Tag: Mar-a-Lago

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Crime Donald Trump Espionage

$3 Million Attorney Trump Brought In For Mar-a-Lago Case Has Already Been ‘Sidelined’: Report

Less than a month after he was hired and given a $3 million retainer to lead the defense for failed, one-term former president Donald Trump in the Mar-a-Lago stolen classified documents case, attorney Christopher Kise has been “sidelined” according to CNN.

Kise is expected to remain on Trump’s legal team but is not leading the work related to the federal government’s investigation into how the former President handled 11,000 documents seized from his Florida home in August following a lengthy effort by the government to retrieve them. The reason for the shift in Kise’s role remains unclear and he may instead focus his efforts on the other investigations Trump is facing, which range from his business practices to the January 6 insurrection.

Unlike many of Trump’s other so-called lawyers, Kise is actually a respect trial attorney who once served as solicitor general for the state of Florida and is considered to be an excellent white-collar attorney.

Before he came aboard, other lawyers on Trump’s team were perceived in legal circles to have made serious missteps in the investigation, such as not fully recognizing the legal risk of the documents investigation before the search of Mar-a-Lago, telling investigators all classified records had been turned over, missing opportunities to argue for executive privilege and having an appeals court deliver a drubbing against Trump’s bid to block classified documents in the investigation.

What exactly happened? That’s hard to say since neither Trump or Kise would agree to speak on the record regarding Kise’s sudden demotion from lead counsel to bystander, but knowing the ex-president, it probably involves Kise suggesting a legal strategy and being rebuffed by the Donald, who doesn’t know the first thing about the law other than he doesn’t think it applies to him or his family.

Among the other attorneys Trump has employed for the Mar-a-Lago case are former One America New Network host Christina Bobb, Florida insurance lawyer Lindsey Halligan, and Alina Habba, who’s main qualification seems to be that she was attorney for a parking garage company.

But hey, by all means, put the real lawyer on the bench, Donnie.

Categories
Crime Donald Trump The Trump Organization

NY Says Trump Inflated Value Of Mar-a-Lago By 10x – That Could Mean Seizure Of The Resort

When New York Attorney General Letitia James announced that she was filing a civil lawsuit against Donald Trump, his three eldest children, and the Trump Organization for fraud, one of the things she mentioned as an example of the alleged fraud committed involved the ex-president’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.

The Washington Post reports:

The lawsuit, filed in New York Supreme Court, is the result of a more than two-year investigation by James and names 23 properties in the Trump Organization portfolio, including his Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida, his Seven Springs estate in Westchester County, N.Y., and the D.C. hotel he leased from the federal government until he sold it in May.

“The inflated asset valuations in the Statements cannot be brushed aside or excused as merely the result of exaggeration or good faith estimation about which reasonable real estate professionals may differ,” it says.

Here’s how James explained the way Trump overvalued Mar-a-Lago:

And the suit says Trump valued his Mar-a-Lago club property in Palm Beach, Florida, on the false premise that it sat on unrestricted property and could be developed for residential use, even though he allegedly knew that asset was subject to a slew of tight restrictions.

Mar-a-Lago “generated less than $25 million in annual revenue,” James said. “It should have been valued at about $75 million, but it was valued at $739 million.”

But the real danger for Trump, his family, and his company is that James has a weapon at her disposal that would allow her to impose what’s know as the “corporate death penalty” in the Empire State, as was first reported by Business Insider last month:

Fines and back taxes, however, may be the least of what Trump’s facing. James has signaled she will also seek the dissolution of the business itself under New York’s so-called corporate death penalty — a law that allows the AG to seek to dissolve businesses that operate ‘in a persistently fraudulent or illegal manner.’

In the coming months, James will be turning up the heat on the Trumps. And by the time she’s finished, the Trump Organization could be nothing but a bad memory.

 

Categories
Crime Donald Trump Justice Department

Allies Warn Trump Releasing Surveillance Footage Of FBI Mar-a-Lago Search Could Doom Him

Disgraced former president Donald Trump says he may release surveillance footage of the FBI carrying out a search of his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, but some of his closest allies are warning him that doing so could backfire badly on him and all but guarantee he spends decades in prison.

CNN reports that the failed, one-term ex-president thinks he can use the footage as “leverage” against the Justice Department:

Some of Trump’s aides and allies have encouraged the former President to make some of the footage available to the public, believing it could send a jolt of energy through the Republican Party’s base. One person familiar with the conversations said there have been discussions about featuring the August footage in campaign-style ads, believing the footage could bolster Trump’s claims of political persecution.

Another person close to Trump said it’s not a matter of if the former President and his team release any of the footage, but when, noting it could be released before he makes a campaign announcement.

Such a move, however, might swing public opinion against Trump, with one adviser to the former president noting it could “backfire by providing people with a visual understanding of the sheer volume of materials that federal agents seized from his oceanfront residence, including classified materials.

“It’s one thing to read a bunch of numbers on an inventory list, it’s another to see law enforcement agents actually carrying a dozen-plus boxes out of President Trump’s home knowing they probably contain sensitive documents. I don’t see how that helps him,” said this person, who spoke to CNN on condition of anonymity in order the speak candidly.

It’s unclear exactly what such a video would show, but the possibility that FBI agents who carried out the search would be identified is especially troubling for the agency, which has seen a significant uptick in threats against its staff since the Aug. 8 event at Trump’s golf club.

Another negative possibility for Trump: Surveillance video might negate his claims that the FBI set him up by fabricating evidence, CNN notes:

But releasing the tapes could neuter some of the most conspiratorial excuses for the search that MAGA personalities have been circulating in recent days, including the baseless notion that the FBI planted evidence at Mar-a-Lago — a claim the former President himself has repeated and which there is no evidence to support, especially after Trump’s own lawyer signed off on the FBI’s seizure receipts at the end of the search.

Considering the many legal and financial failures Trump has had over the decades, the only safe bet is that whatever decision he makes regarding the footage will come back to bite him squarely on the ass.

Categories
Donald Trump Eric Trump WTF?!

Eric Trump Claims People Tried To Buy Him Dinner ‘To Apologize’ For FBI Search Of Mar-a-Lago

Eric Trump was a guest on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show Monday evening, and he claimed that two random people offered to buy dinner for him and his wife, Lara, “to apologize” for the FBI search of his father’s Mar-a-Lago golf club last week.

The ex-president’s son began by suggesting that the search had caused his dad’s popularity to skyrocket, according to Newsweek:

“It has caused the greatest fundraising, my father’s poll numbers have absolutely gone through the roof.

“They are not even talking about any other Republican candidates because they have all kind of disappeared, they are not even in the equation.”

Then came Eric’s claim about people wanting to pay for his meal:

“Last night I had an argument between two people who were trying to buy Lara [Trump, his wife] and I dinner to apologize for what the United States Government has done to our family.

“You wouldn’t believe the energy out there, I have been through all of these firestorms over the years, I have never seen America more mad than it is right now.

“There is only so many times you can cry wolf, people are not buying this sham in the country, they see the weaponization of the FBI.”

The rant continued:

“They are calling it the police state in this country, people get this for what it is. They have removed the wool from people’s eyes and people know exactly what is going on.

“They are targeting Donald Trump, they are targeting his family, everyone around him, his lawyers, anybody who is close to Donald Trump. Anybody who is effective, they are targeting right now and people understand this for exactly what it is worth.”

Polling data shows that Eric’s claims aren’t supported by facts:

Just about half of registered voters approve of the FBI search of Trump’s Florida compound. Predictably, those numbers diverge a bit when broken down by party affiliation — with an overwhelming majority of Democrats approving, and a strong contingent of Republicans disapproving.

Twitter users also had doubts that anyone offered to buy dinner for Eric and his wife.

https://twitter.com/JuneSongbird/status/1559530037174587392?s=20&t=0cDiINSM0lrqK16vot7AOA

Categories
Crime Donald Trump Jr.

Trump Claims The FBI ‘Stole’ 3 Passports From Him – Why Did He Have So Many?

A week after a search warrant was served at his Mar-a-Lago golf club in Palm Beach, Florida, failed one-term former president Donald Trump has now announced that the FBI “stole” his three passports.

On Truth Social (a.k.a Twitter for losers), Trump angrily announced that he was now without a valid passport:

“Wow! In the raid by the FBI of Mar-a-Lago, they stole my three Passports (one expired), along with everything else. This is an assault on a political opponent at a level never seen before in our Country. Third World!”

What Trump failed to note is that the State Department (or the FBI) can take back any U.S. passport anytime they want to, for any reason whatsoever. A passport, much like a driver’s license, is a privilege, not a right.

Why did Trump have three passports? Well, says one was expired, which is perfectly acceptable. But what about the second one?

Trump likely had a personal passport and a diplomatic one which he was given while in the White House. Now that he’s no longer president, the diplomatic one is no longer valid and should have been surrendered.

Why did the FBI take the passports? Probably because they feared the ex-president would try to flee the country.

Twitter users also had some thoughts on why Trump had multiple passports and what he might have wanted to do with them. Take a look:

https://twitter.com/AaronParnas/status/1559239130332143617?s=20&t=erKscDqojgb15gKIw44fjQ

Where was Donnie thinking of a traveling to? Well, Russia is said to be lovely this time of year.