• AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
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    9 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    After journalists revealed several years ago that former President Donald Trump was likely not as wealthy as he claimed, executives at his company scrambled to justify new allegedly inflated valuations, volleying around ideas like applying a “premium for presidential property” to certain assets, according to evidence presented during Trump’s civil fraud trial in New York.

    The internal deliberations began after Forbes magazine revealed in 2017 that Trump’s Manhattan triplex, or three-story apartment, was about a third of the size he had long claimed — about 11,000 square feet, instead of more than 30,000 — and thus far less valuable.

    And, New York Attorney General Letitia James claimed in her 2022 lawsuit, those high valuations were also personally important to Trump.

    Weisselberg acknowledged during his Tuesday testimony another directive he gave to former Trump Organization controller Jeffrey McConney that was intended to boost the value of properties: simply say some of them are worth 30% more.

    Attorneys for the defense have argued in filings that the company was within its rights to add so-called “brand premiums” to its valuations.

    Birney fired off a series of emails to the company’s bankers and others — some he said may have been dictated by Weisselberg — seeking information related to the values of various properties.


    The original article contains 727 words, the summary contains 211 words. Saved 71%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!