Tag: Trump Tower

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Crime Donald Trump Uncategorized

Former Prosecutor: FBI May Raid Trump Tower After Latest Revelations From Witness

FBI agents could well be on the verge of raiding Trump Tower in New York after the latest revelations from a witness that former president Donald Trump moved classified documents to his Manhattan skyscraper.

Newsweek reports that Neama Rahmani noted a Tuesday court filing suggesting that Trump kept presidential records at Trump Tower and his estate in Bedminster, New Jersey, may leave federal authorities with no other option other than a thorough search of the facilities.

“Prosecutors won’t know if classified documents still remain at Trump’s other homes unless they execute search warrants there,” Rahami explained.

Rahami added that she doesn’t think special prosecutor Jack Smith will take such an action this close to the election, but “that possibility exists, especially because Trump has failed to comply with lawfully issued subpoenas in the past.”

The court filing seems to confirm information provided to federal investigators by Trump’s former valet, Brian Butler, who says he helped the ex-president load boxes of documents onto the former president’s private plane in Florida which were then taken to New Jersey and New York.

“Butler told CNN last month that the plane was loaded on June 3, 2022, which was the same day Trump and his lawyer met with the Justice Department at Mar-a-Lago to discuss the missing classified documents.

“Butler said he later realized that the white boxes of documents were at the center of the federal indictment against Trump.”

The FBI raided Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach in August of 2022 to retrieve classified information that was stored there in direct violation of U.S. law. Trump is now facing charges for allegedly possessing classified documents and obstructing investigators who attempted to locate them.

If convicted for illegally taking the documents, Trump faces 10 years in prison on each of the counts he’s charged with.

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Crime Donald Trump Uncategorized

Legal Expert: Tish James Is About To ‘Put A Padlock’ On Trump Tower

New York Attorney General Letitia James may “put a padlock” on Trump Tower and other properties owned by failed former president Donald Trump, according to former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner, and the ex-head of state could also find his assets frozen and seized by the Empire State.

On Monday, attorneys for Trump told a judge they have been unable to secure a financial bond from any of the 30 companies they contacted about floating the $464 million needed for an appeal of the massive civil judgment handed down last month for crimes ranging from bank fraud to falsifying business records.

And that, Kirschner explained during an appearance on MSNBC, is the worst possible news for Trump.

“It would look like Tish James, figuratively speaking, putting a big New York state padlock on Trump Tower, for example,” he said.

“How does she extract the value from it, does she put it on the market? Does the state actually take possession of it and convert it to a state-owned property? I think the devil’s in the details with respect to how she will actually go about extracting the value to satisfy the half-billion-dollar judgment.”

Kirschner also noted that while Trump has bragged about being worth billions of dollars, he clearly doesn’t have the assets he claims.

“He is now being asked to put up a bond to secure basically a half-a-billion-dollar judgment, which would represent about one-twenty-eighth of his entire assets as Donald Trump [and his lawyer Alina Habba] say.”

If the disgraced ex-president was actually worth billions, Kirschner continued, “I would think insurance companies and sureties would be beating down his door to do business with him.”

“So it feels like this is perhaps the next-to-last step on the road to Donald Trump’s financial demise,” Kirschner said. “Because as we’ve been discussing, New York Attorney General Letitia James said she will absolutely begin seizing his properties to satisfy this money judgment that has been entered against him.”

The video, courtesy of RealClear Politics, can be viewed at this link.

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Business Donald Trump The Trump Organization

Trump Tower Tenants Refusing To Pay Their Rent And Moving Out

Not so many years ago, Trump Tower was one of the most prestigious addresses in all of Manhattan. There was 100% occupancy and a waiting list to rent even the smallest spaces in the building.

But those days are gone, and Trump Tower is now at less than 75% occupancy, the lowest level since 2013, and a sign that times are indeed tight for the Trump Organization, which is facing a major loan payment later this year, the Washington Post reports:

“In its midsection, Trump Tower is something more prosaic: a Manhattan office building, with 12 floors available for lease. The Trump Organization’s headquarters occupies two other office floors.

“The leased floors serve as part of the collateral for one of Trump’s biggest outstanding debts, a $100 million loan with the full amount due next year, according to data kept by the real estate analysis firm Trepp.”

One of the former tenants that went belly up, ironically, was Marc Fisher Footwear, which used to manufacture shoes that carried the name of Ivanka Trump:

“But earlier this year, the Trump Organization sued Marc Fisher Footwear for unpaid rent. The suit said the shoemaker had stopped paying rent in November 2020, and owed more than $1.4 million.”

One tenant, however, is indeed paying their rent on time and at an exorbitant rate: The Make America Great Again PAC, which rents the 15th floor of Trump Tower, providing $37,541.67 a month in guaranteed revenue for Trump and his company, which some suggest may be legal but is certainly not kosher:

“He’s running a con,” said Paul S. Ryan, a campaign-finance expert at the watchdog group Common Cause. “Talking about political expenses — but, in reality, raising money for self-enrichment.”

Then again, Donald Trump has always run a con. In his days as a real estate mogul, he was doing little more than leveraging properties with borrowed money so he could pay off other loans he owed to other banks.

It’d be tempting to call Trump’s entire life a giant Ponzi scheme, but that’d be an insult to anyone who ever ran one of those.