I’ll say one thing about waking up in America each day — it is not dull. We are forty days out from a presidential election and the niece of the incumbent candidate for reelection, Donald Trump, just sued him, and his siblings, for cheating her out of her inheritance. The first line of her lawsuit reads, “fraud was not just the family business it was a way of life.” So we have seen. New York Times:
The suit, filed in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, accused Mr. Trump, his sister Maryanne Trump Barry and their brother Robert Trump, who died in August, of fraud and civil conspiracy. It seeks to recover the millions of dollars Ms. Trump claims to have lost.
In its first sentence, the lawsuit says that, for the Trumps, “fraud was not just the family business — it was a way of life.” Beginning in the 1980s, the suit contends, the president and his siblings took control of the New York City real estate empire their father, Fred Trump Sr., had built and “exploited it to enrich themselves” to the detriment of everyone around them.
Ms. Trump, 55, claims to be one of her family’s victims. Her suit describes a plot against her, broken cinematically into three separate acts: “The Grift,” “The Devaluing” and “The Squeeze-Out.”
It recounts a narrative that began in 1981, when Ms. Trump’s father, Fred Trump Jr., unexpectedly died, leaving her, at age 16, with a valuable minority stake in the family empire. The story ends nearly 40 years later, when Ms. Trump says she discovered, with the help of journalists from The New York Times, that President Trump and his siblings “used their position of power to con her into signing her interests away.”
My God. The lawsuit sounds like the script to that wonderful old Billy Wilder comedy, “The Fortune Cookie” starring Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau. If you never saw that, it’s the story of an ambulance chasing shyster, played by Matthau, who convinces his brother-in-law, Lemmon, to fake a personal injury accident and defraud the insurance company, i.e., fraud and civil conspiracy. Each act is entitled similarly, “The Set Up,” “The Con” and so forth. It’s black comedy at its finest, as is the Trump administration.
What’s next in this farce, Bill Barr coming forward to play Trump’s personal defense attorney — again?
I hope she wins. Mostly, I hope her aunt sees the light and gets with her on this.
I hope so, too. Maryanne Trump Barry has tried to distance herself from her brother, is my impression — and God knows I don’t blame her. But we are at a time in history where everybody who has knowledge of his malfeasance and his evil needs to stand up and be heard.
She went to significant lengths to distance herself from the Trump Org and Donald himself – publicly and professionally that is. She had no problem with taking the money however so I have zero sympathy for her. The only reason she resigned from the bench was to shut down an inquiry into her that would have exposed her financial ties and perfidy. By resigning she cut off that ethics inquiry which would have by all accounts placed her in legal jeopardy and it’s even money on whether she’d be on any pardon list. In fact, probably not because she could be squeezed by NY prosecutors on state charges to give up ole Donnie boy! I have no sympathy for her. She might have thought what happened with screwing over Fred Trump Jr. and his kids was wrong but rather than do something about it she just took the money. To hell with her.
I don’t see how Barr can save him from this. This happened long before he was president, so he can’t get it removed to federal court. Of course, that doesn’t mean he won’t come up some other creative way.
The same way he’s trying to make Carroll’s suit go away – it should be in state court, but he got Bilious Barr to concoct an excuse to make it a federal case. (The court should deny it.)
Good luck to Mary Trump. I hope Trump is f ing pissed.
Kayleigh McEnany turned it around, that Mary Trump is the fraudster for recording her aunt’s comments. I wonder if McEnany has read Dante’s Inferno? Seems to me there’s a place for liars. Buried up to their necks in shit, if I recall.
Mary has guts. Or as was said on a well known 70’s show about a strong woman – “spunk”. Love her and her book was quite enlightening.
Ed Asner, as Lou Grant, said that about Mary Tyler Moore, who played Mary Richards on her namesake show! I can’t wait to get my hands on a copy of her book!
Discovery anyone? Hahahahaha
I’m sure she’ll be subpoenaed…
Who?