Lawsuits Over The January 6 Riot
Two U.S. Capitol police officers sued Trump, for allegedly inciting the riots that took over the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Eric Swalwell filed a lawsuit against Trump, his son Donald Trump Jr., and two others of violating federal civil rights laws and local incitement laws after they spoke at a rally near the White House on January 6 before members of the crowd moved on to the Capitol.
Judith And Nicolas Jacobson
Now divorced, the Jacobsons were a married couple who previously owned a chandelier business in West Palm Beach, Florida. In 2004, Trump ordered three fixtures worth $34,000 for his Mar-a-Lago resort from them, but then refused to pay in full, saying the Jacobsons’ work was shoddy, WSJ reports. They denied this claim but facing endless legal wrangling, the couple settled.
“A review of Palm Beach County court records showed no other payment disputes involving Classic Chandeliers. The shop later closed. Mr. Jacobson died in 2015,” notes the WSJ.
Trump defends his history of payment disputes as simply the expected cost of being a tough negotiator in a cutthroat business. The WSJ article, in particular, offers Trump’s camp ample space to respond. They strongly defend the tactics as hard but fair , but the paper notes that they “stood out as particularly aggressive in the industry and in the broader business world.”
Will Trump’s treatment of contractors affect whether or not you decide to vote for him?
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Payments Related To Alleged Affairs
Adult film actress Stormy Daniels has alleged that she and Trump had an extramarital affair in 2006, months after the birth of his youngest child. Just before the 2016 presidential election Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, was paid $130,000 by Trump’s attorney Michael Cohen as part of a non-disclosure agreement , through an LLC set up by Cohen he says he used his own money for the payment. In February 2018, Daniels filed suit against the LLC asking to be released from the agreement so that she can tell her story. Cohen filed a private arbitration proceeding and obtained a restraining order to keep her from discussing the case. According to White House press secretarySarah Huckabee Sanders, Trump has denied the allegations.
In response, Trump said that he only knew about the payments “later on” Trump also said regarding the payments: “They didn’t come out of the campaign, they came from me.”
The Wall Street Journal reported on November 9, 2018, that federal prosecutors have evidence of Trump’s “central role” in payments to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal that violated campaign-finance laws.
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Trump Hotel & Casino Resorts 2004
Trump didn’t go back to bankruptcy court again until November 2004, when he filed to shed debt at his various Atlantic City casinos and a riverboat in Indiana. It was another quick trip through bankruptcy court the company shed $500 million in debt and emerged from bankruptcy the following May. Trump turned over majority control of the company to his bondholders but remained the largest single shareholder, and he once again kept control of the casinos.
Breach Of Contract Matters
2013
In 2013 Trump sued comedian Bill Maher for $5 million for breach of contract. Maher had appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and had offered to pay $5 million to a charity if Trump produced his birth certificate to prove that Trump’s mother had not mated with an orangutan. This was said by Maher in response to Trump having previously challenged Obama to produce his birth certificate, and offering $5 million payable to a charity of Obama’s choice, if Obama produced his college applications, transcripts, and passport records. Trump produced his birth certificate and filed a lawsuit after Maher was not forthcoming, claiming that Maher’s $5 million offer was legally binding. “I don’t think he was joking,” Trump said. “He said it with venom.” Trump withdrew his lawsuit against the comedian after eight weeks.
2014
2015
In 2015, Trump sued Univision, demanding $500 million for breach of contract and defamation when they dropped their planned broadcast of the Miss USA pageant. The network said that the decision was made because of Trump’s “insulting remarks about Mexican immigrants”. Trump settled the lawsuit with Univision CEO Randy Falco out of court.
Disputes with both chefs were eventually settled in April 2017.
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Eight Us Presidential Bankruptcies You May Have Missed
When we think of the office of president, we often think that only wealthy men can attain it. Barack and Michelle Obama have signed deals worth tens of millions of dollars, George W. Bush retired to his Texas ranch, Bill Clinton founded the Clinton Foundation, and Jimmy Carter still teaches Sunday school in Georgia. We have the idea that those who leave the office, and those who come to it, have little to worry about in terms of finances and comfort in their post-political years. However, while distinctly in the minority, at least eight presidents have experienced financial hardship and even presidential bankruptcies.
Stocks Bonds Funds And Similar Holdings
Trump’s personal financial market investment portfolio is concentrated in the financial and commodities markets. The investment portfolio generates income and cash flow from a variety of mechanisms as dividends, capital gains, and compounded carried interest. He invested a minimum of $70 million in stocks.Though real estate is still his most preferred asset class, Trump became an active financial market investor in 2011 following disappointment from the depressed American real estate market and various investments in the Federal Reserve’s interest yields on CDs were next to nothing. Trump stated that he was not enthusiastic to be a stock market investor, but that prime real estate at good prices was hard to find at that time and that stocks and equity securities were cheap and generating good cash flow from dividends. He profited from 40 of the 45 stocks he purchased which he sold in 2014, making it almost a 90% success rate in capital appreciation in addition to millions in earned dividends. The biggest gainers in his stock portfolio were Bank of America Corporation, The Boeing Company and Facebook, Inc earning a windfall profit of $6.7 million, $3.96 million and $3.85 million, respectively.
On a government form submitted in 2015, Trump reported holding an amount of physical gold, valued at between $100,001 to $250,000.
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Allegations Of Business Links To Organized Crime
Trump maintained a connection with organized crime members to supply the concrete for Trump Tower. According to former New York mobster Michael Franzese, “the mob controlled all the concrete business in the city of New York,” and that while Trump was not “in bed with the mob … he certainly had a deal with us. … he didn’t have a choice.”Mafia-connected union boss John Cody supplied Trump with concrete in exchange for giving his mistress a high-level apartment with a pool, which required extra structural reinforcement. Trump admitted in 2014 that he had “had no choice” but to work with “concrete guys who are mobbed up.” He further stated that “I don’t like getting close to people like that, but they respected me.”
Trump’s lawyer Roy Cohn represented several mobsters in the past such as Carmine Galante, John Gotti, Anthony Salerno, possibly also representing Paul Castellano and Vincent Gigante. Cohn allegedly used his underworld connection to help Trump build Trump Tower.
Journalists David Cay Johnston and Wayne Barrett, the latter of whom wrote an unauthorized 1992 Trump biography, have claimed that Trump and his companies did business with New York and Philadelphia families linked to the Italian-American Mafia. A reporter for The Washington Post writes, “he was never accused of illegality, and observers of the time say that working with the mob-related figures and politicos came with the territory.”
How Often Has Donald Trump Declared Bankruptcy
Donald Trumps business record seems riddled with unfortunate events. Despite never having filed for personal bankruptcy, reports state that he filed for business bankruptcy at least four times. But, according to Trump, businesses file for bankruptcy often, and it was a financially intelligent move. He added that hundreds of companies have done the same thing he did.
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Bankruptcy Is Not Synonymous With Failure
Although a corporate bankruptcy filing often indicates that a business is in a perilous financial condition, it doesnt necessarily sound the death knell for that business. The provisions of Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code allow businesses to find ways to reduce their debt and restructure their operations without having to be shut down and liquidated to satisfy debts instead of closing their doors, businesses can stay open, pay their employees, and take in revenue while developing a budget and a repayment plan for creditors .
Many of the United States largest and most prominent businesses have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection one or more times, including General Motors, Charter Communications, Delta Air Lines, Kmart, Macys, and the Texas Rangers baseball team.
Trumped: The Donald Has Filed For Bankruptcy Multiple Times What’s His Strategy And What Can It Teach You
With a net worth in the billions of dollars, you would never have guessed it. But, lo and behold, Donald Trump has filed his businesses for bankruptcy four times since 1991. Was this a mistake? Did the billionaire Trump make a fatal error that caused his corporations to collapse? Just the opposite, in fact. Trump says that every bankruptcy filing was strategic. He even goes further to expand his strategy to the business community, in saying that every high-level business man should take advantageous of the laws, including the laws of bankruptcy. To understand Trump’s decisions, we fist must understand the full situation behind his actions.
While Trump’s businesses have filed for bankruptcy Trump himself has never filed for personal bankruptcy. From 1991 onward, four of his businesses have filed for Chapter 11 restructuring. For a more in depth look at Trumps bankruptcies, take a look at a review of his bankruptcies. On a high level, here is how the Chapter 11 filings turned out:
1.Trump Taj Mahal, 1991
Trump had initially financed the establishment by selling north of $1 billion of “junk” bonds, with a promised return of 14 percent interest. When the economy tanked, the Trumpt Taj Mahal was over $3 billion in dept. What Trump then did, to make amends with his lenders, was giving up half of his ownership state and selling his plane and yacht.
2.Plaza Hotel, 1992
3.Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts, 2004
What then, were the factors that enabled Trump to create his fortune?
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Used Little Of Own Money
The New York Times, which conducted an analysis of regulatory reviews, court records, and security filings, found otherwise, however. It reported in 2016 that Trump “put up little of his own money, shifted personal debts to the casinos and collected millions of dollars in salary, bonuses, and other payments.
“The burden of his failures,” according to the newspaper, “fell on investors and others who had bet on his business acumen.”
Trump Contractors: ‘it Was The Beginning Of The End For Us’
Trump takes umbrage at the idea that he went bankrupt, always pointing out that he never filed personally and that he used the bankruptcy laws to get richer.
Connolly said taking his casinos into Chapter 11 was “reasonable and responsible” and the right decision for Trump and his bondholders.
“It looked like a fair deal and actually kept them going,” Connolly said.
But Mike D’Antonio, author of the book “Never Enough: Donald Trump and the Pursuit of Success,” said the bankruptcies shouldn’t come with bragging rights.
“Donald likes to say his bankruptcy filings were just a tool he’s been using for his businesses,” D’Antonio said. “He’s had a string of failures. And you’re not just talking about big investors. You’re also taking about bond holders, not big banks…people who invested their retirements.
“So, you can call it a legal tool that he’s using, but lots of people have been hurt along the way. Its been a badge of shame for him.”
Tom Winter is a New York-based correspondent covering crime, courts, terrorism and financial fraud on the East Coast for the NBC News Investigative Unit.
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Donald Trumps Business Failures Were Very Real
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Many of Donald Trumps tweets arent worth paying attention to, but on Tuesday morning he posted a pair that demanded inspection. Like many other people, me included, the President had apparently been reading a story in the Times that punctured the mythology surrounding his business career. Based on Internal Revenue Service transcripts of Trumps tax returns from 1985 to 1994, the Timesreport said that Trumps core businesses racked up losses of more than a billion dollars in a ten-year period. During 1990 and 1991, the story said, Trumps losses were so large that they were more than double those of the nearest taxpayers in the I.R.S. information for those years.
Trump could simply have ignored the report or dismissed it as old news. But, with cable-news networks featuring it prominently, and the Daily News, one of Trumps home-town papers, running the front-page headline BIGGEST LOSER, he did what he usually does and counterattacked. This is what he wrote on Twitter:
These are significant sums, certainly. But, as the Times article points out, depreciation charges arent nearly large enough to create the massive losses that Trumps businesses incurred. Some fraction of Donald Trumps losses can be attributed to depreciation, Susanne Craig, one of the authors of the Times piece, wrote in a , responding to Trump. We found most of it was just bad business.
What Is At Stake For Donald Trump Its Certainly Not Just The Election
The brilliant businessman must repay more than $400m within four years. Next weeks vote could determine whether he can
Going bankrupt once is unfortunate. Going bankrupt twice looks like carelessness. Driving your companies into bankruptcy six times, however, as Donald Trump has done, makes you a brilliant businessman.
That is according to the US president, anyway. Trump, a self-described king of debt, is proud of his multiple business bankruptcies, boasting frequently about how he has brilliantly exploited corporate bankruptcy laws in order to wriggle out of his companies financial obligations. Time and time again, Trump has managed to make others employees, investors and banks pay for his failures. Trump, who has never declared personal bankruptcy, has been able to protect his own assets and move on to the next fiasco.
But is Teflon Dons luck finally running out? With just days to go until the US election, Trump is facing a potentially crippling combination of financial stressors. His business empire has been hit hard by the pandemic according to a recent report by the Washington Post, Trumps golf clubs and hotels are practically empty. They were not doing that well before the pandemic: the New York Times investigation into Trumps taxes last month found his businesses were losing money at a staggering rate.
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Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist
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Trump Entertainment Resorts 2009
His most recent bankruptcy came in 2009, after the company missed a $53.1 million bond payment. That was pretty much the end of the road for Trump in Atlantic City. While his name remained on three casinos, he resigned from the board and gave up his remaining stake in the company.
“I had the good sense, and I’ve gotten a lot of credit in the financial pages, seven years ago I left Atlantic City before it totally cratered,” he said during the debate.
The two Atlantic City casinos that still had the Trump name filed for bankruptcy yet again in 2014. At the time Trump made sure people knew he was no longer running the company, and sued to have his name removed.
Trump Has Several Business Bankruptcies On His Record
Trump-controlled businesses have sought bankruptcy protection several times after those entities nearly all of them casino properties were several hundreds of millions of dollars or more in debt :
#1) Trump Taj Mahal : The Trump Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City opened in 1990, with Trump financing the completion of its construction with $675 million in junk bonds at 14% interest. By the following year the casino itself was in debt to the tune of $3 billion, while Trump himself owed some $900 million in personal liabilities.
In order to keep the Taj Mahal afloat, Trump struck a deal with his lenders in which he gave up half his ownership share and equity in the casino, sold his Trump Shuttle airline and his Trump Princess 220-foot yacht, and agreed to a bank-set limit on his personal spending in exchange for a lower interest rate and additional time to make his loan payments.
#2 and #3) Trumps Castle and Trump Plaza Casinos : Less than a year after the Taj Mahal bankruptcy Trump filed for Chapter 11 protection again for two more Atlantic City hotel-casinos, the Trump Plaza and Trumps Castle, over their inability to make principal and interest payments on bonds. The Plaza and the Castle were competing against each other, as well as against the Taj Mahal, and Trump gave up a 50% share in exchange for more favorable terms on the debts.
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