Msg ID:
2704518 |
Trump's lawyer says he's not worried prosecutors named Trump personally in +3/-0
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Author:TheCrow
9/21/2021 2:04:44 PM
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Yeah, they just throw random names into indictments. Why wouldn't they name Trump in the indictment? He has hundreds of legal actions, lawsuits in process constantly. Nahhh- he wouldn't sue for a malicious indictment....
It's not like Trump has a history of bank, insurance or tax cheating. Oh wait- he does have a tax cheat history.
If it looks like duck, quacks like a duck and hangs around with ducks- it's probably a duck.
Former President Donald Trump at an August 21 rally in Cullman, Alabama. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
- A tax-fraud indictment against the Trump Organization and its CFO personally named Donald Trump.
- Still, his lawyer Ronald Fischetti told Insider he didn't think the Manhattan DA would charge Trump.
- He said Trump's tax savings in the alleged fraud scheme would amount to "pennies."
An attorney representing Donald Trump said he wasn't worried that the former president was personally named in the indictment against his namesake company, telling Insider he's confident Trump wouldn't be charged in the Manhattan district attorney's long-running investigation.
Prosecutors named Trump in charging documents unsealed July 1. They said he cut checks for family members of Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg, whom they also accused of tax crimes.
"Trump Corporation personnel, including Weisselberg, arranged for tuition expenses for Weisselberg's family members to be paid by personal checks drawn on the account of and signed by Donald J. Trump, and later drawn on the account of the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust," prosecutors alleged in the indictment.
Trump's lawyer Ronald Fischetti told Insider the mention had no bearing on the former president's personal legal exposure in the district attorney's investigation. He said Trump paid the tuition bills personally, rather than through corporate accounts, and took "no deductions" on them.
"All that money paid for [Weisselberg's] grandson's tuition — to the same school that Donald Trump's son Barron goes to — was paid by Donald Trump personally, never from the company," Fischetti said. "No checks ever went from the company to pay for that tuition."
Fischetti said Trump made the tuition payments because Weisselberg's son, Barry, was undergoing an acrimonious split from his wife, Jennifer Weisselberg. Trump wanted to make sure the grandchildren of a "trusted employee" could remain at their school, Fischetti said.
"Donald Trump, out of his generosity, paid for it personally," Fischetti said. "No deductions, no nothing."
The Trump Organization is expected to face trial next year
Weisselberg and attorneys for the Trump Organization pleaded not guilty to a 15-count indictment, where prosecutors described a wide-ranging tax scheme in which they accused Weisselberg of dodging taxes on $1.7 million of his income, much of which they said came in the form of perks like tuition payments, apartments, and cars.
Prosecutors said more than $359,000 of that untaxed compensation came in the form of tuition payments from 2012 to 2017. They alleged the tuition payments were categorized as compensation in the Trump Organization's internal records but not on Weisselberg's personal tax forms.
The Trump Organization's CFO, Allen Weisselberg, in State Supreme Court in New York City on Monday. Jefferson Siegel/The New York Times via AP
Fischetti said that Trump paying the tuition out of his own pocket, rather than corporate coffers, indicated Trump had already paid all the appropriate taxes on his end.
"It's not taxable for that person," Fischetti said. "And it's not a deduction for the person who's giving it to them."
Weisselberg's grandchildren have attended the Columbia Grammar & Preparatory School in Manhattan's Upper West Side, which was subpoenaed in the district attorney's investigation.
Since last fall, Jennifer Weisselberg has been a cooperating witness and has given troves of documents to prosecutors. She told Insider in an interview earlier this year that the Trump Organization sometimes gave employees perks like apartments and tuition payments in lieu of monetary bonuses as a way to control their lives.
In a court hearing Monday, New York State Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan said attorneys for Weisselberg and the Trump Organization had until January to review 6 million pages of documents in the case and submit pretrial motions. Merchan told the attorneys to expect a trial to begin in August or September of next year.
Fischetti said Trump's tax savings in the alleged fraud scheme would amount to 'fucking pennies'
Bryan Skarlatos, an attorney representing Weisselberg in the case, said in court Monday that he expected more indictments from the grand-jury investigation.
Fischetti told Insider he didn't expect Trump to be among the indicted. He said the tax savings prosecutors describe would amount to "pennies" for the former president.
"This guy's a billionaire. What's he going to get out of this?" he said, adding: "It's fucking pennies! It's ridiculous. They have nothing on the president. Absolutely nothing."
Fischetti said he met with prosecutors in June and they'd brought no evidence that Trump had any personal knowledge of or involvement in the alleged tax scheme.
"They have said nothing about the president knowing about this," Fischetti said. "They have no tape recordings, they have no email, they have no text. They have no documents. They have nothing!"
Weisselberg waiting for a car after leaving a court appearance on Monday. AP Photo/Craig Ruttle
Prosecutors typically meet with attorneys of people they plan to accuse of white-collar crimes shortly before indictments, but Fischetti said he'd heard nothing from the district attorney's team since that summer meeting. Mark Pomerantz — Fischetti's former law partner and a leading member of the Manhattan district attorney's team — assured Fischetti he'd give him a chance to defend Trump in advance of bringing any charges.
Attorneys for other witnesses who've testified before the grand jury said none of the clients had anything to say about Trump's personal involvement, according to Fischetti. He said prosecutors' only hope of indicting Trump would be to "coerce" people to tell the grand jury they acted at Trump's direction.
"The only thing they could possibly have are witnesses that would go into the grand jury and say, 'Yes, I got a free car and I got a free apartment, and he deducted it from my salary or would give it to me as a bonus so the company made money,'" Fischetti told Insider. "He needs witnesses! He has none! Zero!"
A representative for the Manhattan district attorney's office declined to comment for this story.
Prosecutors also were said to have been investigating whether the Trump Organization broke tax laws by keeping two sets of books to secure favorable tax, insurance, and loan rates, as well as whether the company broke campaign finance laws by facilitating hush-money payments to Stormy Daniels in advance of the 2016 election.
Fischetti said he hasn't heard anything about charges related to those inquiries.
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Msg ID:
2704526 |
Trump's lawyer says he's not worried prosecutors named Trump personally in +3/-0
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Author:TheCrow
9/21/2021 2:17:12 PM
Reply to: 2704518
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Donald J. Trump, the very stable genius.
January 21, 2021 at 7:35 p.m. EST
Donald Trump returns to his company this week as it faces a deepening crisis, with key properties bleeding revenue and its bankers, lawyers and customers fleeing the company.
Financial disclosure forms, filed by the former president as he left office, revealed that his hotels, resorts and other properties had lost more than $120 million in revenue last year, as the pandemic forced long-term closures and kept customers home.
Those losses were worst in the places where Trump could least afford it: His Washington hotel, which has a $170 million loan outstanding, saw revenue drop more than 60 percent. His Doral resort in Miami — also carrying a huge debt load — saw a 44 percent drop.
On Thursday, the company’s troubles grew: One of its banks and one of its law firms said they would cut their ties with the Trump Organization. They are the latest in a string of vendors and customers who severed their relationships with the company after Jan. 6, when a mob of Trump supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol directly after he addressed them at a rally.
President Trump left the White House for the final time in his presidency on Jan. 20, before traveling to West Palm Beach, Fla. (The Washington Post)
The picture emerging shows the inversion of Trump’s fortunes since 2015, when he entered politics promising to remake the country in the image of his growing, swaggering business.
Now, Trump returns to a business remade in the image of the country he led: beleaguered, indebted and toxically politicized.
“He faces some very serious problems that have been building in recent years and I think are going to come to a head now that he’s left office,” said Bert Ely, a banking consultant who has testified before Congress on financial matters.
President Donald Trump and his wife, Melania, depart the White House for the last time Wednesday. (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post)
Ely said the Trump Organization is a relatively small operation, which relies heavily on the work of others — lawyers and real estate brokers, and investors who paid to have Trump’s name on their buildings. Now, some of those outsiders are pulling away. “He’s done enormous reputational damage to himself,” Ely said.
The Trump Organization did not respond to requests for comment Thursday.
Trump still owns his company. But it is unclear when — or even if — he will return to his old role as the company’s day-to-day leader. On Thursday, while Trump was seen playing golf at one of his courses in Florida, the Trump Organization’s website still listed Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump as the company’s leaders.
The new financial disclosures, filed routinely by an outgoing president, show that the company is facing one of its darkest hours, as the coronavirus hammers the tourism industry.
Overall, Trump listed specific revenue figures for 47 different companies, including his golf clubs, hotels and New York City park properties. Combined, revenue at those companies declined more than 35 percent last year, according to a Washington Post analysis.
There were bright spots: Revenue at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club, a members-only operation in Palm Beach, Fla., that is now doubling as the former president’s home, increased 13 percent. And Trumpstore.com, which sells T-shirts, candles and bath bombs bearing the former president’s name, reported that its income doubled, to $1.9 million.
But there were also sharp declines at three of Trump’s most important properties: his D.C. hotel, his Doral resort in Florida, and his Turnberry resort in Scotland. Their combined revenue fell from $149 million in 2019 to $71 million last year, a drop of more than half.
Trump faces more than $400 million in outstanding loans, including more than $290 million on Doral and the D.C. hotel.
Ironically, the future of those businesses could depend on the man whose victory Trump tried to overturn: President Biden.
That’s because Biden’s success in speeding up vaccinations for the coronavirus will play a major role in determining how fast the hotel and travel industries recover. In addition, because Trump’s D.C. hotel is located in a federally owned building, the Biden administration is his landlord. If Trump seeks to renegotiate his lease, or to get federal approval for a sale of the building, he will be dealing with Biden’s General Services Administration.
On Thursday, White House spokesman T.J. Ducklo declined to comment about how the Biden administration will handle Trump’s hotel.
In the meantime, on Thursday, Trump’s company continued to lose key partners — including banks and lawyers that had stuck with it through the lowest points of Trump’s political career.
“We no longer have any depository relationship with him,” said a spokesperson for BankUnited, a Florida-based bank where Trump had kept more than $5 million in money-market accounts. On Thursday, BankUnited said it was closing those accounts. It declined to say why.
The decision meant that, since the attack on the Capitol, Trump had lost three of the four banks that held his largest deposits. Signature Bank and Professional Bank cut their ties earlier this month. The fourth bank, Capital One, has declined to comment.
Also Thursday, Trump lost one of his best-known law firms: Morgan Lewis, which has represented Trump on tax issues since before he ran for office. One Morgan Lewis partner, Sheri Dillon, had become a well-known defender of Trump, appearing with him in 2017 at a news conference in Trump Tower, next to a pile of papers and folders that were supposed to represent Trump relinquishing control of his businesses.
“President-elect Trump wants there to be no doubt in the minds of the American public that he is completely isolating himself from his business interests,” Dillon said then.
But on Thursday, the firm said that relationship was ending.
“We have had a limited representation of the Trump Organization and Donald Trump in tax-related matters. For those matters not already concluded, we are transitioning as appropriate to other counsel,” Morgan Lewis spokeswoman Emily Carhart said in an email. She declined to give a reason.
Dillon was also involved in the Trump Organization’s handling of an estate called Seven Springs in suburban New York, where the company obtained a $21 million tax break through a “conservation easement” — essentially, a promise not to develop some of the land in exchange for a tax benefit. Now, Trump’s dealings with Seven Springs are the focus of two state-level investigations, by the Manhattan district attorney and the New York attorney general.
The decision by Morgan Lewis marked at least two law firms that have cut ties with Trump’s company since Jan. 6. The first, Seyfarth Shaw, announced its decision last week.
This week, the news site American Lawyer reported that a third firm, Alston & Bird, was also ending its work with Trump’s company. Alston & Bird declined to answer questions from The Washington Post.
In the immediate wake of the attack on the Capitol, the Trump Organization lost two of its real estate brokers, its e-commerce vendor, its chance to host the 2022 PGA Championship golf tournament, and its hopes of hosting another golf tournament, the British Open. Also, New York City said it will end the Trump Organization’s contracts to run a carousel, two ice rinks and a golf course in city parks — contracts that brought the Trump Organization $18 million in 2019.
Elsewhere, two major tenants in Trump’s office building on Wall Street, the Girl Scouts of Greater New York and a tuberculosis-fighting charity called the TB Alliance, said they were seeking to leave the building. The Trump Organization has not said whether it will let them break their leases.
The backlash to Trump’s actions has even hit the smallest of Trump’s business partners, including the organizers of a triathlon — the Tri at the Trump — held at Trump’s golf course outside Charlotte.
“It was all on track before the Capitol,” said Chuck McAllister, the founder of the event, which he expected to attract 450 athletes and 1,000 spectators.
But then, McAllister said, the Capitol attack caused sponsors and vendors to pull out. He had to cancel the event. It was actually the second time he had to cancel the event because of political backlash against Trump: In 2017, he canceled a previous triathlon after Trump said there were “very fine people” among white-supremacist protesters in Charlottesville.
But he came back to Trump, and got burned again.
“It is deja vu. It’s like Groundhog Day,” McAllister said. He said he was unsure whether he would come back in 2022. “The name’s toxic. It’s toxic to some people. That’s never going to change.”
David A. Fahrenthold is a reporter covering the Trump family and its business interests. He has been at The Washington Post since 2000, and previously covered Congress, the federal bureaucracy, the environment and the D.C. police. Twitter
Jonathan O'Connell is a reporter focused on business investigations and corporate accountability. He has covered economic development, commercial real estate and President Donald Trump's business. He joined The Post in 2010. Twitter
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Msg ID:
2704528 |
Trump Organization and Prosecutors Spar Over Evidence—Out of Public View +3/-0
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Author:TheCrow
9/21/2021 2:23:19 PM
Reply to: 2704518
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Wait, what? Evidence? TrumpeRINO frog boys have assured everybody that The Donald is pure and innocent. Why woould various prosecuters spar over evidence if they're merely manufacturing it for political reasons?
Trump is a crook. It's the small stuff that brings big thugs down- Capone went down for taxes....
Former President Donald Trump’s company and its finance chief were criminally indicted this summer
Trump Tower in New York City. PHOTO: SPENCER PLATT/GETTY IMAGES
By Corinne Ramey and Rebecca Ballhaus
Aug. 19, 2021 12:55 pm ET
Manhattan prosecutors are moving to advance their criminal investigation into former President Donald Trump’s business affairs, fighting with his company over evidence and continuing talks with the lawyer of a Trump Organization executive who hasn’t been charged, said people familiar with the matter.
Manhattan prosecutors and Trump Organization lawyers appeared at a secret court proceeding with New York State Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan last week to discuss a dispute over documents the Manhattan district attorney’s office has subpoenaed, the people said. Justice Merchan is overseeing the criminal case stemming from the indictment of the Trump Organization and its finance chief, Allen Weisselberg, made public in July.
The dispute is related to documents prosecutors have sought for their continuing investigation, the people said. While the scope of the evidence in question couldn’t be determined, it includes a broad swath of financial documents, according to the people.
In another sign of movement in the criminal probe, prosecutors have been holding talks with a lawyer for Trump Organization executive Matthew Calamari Sr., partly to determine whether his cooperation would be helpful, according to people familiar with the matter. The next public court appearance for the Trump Organization and Mr. Weisselberg is Sept. 20, court records show.
Last month, the Manhattan district attorney’s office announced indictments charging the Trump Organization and Mr. Weisselberg with tax fraud. Prosecutors accused Mr. Weisselberg and the company of a 15-year-long tax-fraud scheme involving off-the-books payments and perks like cars and apartments to employees at the company. Prosecutors from the New York attorney general’s office are working with the district attorney’s office on the case.
Mr. Weisselberg and lawyers for the Trump Organization pleaded not guilty. Alan Futerfas, a lawyer for the Trump Organization, said that the case was brought because of the Trump name and that compensation cases are resolved by civil tax authorities.
Earlier this month, lawyers for Mr. Weisselberg asked for additional information from prosecutors, including the names of others involved in the alleged crimes, according to court documents filed in the criminal case. Prosecutors said in a filing this week that the unindicted co-conspirator in the indictment was Jeffrey McConney, a senior finance official at the Trump Organization. They noted that they had provided Mr. Weisselberg with more than three million pages of materials, but said they weren’t required to disclose additional information.
A lawyer for Mr. McConney didn’t respond to a request for comment.
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