Well apart from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, President Donald Trump still has a lot to worry about. This past week, The Washington Post released documentation of his lengthy history of inflating his assets when it suited him via “Statements of Financial Condition” that although prepared by his accountants, used numbers submitted by the eventual president himself that were wildly disconnected from reality. For example, in 2011, he claimed to have 55 home lots for sale at his golf course in southern California — but in reality, there were only 31.
There are plenty more egregious examples of Trump’s blatant lies about his net worth via these documents, which were submitted to potential lenders and investors as an attempt to prop up Trump’s image. At one point, he claimed his family vineyard near Charlottesville, Virginia, had a full 2,000 acres, when in reality, it only stretches across some 1,200, and he claimed that Trump Tower in New York City was a full ten stories higher than it actually is, pegging it as 68 stories tall.
Besides the explicit fabrications, the documents also eventually left out key points that would have detracted from Trump’s apparent financial standing, like buildings in Chicago and Las Vegas that had significant mortgages taken out on them.
The lies have attracted the attention of investigators inside and outside of Congress, who are looking into whether the outlandish lies ever specifically garnered Trump financial benefit, which would constitute fraud.
His former personal lawyer Michael Cohen recently told Congress that one of the documents was submitted to Deutsche Bank in an effort to get them to support his bid to buy the Buffalo Bills football team with a loan, although that deal never went through.
They also went out to investors behind Trump-branded projects in Las Vegas and Chicago because, a Trump Organization lawyer explained at one point, the eventual president personally guaranteed those investments, meaning that if loans weren’t repaid, those responsible for them could go after his personal assets.
The New York state Department of Financial Services has subpoenaed Trump records from Trump’s reported longtime insurer Aon in a reported effort to see whether the fraudulent statements had ever been used to lower his premiums. The New York state Attorney General’s office has also subpoeaned Deutsche Bank and another Trump lender in the time since Cohen’s Congressional testimony. They’ve already repeatedly gone after the Trumps for fraud in efforts culminating in part in a lawsuit seeking millions in damages over their corrupt foundation.
Additionally, the House Committee on Oversight and Reform revealed this past week that it requested a full ten years worth of the documents from Trump’s longtime accountants, whose firm is now known as Mazars USA.
The company declined to specifically comment on Trump’s case. It’s one of a number involving allegations of corruption against the president; others include the multiple inquiries from federal and state investigators into his financially engorged inaugural committee and the illegal hush money scheme sending Cohen to jail. No matter what Mueller’s final report says, these issues continue to ensnare the president.
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