Donald Trump has rarely if ever taken responsibility for his actions. He uses charisma to charm his victims. If that does not work, he begins to bully them verbally, then sends a host of attorneys with litigation jaws gnashing after the victims. If all else fails, he uses others’ money to dig himself out of his problem. But it seems he has hit a steel wall.
His father bailed the ex-president out over and over again. The Trump siblings stole their dead siblings’ children’s inheritance. Donald Trump has stiffed small contractors, crushing their businesses, and attorneys alike.
One reason that the ex never gets caught is that he allegedly uses people around him to do his dirty work. For example, his personal attorney Michael Cohen was handed a three-year prison sentence for paying off the adult entertainment star his boss had sex with prior to the 2016 election.
Trump keeps trying different endeavors, failing again and again. He tried his hand in the housing market, and when that did not work out, he went to another market. He described 15 mansions in 2004 as, according to The Associated Press (AP):
‘[S]uper-high-end residential, the likes of which has never been seen on the East Coast.’
Trump bought one of the estates for $7.5 million in 1995, Seven Springs. It was not really his style. Now, the estate is at the center of two state investigations, which are not covered by his federal pardon, should it exist.
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. has opened a criminal probe around Seven Springs, and New York Attorney General Letitia James’ case is a civil inquiry. Trump has had a habit of devaluing his properties for tax purposes and inflating them for lending ones.
The ex managed to benefit from “an environmental conservation arrangement” in 2015 by $21 million, The Washington Post reported. The estate is shown as a “family retreat.” But the former president has not crossed its threshold since he took office.
Federal Reserve Chair and owner of The Washington Post Eugene Meyer built the mansion as a summer retreat in 1919. Trump hinted that his family was going to move into Seven Springs in 2006. They never did. Now, Eric Trump’s family uses it.
Former Manhattan prosecutor Duncan Levin said white-collar investigators follow the money:
‘While a tax issue related to a conservation arrangement might not be as sexy as a hush-money payment, prosecutors are likely to focus on any violation of law that they find. Remember, the authorities got Al Capone on tax evasion.’
Eric Trump is the Executive Vice President of the Trump Organization and president of the LLC (limited liability company) which holds the mortgage for Seven Springs. James’ people have already interviewed him.
They have also interviewed the former president’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Allen Weisselberg and the attorneys specializing in “land-use and federal tax controversies” that Trump used.
James subpoenaed the Commercial Real Estate Services firm Cushman & Wakefield. She has been seeking records that they generated working on Seven Springs. She also requested Trump Organization records: relating to its annual financial statements and the conservation easement.”
In addition, she “subpoenaed zoning and planning records in 2019 from the three towns Seven Springs spans.” Then, Vance sent out his subpoenas. A town clerk said:
‘[I]nvestigators were given “boxes and boxes of documents” in response. They included tax statements, surveying maps, environmental studies, and planning board meeting minutes.’
When Seven Springs was:
‘Brand new, the 28,322-square-foot dwelling featured more than a dozen bedrooms, an indoor swimming pool, a bowling alley and a tennis court. Meyer’s daughter, the late Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham, was married at Seven Springs in 1940.’
In Graham’s memoir Personal History, she wrote about being ambivalent about the place:
‘The older I got, the more I disliked the loneliness of the farm, but in my childhood days, it was, as I wrote my father when I was 10, “a great old Place.”‘
Back in 2009, Trump was breaking news by doing the outrageous:
‘He let Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi pitch his Bedouin-style tent on the Seven Springs property north of New York City because he had no other place to stay for a U.N. visit.’
A lawyer in the New York attorney general’s office, Michael Colangelo said:
‘If the value of the easement was improperly inflated, who obtained the benefit from that improper inflation and in what amounts?’
‘It goes without saying that the attorney general needs to see the records that would reflect the value of that deduction, as it flowed up to intermediate entities, and ultimately to Mr. Trump, personally.’
The Mueller Report Adventures: In Bite-Sizes on this Facebook page. These quick, two-minute reads interpret the report in normal English for busy people. Mueller Bite-Sizes uncovers what is essentially a compelling spy mystery. Interestingly enough, Mueller Bite-Sizes can be read in any order.
