Kurt Eichenwald, writing in Newsweek, discovered that Donald Trump’s companies routinely destroyed emails that might prove incriminating, in defiance of court orders.
Over the course of decades, Donald Trump’s companies have systematically destroyed or hidden thousands of emails, digital records and paper documents demanded in official proceedings, often in defiance of court orders. These tactics—exposed by a Newsweek review of thousands of pages of court filings, judicial orders and affidavits from an array of court cases—have enraged judges, prosecutors, opposing lawyers and the many ordinary citizens entangled in litigation with Trump. In each instance, Trump and entities he controlled also erected numerous hurdles that made lawsuits drag on for years, forcing courtroom opponents to spend huge sums of money in legal fees as they struggled—sometimes in vain—to obtain records.This behavior is of particular import given Trump’s frequent condemnations of Hillary Clinton, his Democratic opponent, for having deleted more than 30,000 emails from a server she used during her time as secretary of state. While Clinton and her lawyers have said all of those emails were personal, Trump has suggested repeatedly on the campaign trail that they were government documents Clinton was trying to hide and that destroying them constituted a crime. The allegation—which the FBI concluded was not supported by any evidence—is a crowd-pleaser at Trump rallies, often greeted by supporters chanting, “Lock her up!”
TRUMP’S USE OF DECEPTION and untruthful affidavits, as well as the hiding or improper destruction of documents, dates back to at least 1973, when the Republican nominee, his father and their real estate company battled the federal government over civil charges that they refused to rent apartments to African-Americans. The Trump strategy was simple: deny, impede and delay, while destroying documents the court had ordered them to hand over.
Shortly after the government filed its case in October, Trump attacked: He falsely declared to reporters that the feds had no evidence he and his father discriminated against minorities, but instead were attempting to force them to lease to welfare recipients who couldn’t pay their rent.The family’s attempts to slow down the federal case were at times nonsensical. Trump submitted an affidavit contending that the government had engaged in some unspecified wrongdoing by releasing statements to the press on the day it brought the case without first having any “formal communications” with him; he contended that he’d learned of the complaint only while listening to his car radio that morning. But Trump’s sworn statement was a lie. Court records show that the government had filed its complaint at 10 a.m. and phoned him almost immediately afterward. The government later notified the media with a press release.Prosecutors responded to Trump’s affidavit by showing he had fudged his claim by using the term “formal communication”—an acknowledgment, they said, that he had received what only he would characterize as an informal notification—which they described as an intentional effort to mislead the court and the public. But the allegation slowed the case; it required government lawyers to appear in court to shoot down Trump’s false charge.
The Trumps had more delaying tactics. Trump announced in a press conference that his family and their company were bringing a $100 million countersuit against the government for libel; anonymous tenants and community leaders, he said, had been calling and writing letters expressing shock at the government’s “outrageous lies.” Once again, motions, replies and hearings followed. Once again, the court threw out the Trump allegations.For months, the Trumps ignored the government’s discovery demands, even though court procedure in a civil or criminal case requires each side to produce relevant documents in a timely manner. This allows for the plaintiffs or prosecutors to develop more evidence in support of their claims, as well as for the defense to gather proof to fight the case against them. When litigation is filed or even contemplated, scrupulous lawyers and corporations immediately impose document-retention programs or require that any shredding or disposing of records be halted. Courts have handed down severe sanctions or even criminal charges of obstruction of justice against executives and companies that destroyed records because they knew they were going to be sued.Yet when the government filed its standard discovery requests, the Trumps reacted as though seeking that information was outrageous. They argued in court that prosecutors had no case and wanted to riffle through corporate files on a fishing expedition. Once again, this led to more delays, more replies, more hearings…and another specious argument thrown out of court.
Six months after the original filing, the case was nowhere because the Trumps had repeatedly ignored the deadlines to produce records and answers to questions, known as interrogatories. When a government attorney finally telephoned a Trump lawyer to find out why, he was told the Trumps had not even begun preparing their answers and had no plans to do so. The Trumps also postponed and blocked depositions, refused to provide a description of their records, as required, and would not turn over any documents.
Why am I not surprised?
Well said AND only a PARTIAL list of Trump’s failings. He claims to be a great businessman but lost so much money he was not required to pay income taxes for something like 18 years. What a con artist!
Trump/Clinton – 2 sides of the same coin.
Therlo: Thanks for the comic relief. Trump is in a universe all his own, far, far away from HRC. Not even close.
Clinton does not race bait, she does not impugn and insult whole races and ethnic groups, she’s not a mysogynist, she does not demagogue and make wild unsubstantiated claims as Trump does.
Reblogged this on Lloyd Lofthouse.
Shocked again. All I know is wait for for Thursday or Friday I suspect Trump may be in for an October surprise. of BIBLICAL PROPORTIONS.
Therlo,
No, there are two coins that are completely different even if slightly similar. Trump’s coin lies more than 90 percent of the time, and is fraudulent and dirty in the extreme. His coin has been dragged through 4 to 6 bankruptcies and thousands of court cases and has been linked to major organized crime families.
Trump or one of his companies were plaintiffs in 1,900 court cases, and defendants in 1,450.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2016/06/01/donald-trump-lawsuits-legal-battles/84995854/
Trump has had ties to the major New York crime families.
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/05/donald-trump-2016-mob-organized-crime-213910
The Clinton coin has only been dragged through 8 scandals, and you can click on the link that follows the list to see how they each turned out.
Whitewater, 1992
Travelgate, 1993
Vince Foster Death, 1993
Paula Jones/Monica Lewinsky, 1994
Filegate, 2012
Benghazi, 2012
Clinton Foundation, 2015
Private Email Server, 2015
http://www.npr.org/2016/06/12/481718785/clinton-scandals-a-guide-from-whitewater-to-the-clinton-foundation
http://crooksandliars.com/2016/10/watch-out-donald-there-may-be-another
The Republican smear machine has been at it for a VERY long time. Or as The Rove playbook says, if you throw enough spaghetti at the wall, some of it is bound to stick.
Indeed. Why is there not equal coverage and equal investigation? The lack of tax returns, questions regarding Trump charities and the suggestion of Russian connections beg for answers. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-pence-emails_us_5817470ee4b0390e69d11e71
The saying goes ‘Those who accuse are usually guilty of the same if not even worse’.
Anything that sounds good without evidence, transparent process, and past performance is called LIP SERVICE.
“”Lip-service’s ”” PROMISES will always YIELD empty and dangerous results.
For instance GMO and GOP because we have bad crop and bad Republican Presidential Candidate whose lifestyle is extremely opposes to Republicans’ belief and ideology in Family value.
Please take a look at Donald Trump’s expression and remember that GOP controls both houses of Congress and Senator.
[start quote]
“”Mr. Trump intensified his sweeping claims of corruption in the American justice system.”” according to NYT on Monday, October 31, 2016.
From the article:
Hillary Clinton Tries to Move Past Email Issue; Donald Trump Revels in It
By ALEXANDER BURNS and THOMAS KAPLAN
Mrs. Clinton worked to campaign past the renewed controversy, as Mr. Trump intensified his sweeping claims of corruption in the American justice system.
[end quote]
Gullibility gives room for con artist to manipulate and to fabricate outrageous “”conspiracy theory'”‘ in order to cause the chaos and to confuse people’s judgment (=the ability to make considered decisions or come to sensible conclusions). Back2basic