NY AG is suing Trump and two of his kids seeking a minimum of $250 million in damages

Letitia James Makes Announcement On Investigation Into Trump Organization
Carmine Sabia, September 21, 2022

New York Attorney General Letitia James has made an announcement about her case regarding the Trump Organization.

Prior to her press conference reporter Kyle Cheney tweeted what her announcement was.

“The NY AG is suing Trump and two of his kids, alleging a massive campaign of fraudulent business practices by the Trump Org. She’s also urging federal prosecutors and the IRS to pursue criminal probes,” he said.

“The wide-ranging lawsuit alleges decades of deception and relies on a statute for repeat violations of law. The suit stems from a 3.5 year investigation that began with Michael Cohen’s testimony to Congress alleging Trump inflated value of assets to win favorable financial deals,” he said.





The lawsuit seeks a minimum of $250 million in damages.

It said that Trump’s personal financial statements “for the period 2011 through 2021 were fraudulent and misleading in both their composition and presentation.”

″The number of grossly inflated asset values is staggering, affecting most if not all of the real estate holdings in any given year. All told, Mr. Trump, the Trump Organization, and the other Defendants, as part of a repeated pattern and common scheme, derived more than 200 false and misleading valuations of assets included in the 11 Statements covering 2011 through 2021.”

She had previously indicated that she could sue former President Donald Trump after rejecting an offer to resolve the civil investigation into his family business last week, The Washington Examiner reported.

“The Trump Organization has sought to reach a deal with James’s office for months after the office told a court in January it had uncovered evidence the company used “fraudulent or misleading” asset valuations to secure loans and other tax benefits. James has been leading the investigation for three years,” the report said.

James has been on a crusade against Trump since before she was elected to the office of Attorney General.

It was August when Trump took the Fifth Amendment in a New York case centered around a civil investigation into his company’s finances.

He pleaded the Fifth on Wednesday during a deposition with the office of New York Attorney General Letitia James, Politico reported.

Trump, who has long accused James of conducting a politically motivated probe into his family’s real estate business, said in a statement Wednesday that he had “absolutely no choice” but to take the Fifth during his under-oath interview with the attorney general’s office. James is leading an investigation into the Trump Organization’s business practices, examining allegations that the former president’s company misstated asset values on financial documents.

“I once asked, ‘If you’re innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?’ Now I know the answer to that question,” the former president said. “When your family, your company, and all the people in your orbit have become the targets of an unfounded, politically motivated Witch Hunt supported by lawyers, prosecutors, and the Fake News Media, you have no choice.”

“I declined to answer the questions under the rights and privileges afforded to every citizen under the United States Constitution,” he said.

“If there was any question in my mind, the raid of my home, Mar-a-Lago, on Monday by the FBI, just two days prior to this deposition, wiped out any uncertainty,” he said.

He also attacked James on his TruthSocial account.

“At the very plush, beautiful, and expensive A.G.’s office. Nice working conditions, as people are being murdered all over New York – and she spends her time and effort on trying to ‘get Trump,’” he said.

And it is not like the former president has no basis for that argument, as a video shared in January showed.

The video shows New York’s current Democrat Attorney General Letitia James vowing to bring down Trump when she was campaigning for the job.


She bragged about, and campaigned on, saying that she would take on the sitting President of the United States, who was Trump, if New Yorkers voted for her and she won.

She fulfilled her promise last week when she filed a motion to obtain a court order to have three Trump family members appear for sworn testimony, backing her subpoenas of them.

Eric Trump shared the video of James’ promises to take down Trump on his Instagram page.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CY9mcLchRfb/

“This is not the United States Legal System – This is third-world prosecutorial misconduct. Promising to target a political opponent and their family before even entering office – it’s hard to believe this is America. Letitia James may go down as the most politically corrupt Attorney General in New York history,” he said in the caption of the video.

“Stay Tuned… we have sued her for her unethical behavior and a judge will see every one of these videos, her viciousness, and the pure malice of her actions and statements.

“More to come: Tomorrow may just be a video of James ad-libbing the song “I will survive” while interjecting hate speech about Donald Trump…. very common for the top law enforcement official in the State of New York,” the former president’s son said.


“This garbage erodes Americans’ confidence in the legal system and it will stop. Thank you to everyone who has sent videos of her – we seem to get new ones almost every day. #KeepThemComing,” he said.

After becoming attorney general she was asked by talk show host Samantha Bee “Can we actually get him?” to which James responded with laughter and then said, “we’re not here to get anyone.

‘Let’s Move On’: Fox News Abruptly Cuts Away From NY AG’s Trump Lawsuit Presser
Matt Wilstein, The Daily Beast

New York Attorney General Letitia James had been speaking live for about 10 minutes on Wednesday morning about the state’s massive fraud lawsuit against Donald Trump, his adult children, and their business organization when Fox News made the abrupt decision to cut away.

James was just starting to lay out the specifics of the Trump family’s alleged crimes when “straight news” anchor Harris Faulker broke in to tell viewers the news likely did not concern them.



“Some of this is really inside baseball unless it’s your tax dollars in New York,” Faulkner said. “And some may even accuse it of being political because we’re 48 days before the midterm elections.” She then added, without explanation: “And both presidents, the current and the past, are certainly being looked at to help candidates out.”

Faulkner promised that Fox News is “certainly going to cover” the lawsuit moving forward and would bring “highlights” to viewers as they happen. “But the big headline in all of this is the lawsuit by the state of New York just announced by Letitia James,” she continued before adding, “Let’s move on.”

While Fox aired just a small portion of the announcement before discussing it for all of 40 seconds, both CNN and MSNBC carried the nearly 35 minute press conference in full and have continued to cover it as the day’s top story.

On Monday, Oct. 24, 2022, Trump’s company goes on trial in a criminal tax case and the first task facing the court is a big one: Picking a neutral jury.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
LARRY NEUMEISTER and MICHAEL R. SISAK
Mon, October 24, 2022 at 12:12 AM

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump’s company goes on trial Monday in a criminal tax case and the first task facing the court is a big one: Picking a jury of New Yorkers who don't have a strong opinion about the former president.

Manhattan prosecutors say the Trump Organization helped top executives avoid income taxes on job perks such as rent-free apartments and luxury cars.

Trump himself isn't on trial and isn't expected to testify. But the judge and lawyers in the case will likely be looking to keep people off the jury if they have unshakably strong feelings about the Republican, who isn't liked in his hometown.

In the 2020 presidential election, 87% of Manhattan voters supported Democrat Joe Biden for president. Trump got 12% of the vote.

Once jury selection is complete, Judge Juan Manuel Merchan has said he expects the trial to last at least four weeks.

The trial is expected to center on the actions and testimony of longtime Trump Organization executive Allen Weisselberg, who pleaded guilty in August to taking in more than $1.7 million worth of untaxed perks from the company.

Trump has decried the probe as a “political witch hunt." The company's lawyers have said it played by the rules.

If convicted, the Trump Organization could be fined more than $1 million. A guilty verdict could hamper the company’s ability to get loans and make deals.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg inherited the prosecution when he took office in January. Bragg has taken a cautious approach with Trump, declining so far to bring charges against him personally in what's now a three-year investigation.

The jury selection process could take several days, especially if people in the pool express reservations about their ability to be neutral.

Getting a panel with an open mind, though, could be critical to avoiding a mistrial.

In the spring, another trial in a nearby federal courthouse ended in the mistrial because of tensions between jurors about political views. That case involved associates of former Trump adviser Steve Bannon who were accused of defrauding a charity founded to help pay for a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico.

Eleven jurors in that case sent a note to the judge asking another juror to be removed because that person had shown an anti-government bias and accused all the others of being liberals. The judge declined and the jury ultimately couldn't agree on a verdict.[/b]

How a conviction in Trump Org's upcoming trial could bar Trump from federal contracts, even for Secret Service
Laura Italiano, Dave Levinthal | INSIDER
Sun, October 23, 2022 at 9:01 AM

Jury selection begins Monday in the Trump Organization tax-fraud trial.

Trump could be banned from doing business with the federal government if his company is convicted.

A ban could end his 'exorbitant' billing of Secret Service agents who protect him at his resorts.

Donald Trump's real-estate and golf-resort empire goes on trial in Manhattan on Monday, in a low-level corporate fraud case with high financial stakes, including millions in potential fines and tax penalties.

But there's another threatened cost, and it's something government spending watchdogs have been urging for years.

Conviction could prompt the government to bar the Trump Organization from doing business as a federal contractor, including cutting off the spigot of Trump's lucrative — and critics say exorbitant — billing of Secret Service agents who stay at his properties while protecting the former president and his family.

Trump is hardly the ideal government contractor as it is, watchdogs say, after his many brushes with fraud allegations and given federal regulations requiring "an impeccable standard of conduct."

Those regulations also recommend "debarment," or blacklisting, of any company convicted of such business-related crimes as "forgery, bribery, falsification or destruction of records, making false statements [and] tax evasion."

A conviction in this payroll tax-fraud trial would only increase calls to blacklist Trump, according to Steven L. Schooner, who teaches government procurement law at George Washington University Law School.

Schooner has complained stridently over the years as the feds continued to do business with Trump despite two impeachments, an inauguration scandal, questions over his Trump International Hotel in DC, and the forced dissolution of Trump University and the Trump Foundation by the same New York attorney general's office now alleging he pocketed $250 million through financial fraud.

Add to that the recent news that the Trump Organization had billed the Secret Service more than $ 1.4 million to stay at Trump properties during the former president's time in office.

The Secret Service paid Trump as much as $1,185 per night for a single room at his DC hotel, and once signed a $179,000 contract for golf cart rentals at his golf resort in Bedminster, New Jersey.

"The rules that apply to typical government contractors have never applied to Trump Organization, and frankly, that's the most depressing and pernicious aspect of this pathetic saga," Schooner said.

"It's as mind-boggling as it is heart-breaking," he said of the government's apparent unwillingness to stop stuffing taxpayer dollars into Trump's pocket.

The jury that will be chosen in a downtown Manhattan courtroom starting Monday will determine if the Trump Organization defrauded tax authorities by paying executives some of their compensation off the books, in the form of untaxed perks like free apartments and cars.

Former Trump CFO Allen Weisselberg will be the key prosecution witness against the company after pleading guilty to the tax-dodge scheme in August.

Weisselberg admitted pocketing $1.7 million in tax-free perks over 15 years, including Mercedes-Benz luxury cars for him and his wife, free use of Trump-branded apartments on Manhattan's Hudson River and tuition for his grandkids' private schools.

At the Trump Organization headquarters in Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue, the cars, apartments and tuition were considered part of Weisselberg's $940,000-a-year income, prosecutors allege.

The Trump Organization is charged with knowingly and repeatedly filing inaccurate tax documents to avoid payroll taxes on that extra compensation, saving money for the company and its executives.

As part of his plea, Weisselberg, who remains on the company payroll as an adviser, must pay back $2 million and serve five months jail.

The Trump Organization could face stiff tax penalties plus up to $1.6 million in fines, Reuters has calculated, if convicted of the three tax-fraud counts and six other counts in their indictment — all of them low-level felonies.

Their lawyers have countered that the Manhattan District Attorney's office — for decades run by Democrats — is pursuing a penny-ante fringe benefits case out of political bias against Trump, an argument the trial judge, state Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, has barred the defense from raising at trial.

A case for 'debarment'

The recent Secret Service billing revelations and the trial starting in Manhattan have upped the ante for those calling for an end to Trump's government contracts.

"The Trump Organization was essentially gouging the federal government and federal taxpayers" said Noah Bookbinder, president of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

"If there's a criminal conviction, it's hard to imagine how the federal government could at that point not debar them," he told Insider.

Bookbinder and Schooner, the procurement law professor, formally wrote the government asking it to cut ties with Trump's company and its senior officers in October 2021.

Their letter was addressed to the federal General Services Administration, which oversees contracts, and government agencies that that have done business with Trump, including the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Secret Service.

"Our position hasn't changed," said Sean Moultin, senior policy analyst for the Project on Government Oversight, another ethics and accountability watchdog group that signed on to the letter.

"A conviction of the organization on any of the charges would make debarment a foregone conclusion," he told Insider.

Reps for the Trump Organization and the GSA did not respond to Insider's requests for comment.

A spokesperson for the Secret Service would not speculate on a potential Trump Organization debarment, saying only that the agency would be responding directly to the congressional investigation into Trump's billing.

Secret Service a tough target

Watchdogs concede that Trump's Secret Service billing is a tough target.

Under federal acquisition regulations, an agency can continue to use a blacklisted company by saying they have "compelling reasons justifying continued business dealings between that agency and the contractor."

In the case of the Secret Service, that compelling reason would be the difficulty in protecting Trump and his family without staying at whichever of his resorts he's currently living at — including his winter favorite, Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, and his summer favorite, the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey.

"The agency can simply say they need the contractor," explained Schooner.

Barring the unlikelihood of a cash-free solution — Trump letting the Secret Service "stay at our properties for free," as Eric Trump once promised, or forgoing Secret Service protection voluntarily, as Richard Nixon did — Trump's Secret Service spigot may well remain open, watchdogs acknowledge.

Still, blacklisting Trump could tamp down on such extravagances as that $179,000 golf cart rental contract. And it would prevent future self-dealing in other types of contracts.

The Secret Service "may be able to make some sort of claim that they are in a unique situation," in needing to be close to the former president, said POGO's Moultin.

"But I still remember when Trump was pitching holding a G-7 conference at one of his properties, Moultin said.

In 2019, acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney announced the US would host the 2020 G-7 summit at the Trump National Doral golf resort in Miami, an idea quickly abandoned after critics accused the then-president of self-dealing and other ethics violations.

That same year, then-Vice President Mike Pence stayed at a Trump hotel during a trip to Ireland that was located 180 miles from any of his official engagements, and Air Force crews were revealed to be enjoying lodging at Trump's luxury golf resort in Scotland.

"If there was a future Trump administration, or just a future Republican administration, that could raise this idea of holding official events at his properties," Moultin said.

"That's where I think a debarment would still come into play."

Dismissed juror at Trump Org trial always thought the Weisselberg family’s wealth was ‘weird’
Molly Crane-Newman, New York Daily News
Mon, October 24, 2022 at 11:48 AM

An Upper West Side mom called for jury duty at the Trump Organization trial — whose kids went to prep school with Allen Weisselberg’s grandchildren — always wondered how the family afforded their life of luxury.

The 54-year-old lawyer, who declined to provide her name, was among the first New Yorkers dismissed from jury duty at the high-profile trial that kicked off Monday at Manhattan Supreme Court.

Central to the Manhattan district attorney’s case is luxury, untaxed “work” expenses that had no relation to the real estate business whose accounts Weisselberg oversaw for decades. That includes his grandkids’ private school tuition at Columbia Grammar & Preparatory School and a rent-free apartment overlooking Central Park for his son Barry’s young family. The long-serving chief financial officer pleaded guilty to 15 felonies last month.

The would-be juror said the DA wasn’t the only one suspicious of the Weisselbergs’ family budget.

“It was always weird — how are they affording living in that building? Living in a lavish building, having lavish birthday parties at the Trump ice skating rink. You kind of were like, what is going on? Even back then,” the dismissed juror said. “I had no idea.”

In a private meeting behind the courtroom walls, the prospective juror told Judge Juan Merchan and lawyers for the Trump companies that her daughter went to school with the Weisselberg kids.

She said Barron Trump, Trump’s youngest child, was a class ahead of her daughter at the tony Manhattan school, which teaches pre-kindergarten school children through age 12. She knew Trump’s former fixer Michael Cohen from the school board.

“I think [Cohen] was waving in friends and family, and people who make donations and whatever,” the juror quipped, noting she never saw The Donald picking his son up from school.

“My husband would say he saw Melania quite a bit, and she was very beautiful.”

Granddad Weisselberg paid at least $49,000 annually for each of his grandchildren to attend the school. He also paid for their annual sleepaway camp fees of $25,000 and Hebrew school tuition of $2,200, the Daily News reported.

His son, Barry, managed the Trump Organization’s Wollman ice rink for 18 years. New York City ended its contract with the cash-only ice rink in Central Park and vintage carousel after the Jan. 6 insurrection on the U.S. Capitol.

Barry Weisselberg’s ex-wife Jennifer Weisselberg previously told The News that she and Barry rarely reached into their own pockets, with her father-in-law paying for almost everything. She said Trump told her the corporate apartment they lived in was a wedding gift.

In deposition testimony from her 2018 divorce, which The News reported months before his father’s indictment, Barry said there was never an expectation of paying the money back. The youngest Weisselberg son described the largess as “financial assistance.”

Weisselberg’s plea deal requires him to testify at the trial about conspiring with Trump Org execs in the long-running tax evasion scheme. If his testimony satisfies prosecutors, they’ll agree to a jail term of five months on Rikers Island.

The juror said she put her hand up to disclose the conflict as soon as she heard Weisselberg’s name. The judge and lawyers queried her out of the presence of 131 other prospective jurors, who filed into court around 11 a.m.

Another person near her didn’t know anyone involved with the case, but he didn’t think he could be fair.

“An older man next to me said, ‘Is it enough if I hate Trump?’” she said. “They let him back out.”

Merchan estimates it will take a minimum of two weeks to find 12 unbiased New Yorkers to serve on the Trump Org jury. He expects the trial to last for five or six weeks.

The two Trump entities have pleaded not guilty and face significant financial penalties if convicted.

Trump Organization unveils its defense strategy: Keep any of the blame away from Trump
Laura Italiano, Natalie Musumeci || Business Insider
Mon, October 31, 2022 at 10:41 AM

Defense attorneys in tax evasion trial of Donald Trump's business are trying to keep any blame off Trump.

Trump's company, the Trump Organization, is facing multiple charges, including scheme to defraud.

The fraud scheme "started with" ex-CFO Allen Weisselberg and "ended" with him, a Trump Organization lawyer said.

Defense attorneys in the New York criminal tax-fraud trial of former President Donald Trump's international real-estate company unveiled their strategy in the case on Monday — keep all blame off the former president and anyone else with the Trump name.

Prosecutors in the high-profile trial playing out in New York Supreme Court in lower Manhattan allege that the Trump Organization ran a 15-year scheme to trick tax authorites by giving top executives significant compensation in the form of untaxed "perks" like luxury cars and rent-free Trump-branded apartments.

Trump Organization lawyer Susan Necheles told the jury during opening statements on Monday that the fraud scheme "started with" former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg "and it ended with Allen Weisselberg."

Weisselberg pleaded guilty to the tax-dodge scheme over the summer. He agreed to testify truthfully about his own role in the tax-dodge scheme as part of a plea deal. Under the deal, Weisselberg must serve five months jail and pay back $2 million.

But he and two other key prosecution witnesses are still on the Trump payroll and have been coordinating with Trump attorneys.

All three can be expected to support the Trump line of defense on the witness stand: that the tax-dodge scheme was a conspiracy by rogue Trump Organization executives who kept the very top of the company, including Eric Trump, Donald Trump, Jr., and the former president — its owner and sole beneficiary — in the dark.

"Donald Trump didn't know that Allen Weisselberg was cheating on Allen Weisselberg's personal tax returns," Necheles told the jury's four women and eight men. "The evidence will be crystal clear on that."

"Allen Weisselberg does not own the Trump Organization," she stressed.

Another Trump Organization attorney, Michael van der Veen, turned it into something of a mantra.

"Weisselberg did it for Weisselberg," he repeated no fewer than four times in his own openings.

Van der Veen likened Weisselberg to a "prodigal son" whose greedy scheming betrayed his "family" — the Trump familly.

Weisselberg the "son" was nonetheless kept in the family fold, van der Veen said, using a Biblical analogy to explain away a sticky circumstance: Weisselberg and other prosecution witnesses are still being paid salaries and even legal defenses by Trump.

It was out of charity and forgiveness that Weisselberg was kept on the payroll, van der Veen suggested.

"He made mistakes," the lawyer said.

"Serious mistakes that have put his liberty at jeopardy ... crimes that have hurt his company," he added, countering prosecutors' insistance that the Trump Organization clearly benefitted by a scheme that kept their top execs happy and saved them in Medicaid deductions.

"He has been removed from his position as chief financial officer," van der Veen continued. "But his ability to financially support his [own] family has not been stripped from him."

He added, "The meat of our defense is that Allen Weisselberg did not act at all with the intent to benefit the Trump Payroll Corporation."

The Trump Payroll Corporation is the Trump Organization subsidiary that directly employs its top executives, including Weisselberg. The Trump Payroll Corporation is the subsidiary that manages the payroll. Both do business as the Trump Organization, and both are defendants in the case.

Weisselberg has admitted to pocketing $1.7 million in tax-free perks over 15 years, including Mercedes-Benz luxury cars for him and his wife, free use of Trump-branded apartments on Manhattan's Hudson River and tuition for his grandkids' private schools.

The scheme saved him nearly a million dollars in taxes over 15 years, prosecutors have said.

"You will learn that Mr. Weisselberg hid what he was doing from the companies and from the owners of these companies," Van der Veen said.

"The people cannot prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Weisselberg acted with any intention other than the intention to solely benefit himself," said Van der Veen, again explaining, "Weisselberg did it for Weisselberg."

Temple mize well just copy and paste Obi's copy and pasted article... It says essentially the same thing .. What's the point? ... Unless...No..that couldn't be ..Is it possible that Temple didn't read Obi's article? ...heh

Grackle wrote:

Temple mize well just copy and paste Obi's copy and pasted article... It says essentially the same thing .. What's the point? ... Unless...No..that couldn't be ..Is it possible that Temple didn't read Obi's article? ...heh

Temple only reads Mother Jones and Twitter feeds.

The Wise And Powerful wrote:

Grackle wrote:

Temple mize well just copy and paste Obi's copy and pasted article... It says essentially the same thing .. What's the point? ... Unless...No..that couldn't be ..Is it possible that Temple didn't read Obi's article? ...heh

Temple only reads Mother Jones and Twitter feeds.

No. I do not read them..
It was sent to me and I shared it!
And sharing that is downright awesome for me to do..

First prosecution witness in Trump Org trial is still paid $450K a year — by the Trump Org
Laura Italiano | Business Insider
Mon, October 31, 2022 at 6:39 PM

Donald Trump's real-estate and golf-resort company is on trial on tax fraud charges in Manhattan.

The DA began its case by calling a less-than-ideal prosecution witness, the company's controller.

The witness was asked about his $450K-a-year salary — and said he'd prepped with Trump lawyers.

Manhattan prosecutors called their first witness in the Trump Organization tax fraud trial on Monday — and immediately worked to impress on jurors that this witness, the company's controller, is not on their team, but on team Trump.

The less-than-ideal DA witness, whose testimony continues Tuesday, is Jeffrey McConney. As controller, McConney has for 35 years supervised payroll and tax reporting at the former president's multi-billion-dollar real-estate and golf resort empire.

Early on in McConney's testimony, lead prosecutor Joshua Steinglass asked him about how much Trump's company still pays him — he answered $450,000 a year — and about how he'd stopped cooperating with prosecutors.

McConney told jurors that he is in fact meeting with the defense, who coached him on his testimony as recently as Sunday, the day before his taking the stand.

"When you spoke with Ms. Necheles this Sunday?" Steinglass asked, in one awkward confrontation, as he labored to reacquaint himself in public with his own witness. Susan Necheles is one of the Trump Organization's defense lawyers.

"Did she tell you to make sure to hit certain points?" Steinglass asked.

"I believe so, yes," answered McConney, a large, white-haired, and mustachioed man.

"Did she tell you to phrase things certain ways?" the prosecutor pursued.

"I believe so," McConney said again.

"You were not willing to discuss your testimony with anyone from the DA's office?" the prosecutor then asked — earning a defense objection that was sustained by the judge.

"In the last couple of weeks," the prosecutor tried again, this time leaving McConney's "willingness" or any of his other feelings, out of it, "are you aware that your attorney refused to make you available?"

McConney answered that he couldn't quite remember, but that if his attorney advised him not to do something, then he generally did not do it.

Oh, and his attorney? Also paid for by the Trump Organization, McConney testified.

Steinglass asked at this point to have McConney declared a hostile witness, a designation that would give the prosecutor the advantage of being allowed to ask leading questions, the kind answerable by "yes," or "no."

"His attorney in fact is paid by the Trump Organization," Steinglass argued to the trial judge, state Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, outside the jury's hearing. "That's the textbook definition of adverse witnesses."

"He's friendly," Necheles, the defense lawyer, countered. "He's answering every question."

The judge agreed, explaining that a hostile witness declaration "is to get the witness to be open and honest and not conceal," and "right now, I don't think I have the basis for declaring him a hostile witness."

McConney was allowed to continue his testimony, the bulk of which is set for Tuesday.

Two subsidiaries of the Trump Organization — the Trump Corporation, which employs its executives, and the Trump Payroll Corporation, which pays those executives — are charged in a 15-year tax-dodge scheme.

The alleged scheme was described during opening statements earlier Monday.

The two entities, both of which do business as the Trump Organization, are alleged by prosecutors to have allowed executives to take significant amounts of their pay in the form of untaxed perks, such as rent-free Trump apartments and the free use of luxury vehicles.

The defense denies any complicity in the alleged scheme and countered that it actually victimized the company and that no one from the very top of the company was involved.

No one at that very top — not Donald Trump or any of his three eldest children — is charged or required to be in court for the trial, which is expected to last another month or more.

But Donald Trump's name did pop up during McConney's testimony.

In one key moment, Steinglass asked McConney when his boss, Allen Weisselberg — the company's former chief financial officer and the DA's most important witness — stopped receiving some pay in the form of a non-employee bonus.

Did that stop at around the time Trump was elected president and turned day-to-day operations over to a revocable trust, an entity run by Eric Trump and Weisselberg, Steinglass asked.

"I think coincidentally it was," McConney answered.

"Did you say coincidentally?" Steinglass responded, in more of a spoken-aloud, skeptical thought than an actual question.

McConney is testifying with immunity after testifying before a Manhattan grand jury. References to his testimony in court papers indicate he took the blame for his own actions and did not incriminate anyone at the very top of the company.

Weisselberg stepped down as CFO after being indicted in the summer of 2021; he remains on the payroll on paid leave. His last reported salary was in excess of $900,000. He, too, is not expected to incriminate anyone above him.

A third key prosecution witness from inside the company, whose name has not been revealed, also remains on the Trump payroll and is cooperating with the defense instead of prosecutors, it was said during jury selection last week.

Jury shown Weisselberg lease signed by Trump himself
Tue, November 1, 2022 at 4:01 PM · The Hill

Former President Trump signed the lease of an Upper West Side apartment used by former Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg, prosecutors showed the jury at the company’s criminal tax fraud trial on Tuesday, Bloomberg reported.

The lease represents part of the prosecution’s efforts to show that the Trump Organization and its executives engaged in a years-long scheme to avoid taxes — one that was sanctioned by the highest echelons of the company, according to Bloomberg.

Weisselberg, the prosecution’s central witness, reportedly received a $6,500-a-month apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and $10,000 for moving fees from the Trump Organization.

The lease shown to jurors on Tuesday noted that the apartment was meant to be leased by Weisselberg or other company employees and was signed by Trump himself, Bloomberg reported.

The Trump Organization has been indicted on accusations of providing company executives with perks to evade taxes. The former president himself is not charged in the case, although the presiding judge said last week that Trump and his three adult children may be called to testify.

However, the trial was brought to a halt later on Tuesday after Trump Organization controller Jeffrey McConney, the prosecution’s first witness, tested positive for COVID-19.

Temple shoves his paw in his piehole

I wrote:

No..that couldn't be ..Is it possible that Temple didn't read Obi's article? ...heh

Because his article said the same thing as Obi's article.. I busted on him for not bothering to read what was last posted on the thread before pasting essentially the same thing
...Then he writes:

Quote :

No. I do not read them..
It was sent to me and I shared it!

.... So he reveales that -not only doesn't he read recent posts...he doesn't read his *OWN* fucking posts... Who does that? .. At least *scan* through what you're posting forfuksake
... He admittedly doesn't watch videos either...especially from youtube..He claims they're not credible or some shit and responds to them based on the title ... Yet he'll post videos and, i guess he expects others to view them .. And if he's not reading what he's posting ya hafta wonder if he watches the videos he posts either

...I mean.. Temple's posting doesn't seem at all "normal" to me.. I believe most of us have a pretty good idea what we're putting on the board... Is he just a middle-man, relaying what an unknown "somebody sends him"?.. haha.. Stooge

Sounds like Trump did in fact "clean up" certain practices when he was told to.

Dems are wasting time and money with this lawsuit.

Trump Sues New York AG in Florida to Keep Control of Company
Joe Schneider and Robert Burnson - Bloomberg
Wed, November 2, 2022 at 8:29 PM

(Bloomberg) -- Former President Donald Trump sued New York Attorney General Letitia James in Florida seeking to stop her attempt to wrest control of his real estate company from him and obtain information about his finances.

In a complaint Trump says was filed Wednesday in state court in Palm Beach County, and which reads much like his posts on Truth Social -- his Twitter-like social media site -- Trump accused James of a “war of intimidation and harassment.” The complaint couldn’t be immediately confirmed on the court’s website.

James sued Trump and his three children in September, claiming they inflated the value of his real estate company’s assets. She’s seeking $250 million in disgorgement and to prevent his companies from doing business in New York. Last month she asked a judge to appoint an independent monitor to oversee the company before the civil case goes to trial.

“What began as a cartoonish, thinly-veiled effort to publicly malign President Trump for personal political gain has morphed into a plot to obtain control of a global private enterprise ultimately owned by a Florida revocable trust in which President Trump is the settlor,” Trump’s lawyers wrote in the complaint.

Trump claims James is violating his privacy by seeking details of his revocable trust. He asked for a preliminary and permanent injunction preventing James from getting a copy of the trust, or exercising any authority over it.

James’s press office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment sent after regular business hours.

The case is Trump v. James, Circuit Court of the 15th Judicial Circuit, Palm Beach County, Florida.

Trump’s Efforts to Hide Cash From NY AG Shot Down in Court
Jose Pagliery
Thu, November 3, 2022 at 1:55 PM

Donald Trump’s desperate attempts to escape the wrath of the New York Attorney General were halted Thursday, when a state judge there took the remarkable step of putting the former president’s company under court supervision—and preventing the billionaire from quietly shifting his money to avoid paying millions in fines.

Justice Arthur F. Engoron intervened at the AG’s request, ordering the appointment of an independent monitor to ensure that the company can’t secretly move assets out of the law enforcement agency’s reach or keep issuing fraudulent financial statements.

“There’s going to be a monitor,” he said in a Manhattan courtroom midday Thursday.

The Trump Organization—the real estate company that propelled Trump into international fame—and its family leadership are accused of engaging in a blatant and long-running bank and tax fraud scheme. Documents filed in court meticulously describe how Trump and the adult family members he made executives there—Don Jr., Ivanka, and Eric—persistently inflated the size and value of property to snag better bank loans and claim bigger tax breaks. They now face a $250 million lawsuit from New York AG Letitia James which seeks to cripple the corporation.

She hopes to put the Trumps on trial in 2023, just as Trump is expected to pursue his political ambitions in a return to the White House.

Trump has already taken actions that indicate he might be doing exactly what the AG fears: playing corporate games to avoid accountability.

In recent weeks, he opened a new corporation in the shell company capital of Delaware, comically called “Trump Organization II.” And on Wednesday, he filed a state lawsuit in Florida’s Palm Beach County against the AG’s office trying to keep it from ever accessing any funds he shelters in a legal entity known as a “trust.” The lawsuit seeks a judicial order “declaring that James has no jurisdiction over the assets of a Florida revocable trust.”

In court on Thursday, assistant attorney general Kevin Wallace stressed the importance of having Justice Engoron clamp down on the company, citing "ongoing fraudulent activities at the Trump Organization.” He argued that the AG’s office needs to have “general visibility” into the company so that it doesn’t become an empty shell by the time a trial ends—and it potentially has to pay millions in fines.

“It's not appropriate for us to take this matter to trial... and now we're looking for the first time at what a restructured company might look like,” he said.

Meanwhile, Christopher M. Kise, a Florida lawyer representing the Trump Organization, chalked up the entire lawsuit as a “manufactured bill of grievances,” given that the AG was pursuing a claim the company that was never made by its supposed victims—its major lender and accounting firm, Deutsche Bank and Mazars USA, respectively.

“There is zero public interest here,” Kise said. “The attorney general is representing Deutsche Bank, Mazars... these corporate titans have... some of the best attorneys in the country… they've never complained.”

Kise tried to cast any valuation issues as mere disagreements—the kind of dispute that happens everyday in business. But Engoron wasn’t having any of it, zeroing in on just one of Trump’s baldfaced lies.

In his first round of questions, Engoron began by asking if Kise knew the size of the Trump Tower triplex in Manhattan. Kise said no. The judge then turned to the AG’s office lawyers, who explained how building plans show it’s 11,000 square feet—and yet Trump filed documents claiming it was actually three times that size, roughly 30,000 square feet.

“Could that be a good faith disagreement?” Engoron asked.

“It certainly could be,” Kise shot back incredulously.

Engoron then highlighted how the Trump Organization benefited handsomely from that lie, having the AG’s office explain how the 20,000 square foot addition of nonexistent space blew up the real estate’s listed value according to the company’s own then-chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg.

“It led to a variation of what Mr. Weisselberg described as, give or take, $200 million,” Wallace said.

Engoron said that discrepancy "by itself is enough to justify the appointment of a monitor."

At this point, this lawsuit is one of a half dozen legal actions threatening the politically powerful Trump family. Trump himself could be hit with federal criminal charges for keeping classified information at his Florida oceanside estate of Mar-a-Lago, as well as state criminal charges for trying to intimidate a Georgia elections official into reversing his electoral loss there in 2020. Meanwhile, the company is currently defending itself at a criminal trial in Manhattan that accuses it of dodging taxes by showering executives with corporate luxury benefits off the books.

However, the AG’s lawsuit strikes at the heart of Trump’s image—and his wallet. James is attempting to kill the company by bleeding it dry. She’s seeking to hit it with a quarter billion dollars in fines and prohibit the company from operating in New York or raising money in what has become the financial capital of the world.

In court papers, the Trump Organization decried the lawsuit as a blatant campaign to “generate extensive press coverage on the eve of an election,” calling the attempts to exert control over Trump’s real estate empire as a “politically motivated attempt to nationalize a highly successful private enterprise.”

Since the lawsuit was filed, the Trumps have been scrambling to limit the potential damage by trying to get Justice Engoron kicked off the case. They’ve argued the case should be in New York state court’s commercial division rather than with Engoron, who typically presides over civil matters.

However, Engoron has refused to budge, saying he is best prepared to judge these issues given that he’s already intimately familiar with the AG’s investigation of the Trump Organization that led to the lawsuit. The Trumps spent three years trying to dodge deposition interviews with investigators and refusing to turn over documents, and it was Engoron who repeatedly had to issue court orders forcing them to comply with the AG’s subpoenas.

Just yesterday, Engoron issued yet another order rejecting their demands that he step aside, writing that “judicial economy strongly militates keeping this case with this court, which will continue to preside over it ‘without fear or favor.’”

Trump Firm’s Fraud Trial Sees Drama as Witness Declared Hostile
Patricia Hurtado and Greg Farrell | Bloomberg
Mon, November 14, 2022 at 5:48 PM

(Bloomberg) -- The criminal tax fraud trial of two Trump Organization companies saw some drama -- and a win for the prosecution -- as the firm’s controller was declared a hostile witness after being evasive on the stand.

The ruling, which prosecutors had unsuccessfully sought earlier in the trial, gives them more latitude in questioning Controller Jeffrey McConney, their own witness but one who so far hasn’t been very helpful to them.

Armed with the ruling, Assistant District Attorney Joshua Steinglass was free to needle McConney, and went on the attack.

“Did you ever say to Donald Trump, ‘Hey, the CFO is making me commit fraud?’” Steinglass asked, referring to longtime Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg.

“No,” McConney said, adding later that he was just following the directives of Weisselberg, who was his boss.

“I thought if I refused or started fighting back, I’d probably lose my job,” he said.

‘Unbelievably Evasive’

Prosecutors with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office are trying to show that allegedly abusive tax practices at the Trump companies weren’t a secret scheme hatched by McConney and Weisselberg, as the defense contends, but part of the firm’s business practices. Trump himself, who isn’t charged, has called the trial a baseless vendetta.

One unusual aspect of the case is the loyalty that some prosecution witnesses may feel to the Trump Organization. Weisselberg pleaded guilty in August and must testify truthfully for the prosecution in exchange for a sentence as short as 100 days in jail. But he remains on the firm’s payroll and has worked for the family since 1973, starting with Trump’s father, Fred Trump. And McConney still holds his controller job at the firm.

It all came to a head at a hearing outside the jury’s presence on Monday. Steinglass told the judge that McConney was being “unbelievably evasive” when questioned by prosecutors, after readily answering complex questions from Susan Necheles, a lawyer for Trump Corp., one of the two Trump companies charged with tax fraud and conspiracy.

“Your honor, now I think it’s fairly clear, both from his demeanor and answers, that he’s given them anything she wants to hear,” Steinglass said, gesturing to Necheles at the defense table. “He is being unbelievably evasive” in responding to the prosecution, “going back on what he’s saying, looking down, and he refuses to speak English.”

Stark Contrast

This time New York State Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan granted the request and declared McConney hostile.

“Now I see how he’s handling direct examination again, I think it’s very clear to the average observer that he’s very helpful to you,” Merchan told defense lawyers at the hearing.

In cross-examination by Necheles that began on Thursday and resumed Monday morning, McConney had easily answered the defense lawyer’s questions. He testified that he had spoken to or met with the lawyer four times during his days on the witness stand, including in the middle of questioning by prosecutors.

At one point during Necheles’s cross-examination, he even walked back testimony he gave last week that Weisselberg told him he had discussed with Trump using perks to reduce his reported salary -- the alleged scheme at the heart of the case.

McConney, who is testifying under a grant of immunity from the DA’s office, explained last week’s response by saying he hadn’t wanted to give prosecutors answers they wouldn’t like.

“I was afraid I wasn’t allowed to say anything other than what I’d testified before the grand jury,” he said.

“Were you worried you’d have a problem?” Necheles asked.

“Yes,” he said.

“Were you worried that prosecutors would claim you were committing perjury?” she asked. The judge told the jury to disregard the question.

“As you sit here today, do you believe Allen Weisselberg told President Trump?” she asked.

“No,” McConney said.

Dramatic Exchange

Fireworks ensued when Steinglass resumed his direct questioning of McConney, who began to falter and stammer as the prosecutor asked him why he had approved a $6,000 payment to Weisselberg’s wife, Hilary Weisselberg, who didn’t even work at the Trump companies.

“You know that wasn’t legal?” the assistant DA asked.

“I’m not sure it wasn’t legal,” McConney said.

“You’re not sure?” Steinglass asked, incredulously.

“You can issue a paycheck to anybody you want,” McConney said.

The exchange prompted Steinglass to ask that McConney be declared hostile. The designation sent a jolt of electricity through the trial, which has had its moments of drama but has often been focused on ledgers and spreadsheets.

On several occasions Monday, the prosecutor even poked fun at Necheles in front of the jury, making air quotes with his fingers when referring to her “cross-examination.”

The judge allowed him to do it, over the defense lawyer’s repeated objections.

The case is People v. Trump Organization, 01473-2021, New York State Supreme Court (Manhattan).