say it’s probably here, ‘You loot, we shoot.’
You never know what’s behind that door if you go break into somebody’s house.
Looking for a leader who can guide the nation through a crisis? That would be Gov. Ron DeSantis, who adeptly cares for Florida during a life-threatening hurricane — just as he did during Hurricane Ian one year ago. Rather than scoring political points, he’s protecting the people of his state and focusing on their well-being. There’s more time for politics after this calamity has passed. This crisis, DeSantis knows, is of greater importance.
Donald Trump couldn’t adequately account for his businesses. But Ron DeSantis is taking care of business in Florida, proving that he has the right stuff to become President.
Featured image: “Nuclear Nightmare – Open Your Eyes And Awake !” by Daniel Arrhakis is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0. Cropped.
Joe R. says: SDNY’s getting its courts taken away when Trump gets back in office.
They’ll have to play kangaroo in NJ (but not for long because they’re losing theirs too – something about gun control something or other).
GWB says: I loved watching DeSantis’ press conference with the “you loot, we shoot” comment – the sign language lady was making pew-pew hands translating that part of the statement. It was fantastic. (She seemed to be vigorously translating and enjoying it.)
therealguyfaux says: Oh, for Heaven’s sake, whenever your fortune is tied up in real estate, you’re going to have more than one valuation on your properties– it’s the nature of the industry. It all has to do with the money you’ve been lent on it, and the purpose the bank thinks you’re going to put the property to. Are you going to live there? Are you going to conduct business there? Are you going to rent it out? Are you doing a “flip”? They will do an appraisal of the property taking all these uses into account, and there may be a range of valuations that emerges. Then there’s the matter of how much you can insure it for– the bank wants to know whether, if the place gets destroyed (think: Maui), they will at least recoup the amount of their loan still outstanding. Then they’re going to want to know the corporate structure of the entity which will own the property– is it a one-person show, or are there all sorts of dummy corporations (think: Hunter Biden)? And as far as real estate taxes go, are there tax incentives from a local taxing agency to invest in a particular property? Then there’s a possible bankruptcy angle to it– how much money would a “fire sale” of sorts realize on the property if the debtor had to unload it fast?
Henry George, a political economist of the late 19th C., was working for a San Francisco newspaper and doing a story about the East Bay, then still fairly agricultural around parts of San Leandro, Hayward, that sort of area. He asked a local, “How much is the land worth in that area, and was told, “No idea. I only know what it’s selling for.” And that’s what the determining factor is when you’re dealing in real estate, i.e., what the land and all improvements on it will sell for and how you can come up with the money needed to purchase it.
Liz says: Well said, and informative.
Kim Hirsch says: Wasn’t the point of my post, but since you’re taking a stab at where the problem lies with the property valuation, here are some of the issues as laid out in the preliminary statement:
Mr. Trump inflated the value of his triplex apartment at Trump Tower by using an
incorrect figure for the apartment’s square footage that was nearly triple the actual
square footage. This error inflated the apartment’s value by approximately $100-
$200 million each year from 2012 to 2016.Mr. Trump valued a number of his properties at amounts that significantly exceeded
professional appraisals of which his employees were aware and chose to ignore.Mr. Trump valued undeveloped land at his golf course in Aberdeen, Scotland based
on an assumption that he could build and sell for profit far more residential homes
than the local Scottish governmental authorities had approved.Mr. Trump inflated the value of unsold condominium units he owned at Trump
Park Avenue by valuing rent stabilized units at vastly inflated amounts as if they
were not rent stabilized …Mr. Trump included as “cash” – an indication of his liquidity – and “escrow
deposits” sums held with partnerships in which he owned only a 30% minority
share and over which he exercised no control. In some years, as much as one-third
of the cash and over one-half of the escrow deposits listed on the SFC belonged to
the partnerships.
If you’re inclined you can find the entire filed lawsuit here. Again, as I wrote, he and his sons are innocent until proven guilty.
therealguyfaux says: It well may be that there are irregularities on his end– but that’s not what I’M saying, either. MY point is that for anyone simply to put it out there that his valuations on his properties are questionable overlooks the fact that pretty much ALL real estate valuations, no matter who makes them, are disputable on some level or another. The “fast ones” he may or may not be trying to pull are not due to there being any variations on valuation in and of themselves. That’s the point I was making.
Even if a criminal deserves hanging just on general principle, I’d kind of want it to be for a murder he really committed, and not just shrug it off if he were being railroaded, and say, “Well, might as well be for this killing as for any other, y’know? What’s the diff? He’s rightfully dead any which way.”
rbj1 says: Brand names are very tricky when it comes to valuation. Earlier this year Bud Light was a very valuable brand name. Now it isn’t. Did the product change? No. There was simply an ill-considered association. Trump can estimate his brand highly in certain circumstances and devalue it in others. Businesses do it all the time.
And lenders are not going to take at face value a borrower’s estimation of his commercial real estate’s value.
Neither are tax assessors. Unless James is implying collusion in fraud with bank loan executives AND government tax authorities. In which case – why are THEY not also in the dock?
Liz says: DeSantis has done (and is continuing to do) a great job. I would like him to be elected president in 2024.
That said, Trump might or might not be embellishing about the value of his brand…I’d say not.
For example (with the exception of Scotland, if memory serves) the foreign “Trump hotels” are not owned by Trump or the Trump family. Trump was paid for the use of his name (aka “brand”). I have no idea how many other establishments and/or products with his name fall under that category.
Larry Brasfield says: From the article tail: “Donald Trump couldn’t adequately account for his businesses. But Ron DeSantis is taking care of business in Florida, proving that he has the right stuff to become President.”
The whole thrust of the deposition testimony quoted in the article is that President Trump was paying attention to the job for which he was elected, which is the nation’s business. The fact that he paid less attention to his own business, which he put in the hands of a trusted relative, does not discredit him — quite the opposite. The article’s conclusion, to the extent it is coherent, is unfair and not supported by the article’s body.
Kim Hirsch says: Then how do we account for the alleged fraud which occurred from 2011 until 2017, when Trump became president?
Larry Brasfield says: I’m making a narrow point here, and not trying to argue the merits of that lawsuit. I particularly decline to get into issues for which the evidence has yet to be adduced.
My point is simply that DJT’s testimony, as you quoted it, does not show a disparity between how he handled his primary (presidential) responsibilities while in office and how Ron DeSantis handled the governor’s responsibilities. During early 2017 to early 2021, DJT’s “business” was running the executive branch. The testimony does not remotely suggest that was neglected. My objection is the drawing of a parallel between DJT’s inattention to his own, privately held business and Ron DeSantis’ attention to the governor’s business. It is unfair, and we can be certain that if, during his term in office, he had spent several hours a day running Trump enterprises, there would have been endless press criticism of that.
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