Report: The Trump organization should pollute itself right now

Last month, New York Times reported that the Westchester County DA’s office had opened a separate criminal investigation into the Trump organization, believed to be focused in part on whether the company misled local officials about Trump National Golf Club Westchester’s property value with the express intention of lowering its tax bill. For example, in a year, city officials estimated the property at about $ 15 million, while the Trump organization claimed it was worth only $ 1.4 million. Meanwhile, Trump said on federal disclosure forms filed while he was president that the club was worth more than $ 50 million. Which is quite the discrepancy!

Of course, the idea that a company run by Donald Trump would claim that a property was worth significantly less than what local officials said it was should not come as any surprise. In February 2019, Michael Cohen, Trump’s former personal lawyer told Congress that in his experience, Trump “inflated his total assets when it served his purpose, such as trying to be listed among the richest people in Forbes, and deflated his assets to reduce his property taxes. “Cohen cited parts of documents known as the” Statements of Financial Condition, “which were revaluations of Trump’s real estate assets and debt, which Cohen said were intended to demonstrate his wealth, especially to lenders, who he wanted to lend him money.A month after Cohen’s testimony, the Post dived into such documents and found that they were filled with a comic number of lies.

In 2011, for example, a “Statement of Financial Condition” claimed that Trump owned 55 residential plots ready to sell for at least $ 3 million apiece on his golf course in Southern California. Yet, in reality, he had only been zoned to 31, which overestimates his future income by about $ 72 million. In a 2012 document, he added another 800 acres to the size of his 1,200-acre Virginia winery. In 2013, in an effort to bolster its bid for the Buffalo Bills, a two-page “Summary of Net Worth” conveniently omitted his ownership of two hotels in Chicago and Las Vegas, meaning that Post noticed, “some of Trump’s actual debt burden was hidden from anyone who read the statement.” In perhaps the most rude example of Trump’s “exaggeration,” he invented another 10 floors at the Trump Tower, claiming that the building was 68 floors, when in fact there are 58.

As Post noted Thursday, it is possible that the second grand jury could conclude without making further charges, but if the previous one is a guide, that may not be the case. The Trump organization did not respond Post‘s request for comment. Trump’s personal lawyers Ron Fischetti and Phyllis Malgieri declined to comment. In previous statements, Trump, his spokesmen and his family have dismissed any inquiry into the ex-president and his family business as politically motivated witch hunts. Last year, Erik Trump told Post, “This type of targeting and harassment violates any ethical guideline of a prosecutor. That is wrong.”

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