Highlights: Former President Donald Trump relied on a Forbes article to “prove” his net worth when placing a bid to buy the NFL’s Buffalo Bills – a decade-old business move that came under scrutiny during his New York civil fraud trial on Tuesday.
K. Don Cornwell of Morgan Stanley testified in court that Trump distributed printouts from Forbes regarding the highest-paid entertainers to affirm his financial standing to Buffalo Bills executives after claiming a net worth of over $8 billion in an offer letter. The former president refused to disclose financial statements to bankers involved in his $1 billion bid for the football team in 2014.
That’s actually devious. He submitted incomplete and false documentation to Forbes as evidence of his worth and then used a Forbes article to try to convince banks.
Because submitting incomplete and false documentation to Forbes isn’t a crime and trying to use a Forbes article as evidence of your finances isn’t a crime (though it is pathetic, embarrassing, and dumb) but taking out that middle step and submitting incomplete and false documentation directly to a bank is fraud.
That’s not really how crimes work afaik. You can’t just add an extra step and say you’re innocent. That’s like if I put a car in neutral at the top of a cliff and waited for someone else to bump into it and make it roll into somebody, then said they were guilty of murder, despite my intent clearly being murder/manslaughter.
I agree but we all know what you’ve described is exactly what trump thought.
I’m not too sure about the second part there. We can see if/how they pursue it, but I’m pretty sure using something like a Forbes article containing lies in order to lie in court testimony (or even to fraudulently enter into a contract is fraud.
He loves to skirt the line on these things. He’s watched so many mafia movies literally all of his lawyers have said that’s his technique. He doesn’t say “make fake votes,” he says “I need you to find some votes.”
That’s the level of criminal mastermind it takes to run the United States and the gop.
Because submitting incomplete and false documentation to Forbes isn’t a crime and trying to use a Forbes article as evidence of your finances isn’t a crime (though it is pathetic, embarrassing, and dumb) but taking out that middle step and submitting incomplete and false documentation directly to a bank is fraud.
pretty sure, that middle step is still bank fraud. Submitting information you know to be false is fraud. Doesn’t matter if there was an extra step or not. though the bank was pretty fucking stupid for accepting it- an that’s the crux of trump’s legal defense. (and his defense is hilariously bad.)
That’s actually devious. He submitted incomplete and false documentation to Forbes as evidence of his worth and then used a Forbes article to try to convince banks.
You are totally correct. I never thought of that, that man is a genius. Lying to one person and getting them to write my lies totally obfuscates my years of lying to everyone else. Simple genius.
Part of me wonders whether if the NFL would have just let Trump buy the Bills, if he would have been too busy hanging out with Ryan Fitzpatrick and Kyle Orton to run for President. Maybe us Bills fans should have “taken one for the team”…
Weird, I thought all the failing media was “fake news”.
Got your timeline mixed up Bubba.
Forbes was bigly financial media back then. Totally valid estimate of individual worth. Hell, I would’ve put it in a prospectus.
Until a Russian billionaire bought it. Now it’s fake news.*
* Trump is free to roll this back given, uh, recent, uh, circumstances. Caveat: Trump is not beholden to any sort of Russian influence. It is what it is. Coincidence. If he says that. I guess.
(Fuck me. I can’t even sustain the sarcasm and irony in this timeline. Agent 3733: Done here, punch me out, coming home. Let President Ocasio-Cortez I’ll be back for dinner.)
Pretty sure “intent to deceive” is on his face every day with that horrible tanner/bronzer makeup.
