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| Early 1990s: Trump Organization is $3.4 Billion in Debt | ||
Many of Trump’s businesses spent the 1990s on the verge of collapse. Abraham Wallach, who became the Trump Organization’s executive vice president for acquisitions in 1990, comparedjoining the company to “getting on the Titanic just before the women and children were moved to the lifeboats.” In 1990, the Trump Organization was reportedly $3.4 billion in debt, with Trump himself liable for over $800 million; the next year, as several of Trump’s hotels and casinos reportedly accumulated millions in debt, the New Jersey Casino Control Commission concluded, “Mr. Trump cannot be considered financially stable.” In 1992, Trump defaulted on the debt of his airline, Trump Shuttle, turning it over to U.S. Airways. Even as Trump broke ground on Trump World Tower in 1998, he was “renegotiating $1.8 billion in junk bonds for his Atlantic City resorts, and the tower was built on a mountain of debt owed to German banks.”
In Trump’s own telling, his fortunes turned around in 1995, when Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts, the company through which he owned and operated many of his properties in Atlantic City and elsewhere, held an initial public offering. In truth, Trump’s financial struggles continued. Contrary to Trump’s own lofty predictions—he mused to Vanity Fair’s Edward Klein that the IPO might raise $4 billion—he only managed to raise $140 million; meanwhile, according to his tax returns from that year (which remain the only of Trump’s tax returns available to the public), Trump declared a loss of nearly $916 million. His businesses continued to struggle, with his casinos posting $66 million in losses by the end of 1996 and another $42 million in 1997. The problems lasted well into the 2000s: Trump’s flagship companies declared bankruptcy in both 2004 and 2009, with Trump resigning from his position as head of the board of Trump Entertainment Resorts in 2009.
Compounding Trump’s financial problems was the Wall Street stigma his business failures attracted. The Guardian has reported that, in the 1990s, “Wall Street banks, which had previously extended him credit, turned off the tap;” according to The New York Times, bankers went so far as to coin the phrase “Donald risk” to describe the widespread aversion to lending to Trump. In 2013, one banker told The Atlantic, “If a major institution in New York—whether it was a Chase or a Goldman or a law firm or something—wanted to have a building built … I can give you almost 100 percent assurance that Donald would not be on the list.”
Amid these financial struggles, Trump turned to two notable sources of capital: Deutsche Bank and Bayrock Group. In 1998, Deutsche Bank provided Trump $125 million to renovate an office building at 40 Wall Street. More deals followed, with the bank providing or underwriting $1.3 billion to Trump entities over the next few years. Trump’s relationship with Deutsche Bank has not always been amicable; in November 2008, he had difficulty making payments on a $640 million Deutsch Bank loan – $40 million of which he guaranteed personally – he took out to finance the construction of the Trump tower in Chicago. He sued the bank for $3 billion, alleging it was partially responsible for the global financial crisis and, by extension, Trump’s inability to repay the loan (the case was ultimately settled). Trump’s connection to Deutsche Bank is particularly notable because the institution has been at the center of schemes to help Russians secretly funnel money offshore, for which it paid “about $630 million in penalties … over a $10 billion Russian money-laundering scheme that involved its Moscow, New York and London branches.”
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| Trump’s Empire: A Maze of Debts and Opaque Ties | ||
On the campaign trail, Donald J. Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, has sold himself as a businessman who has made billions of dollars and is beholden to no one.
But an investigation by The New York Times into the financial maze of Mr. Trump’s real estate holdings in the United States reveals that companies he owns have at least $650 million in debt — twice the amount than can be gleaned from public filings he has made as part of his bid for the White House. The Times’s inquiry also found that Mr. Trump’s fortunes depend deeply on a wide array of financial backers, including one he has cited in attacks during his campaign.
For example, an office building on Avenue of the Americas in Manhattan, of which Mr. Trump is part owner, carries a $950 million loan. Among the lenders: the Bank of China, one of the largest banks in a country that Mr. Trump has railed against as an economic foe of the United States, and Goldman Sachs, a financial institution he has said controls Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee, after it paid her $675,000 in speaking fees.
Real estate projects often involve complex ownership and mortgage structures. And given Mr. Trump’s long real estate career in the United States and abroad, as well as his claim that his personal wealth exceeds $10 billion, it is safe to say that no previous major party presidential nominee has had finances nearly as complicated.
As president, Mr. Trump would have substantial sway over monetary and tax policy, as well as the power to make appointments that would directly affect his own financial empire. He would also wield influence over legislative issues that could have a significant impact on his net worth, and would have official dealings with countries in which he has business interests.
Yet The Times’s examination underscored how much of Mr. Trump’s business remains shrouded in mystery. He has declined to disclose his tax returns or allow an independent valuation of his assets.
Earlier in the campaign, Mr. Trump submitted a 104-page federal financial disclosure form. It said his businesses owed at least $315 million to a relatively small group of lenders and listed ties to more than 500 limited liability companies. Though he answered the questions, the form appears to have been designed for candidates with simpler finances than his, and did not require disclosure of portions of his business activities.
Beyond finding that companies owned by Mr. Trump had debts of at least $650 million, The Times discovered that a substantial portion of his wealth is tied up in three passive partnerships that owe an additional $2 billion to a string of lenders, including those that hold the loan on the Avenue of the Americas building. If those loans were to go into default, Mr. Trump would not be held liable, the Trump Organization said. The value of his investments, however, would certainly sink.
Mr. Trump has said that if he were elected president, his children would be likely to run his company. Many presidents, to avoid any appearance of a conflict, have placed their holdings in blind trusts, which typically involves selling the original asset, and replacing it with different assets unknown to the seller.
Mr. Trump’s children seem unlikely to pursue that option.
Richard W. Painter, a professor of law at the University of Minnesota and, from 2005 to 2007, the chief White House ethics lawyer under President George W. Bush, compared Mr. Trump to Henry M. Paulson Jr., a former chief executive of Goldman Sachs whom Mr. Bush appointed as Treasury secretary.
Professor Painter advised Mr. Paulson on his decision to sell his Goldman Sachs shares, saying it was clear that Mr. Paulson could not simply have placed that stock in trust and pretended it did not exist.
If Mr. Trump were to use a blind trust, the professor said, it would be “like putting a gold watch in a box and pretending you don’t know it is in there.”
‘We Overdisclosed’
“I am the king of debt,” Mr. Trump once said on CNN. “I love debt.” But in his career, debt has sometimes gotten the better of him, leading to at least four business bankruptcies.
He is, however, quick to stress that these days his companies have very little debt.
Mr. Trump indicated in the financial disclosure form he filed in connection with this campaign that he was worth at least $1.5 billion, and has said publicly that the figure is actually greater than $10 billion. Recent estimates by Forbes and Fortune magazines and Bloomberg have put his worth at less than $5 billion.
To gain a better understanding of Mr. Trump’s holdings and debt, The Times engaged RedVision Systems, a national property information firm, to search publicly available data on more than 30 properties in the United States. The Times identified these assets through Federal Election Commission filings, information provided by the Trump Organization and records, such as filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The search covered thousands of pages of public information, including loan documents, land leases and property deeds. It concentrated on Mr. Trump’s commercial holdings, including office towers, golf courses, a vineyard in Virginia and even an industrial building in South Carolina that he ended up with after a troubled business venture involving Donald Trump Jr. The inquiry also examined some of Mr. Trump’s residential properties, including his penthouse apartment on Fifth Avenue and a house he owns in Beverly Hills, Calif. The examination did not include Mr. Trump’s dealings outside the United States.
That Mr. Trump seems to have so much less debt on his disclosure form than what The Times found is not his fault, but rather a function of what the form asks candidates to list and how.
The form, released by the Federal Election Commission, asks that candidates list assets and debts not in precise numbers, but in ranges that top out at $50 million — appropriate for most candidates, but not for Mr. Trump. Through its examination, The Times was able to discern the amount of debt taken out on each property, and its ownership structure.
At 40 Wall Street in Manhattan, a limited liability company, or L.L.C., controlled by Mr. Trump holds the ground lease — the lease for the land on which the building stands. In 2015, Mr. Trump borrowed $160 million from Ladder Capital, a small New York firm, using that long-term lease as collateral. On his financial disclosure form that debt is listed as valued at more than $50 million.
Allen Weisselberg, chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, said that Mr. Trump could have left the liability section on the form blank, because federal law requires that presidential candidates disclose personal liabilities, not corporate debt. Mr. Trump, he said, has no personal debt.
“We overdisclosed,” Mr. Weisselberg said, explaining that it was decided that when a Trump company owned 100 percent of a property, all of the associated debt would be disclosed, something that he said went beyond what the law required.
Filing Taken at ‘Face Value’
For properties where a Trump company owned less than 100 percent of a building, Mr. Weisselberg said, those debts were not disclosed.
Mr. Trump, for example, has a 50 percent stake in the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas. In 2010, the company that owns the hotel refinanced a $190 million loan, according to Real Capital Analytics, a commercial real estate data and analytics firm.
Mr. Weisselberg said that a Trump entity was responsible for half the debt, and that all but $6.4 million of the loan had been paid off.
The Times found three other instances in which Mr. Trump had an ownership interest in a building but did not disclose the debt associated with it. In all three cases, Mr. Trump had passive investments in limited liability companies that had borrowed significant amounts of money.
One of these investments involves an office tower at 1290 Avenue of Americas, near Rockefeller Center. In a typically complex deal, loan documents show that four lenders — German American Capital, a subsidiary of Deutsche Bank; UBS Real Estate Securities; Goldman Sachs Mortgage Company; and Bank of China — agreed in November 2012 to lend $950 million to the three companies that own the building. Those companies, obscurely named HWA 1290 III LLC, HWA 1290 IV LLC and HWA 1290 V LLC, are owned by three other companies in which Mr. Trump has stakes.
Ultimately, through his investments, Mr. Trump is a 30 percent owner of the building, records show. Vornado Realty Trust owns the other 70 percent and is the controlling partner.
A similar ownership structure is in place at 555 California Street in San Francisco, formerly the Bank of America Center. There, Pacific Life Insurance Company and Metropolitan Life Insurance Company lent $600 million in 2011 to a limited liability company of which Vornado owns 70 percent and Mr. Trump owns 30 percent.
Green Street Advisors, a real estate research firm, estimates the combined value of the two buildings to be about $3.7 billion.
On a smaller scale, Mr. Trump also has a 4 percent partnership interest in a company that has an interest in a large Brooklyn housing complex, and owes roughly $410 million to Wells Fargo, according to Bloomberg data.
The full terms of Mr. Trump’s limited partnerships are not known. The current value of the loans connected to them is roughly $1.95 billion, according to various public documents.
Mr. Weisselberg, the Trump Organization’s chief financial officer, said that neither Mr. Trump nor the company were responsible for the debt associated with the limited partnerships.
Still, as with all of the properties in which Mr. Trump holds an interest, the value of the buildings as well as the terms and magnitude of their debt could have a major impact on his personal fortune.
Mr. Trump, Mr. Weisselberg added, was liable for a “small percentage of the corporate debt” listed on the federal filing but would not elaborate.
Other instances in which Mr. Trump could be personally responsible can be found in public filings. He guaranteed as much as $26 million for the loan taken out against his land lease at 40 Wall Street, money the lender could take if certain things went wrong.
The United States Office of Government Ethics, which reviewed Mr. Trump’s financial filing before the F.E.C. released it, said it does not comment on submissions by individual candidates.
The agency’s procedures for staff members reviewing presidential submissions, a copy of which was obtained by The Times through a Freedom of Information Act request, say the Office of Government Ethics does not audit reports for accuracy.
“Disclosures are to be taken at ‘face value’ as correct, unless there is a patent omission or ambiguity or the official has independent knowledge of matters outside the report,” the procedures say.
A Web of Investments
Tracing the ownership of many of Mr. Trump’s buildings can be a complicated task. Sometimes he owns a building and the land underneath it; sometimes, he holds a partial interest or just the commercial portion of a property.
And in some cases, the identities of his business partners are obscured behind limited liability companies — raising the prospect of a president with unknown business ties.
At 40 Wall Street, Mr. Trump does not own even a sliver of the actual land; his long-term ground lease gives him the right to improve and manage the building. The land is owned by two limited liability companies; Mr. Trump pays the two entities a total of $1.6 million a year for the ground lease, according to documents filed with the S.E.C.
The majority owner, 40 Wall Street Holdings Corporation, owns 80 percent of the land; New Scandic Wall Limited Partnership owns the rest, according to public documents. New Scandic Wall Limited Partnership’s chief executive is Joachim Ferdinand von Grumme-Douglas, a businessman based in Europe, according to these documents.
The people behind 40 Wall Street Holdings are harder to identify. For years, Germany’s Hinneberg family, which made its fortune in the shipping industry, controlled the property through a company called 40 Wall Limited Partnership. In late 2014, their interest in the land was transferred to a new company, 40 Wall Street Holdings. The Times was not able to identify the owner or owners of this company, and the Trump Organization declined to comment.
Mr. Trump has long-term ground leases on several other properties, including a golf course in New York’s Hudson Valley and retail space in Midtown Manhattan. Private owners are also behind these leases, their identities sometimes obscured by L.L.C.s.
Mr. Trump’s status in these situations is indicated by the word tenant, which is listed under his signature on many of the relevant documents.
Mr. Trump also holds a ground lease on the almost-completed Trump International Hotel in the Old Post Office building in Washington, a few blocks from the White House. The federal government, which owns the land, gave a 60-year lease to Trump Old Post Office, a limited liability company controlled by Mr. Trump and members of his family. In return, the government receives a minimum of $3 million a year from the company.
Mr. Weisselberg said that despite his holdings, Mr. Trump should not be held to the same standards that might apply to the heads of companies in highly regulated industries.
“If you take away all the fancy stuff and so on and so forth, and the five-star ratings, you are basically down to a closely held family-run business that is fundamentally different from IBM or Exxon,” Mr. Weisselberg said, quoting from an email he had received from Donald F. McGahn, a lawyer and former chairman of the F.E.C. who advised Mr. Trump on his federal filing. Mr. McGahn did not return calls for comment.
Others disagree. Mr. Trump’s opaque portfolio of business ties makes him potentially vulnerable to the demands of banks, and to business people in the United States and abroad, said Professor Painter, the former chief White House ethics lawyer.
“The success of his empire depends on an ability to get credit, to get loans extended to his business entities,” he said. “And we simply don’t know a lot about his financial dealings, here or around the world.”
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| trump finances and debt - Google Search | ||
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| Trump Investigations: 1:33 PM 1/22/2019 - Michael Novakhov - SharedNewsL... trumpinvestigations.blogspot.com/2019/01/133-pm… | ||
Trump Investigations: 1:33 PM 1/22/2019 - Michael Novakhov - SharedNewsL... trumpinvestigations.blogspot.com/2019/01/133-pm…
Posted by
 mikenov on Tuesday, January 22nd, 2019 5:36pm | ||
| Politics: White House seeks walk-through for State of the Union | ||
The request is the latest move in the standoff between Trump and Pelosi over timing and place of presidential address during the shutdown.    | ||
| Russian pop singer linked to Trump cancels US concerts - FRANCE 24 | ||
Russian pop singer linked to Trump cancels US concerts FRANCE 24
Moscow (AFP). A Russian pop singer who helped set up a controversial meeting between Donald Trump's team and a Russian lawyer during the 2016 election ...
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| "Russian Intelligence services" - Google News: For foreigners in Russia, documents can be dangerous - Stars and Stripes | ||
For foreigners in Russia, documents can be dangerous Stars and Stripes
A lot has changed in Moscow since 1986, when newsman Nicholas Daniloff was arrested, but the case of Paul Whelan — another American arrested after ...
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| Model Who Claimed to Have Dirt on Paul Manafort-Linked Russian Billionaire Just Got Out of Jail - Law & Crime | ||
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| President Trump slams DOJ probes after top FBI lawyer confirms 'unusual steps' - One America News Network | ||
President Trump slams DOJ probes after top FBI lawyer confirms 'unusual steps' One America News Network
President Trump is calling out the federal investigations into his 2016 campaign after recent testimony by an FBI lawyer confirmed the agency went outside the ...
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| "Russian Intelligence services and international organized crime" - Google News: For oligarchs or Mafiosi, obtaining a Bulgarian passport is easy and cheap - EURACTIV | ||
For oligarchs or Mafiosi, obtaining a Bulgarian passport is easy and cheap EURACTIV
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| Lawfare - Hard National Security Choices: Today's Headlines and Commentary | ||
A Taliban attack on an Afghanistan military intelligence base outside of Kabul killed more than 40 people on Monday, resulting in another major defeat for the Afghan army, the BBC details.
The Trump administration’s decision to relieve sanctions on companies owned by Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, which the administration touted as requiring major concessions from Russia, actually included debt-relief provisions and other major benefits for Deripaska, the New York Times reports.
Rudy Giuliani claimed Monday that President Trump could not recall whether the Trump Tower Moscow project continued into the election, walking back comments he made on Sunday that negotiations lasted through October or November, according to CNN.
An Iraqi scientist, now in Kurdish custody, admitted to assisting the Islamic State in chemical weapons production, reports the Washington Post.
The Russian lawyer for Paul Whelan, the former Marine held in Moscow on espionage charges since December, says his client was handed a flash drive containing Russian state secrets before his arrest, the Post details.
The U.S. will seek formal extradition of Meng Wanzhou, an executive of the Chinese telecom giant Huawei, following her December arrest in Canada for her alleged involvement with violations of U.S. sanctions on Iran, according to Reuters.
In two 5-4 decisions, the Supreme Court stayed district court injunctions in two cases challenging the Trump administration’s ban on transgender people serving in the military. Lawfare shared the orders.
A panel of judges for the D.C. Circuit heard oral arguments on Tuesday morning in the al-Nashiri case. For background, see this McClatchy report from November 2018.
ICYMI: Over the Long Weekend on Lawfare
Jen Patja Howell posted Saturday’s Lawfare Podcast, in which Benjamin Wittes spoke with Ian Bassin of Protect Democracy on the proper role of litigation in protecting democratic norms.
Morgan Kaplan unpacked some of the policy challenges of the “by, with, and through” approach of U.S. and partner-force operations for this week’s Foreign Policy Essay.
In response to Laurence Tribe, Bob Bauer analyzed the Senate’s obligations to try an impeachment case in the instance the House votes to impeach.
Email the Roundup Team noteworthy law and security-related articles to include, and follow us on Twitter and Facebook for additional commentary on these issues. Sign up to receive Lawfare in your inbox. Visit our Events Calendar to learn about upcoming national security events, and check out relevant job openings on our Job Board.
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| Who is Michael Cohen's father-in-law? Trump says he should be investigated washingtonexaminer.com/news/who-is-mi… | ||
Who is Michael Cohen's father-in-law? Trump says he should be investigated washingtonexaminer.com/news/who-is-mi…
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mikenov on Tuesday, January 22nd, 2019 6:24pm | ||
| michael cohen father in law - Google Search | ||
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| michael cohen father in law - Google Search | ||
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| michael cohen father in law - Google Search | ||
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| Michael Cohen’s Family: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know | ||
Instagram/Samantha Cohen Michael Cohen, his wife, Laura, and his daughter, Samantha.
Michael Cohen, the former personal lawyer of President Donald Trump, is married with a daughter and son, who both attended his sentencing. He is also the son of a Holocaust survivor.
Cohen’s two children, Samantha Cohen and her brother, Jake, accompanied Michael Cohen to court in New York City on December 12, 2018, where he was sentenced to three years in prison for lying to Congress.
Cohen is alleged to have paid Stormy Daniels, who claims the money was to buy her silence over what she described as an affair with Trump.
Here’s what you need to know:
1. Cohen’s Wife Is From Ukraine & They’ve Been Married for Two Decades
Cohen’s wife, Laura Cohen, is Ukrainian. In a statement he gave to the U.S. Senate, Cohen said, “My wife and I have been married for 23 years, and are now entering into the season of our lives when we get to watch our children become adults themselves. My daughter, who is at an Ivy League school, and my wife, who is of Ukrainian descent, have especially been subjected to harassment, insults and threats … some so severe I cannot share them in mixed company.”
Cohen also discussed his son, saying, “I was in Los Angeles with my son who dreams of playing division 1 baseball next year at a prestigious university like USC. We were visiting the campus, meeting with various coaches, and discussing his future. Media sources have been able to confirm these facts and I can provide you with proof.”
Cohen owns a series of taxi medallions that might may have played a role in the FBI’s search. They own “at least 34 medallions through 17 LLCs,” according to The Real Deal. According to Buzzfeed, “Cohen, his wife and his in-laws hold a stake in more than 15 colorfully named taxi companies such as Golden Child Cab Corp. and Smoochie Cab Corp.” Buzzfeed reported that Cohen’s father-in-law, Fima Shusterman, “has been in the taxi business for decades, and was charged in the early 1990s with knowingly conspiring to defraud the IRS as part of a money laundering and tax fraud scheme.”
2. His Brother Bryan Helped Run a Financial Company in Ukraine
GettyMichael Cohen, a personal attorney for President Trump, departs from a House Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill
Cohen has links to the Ukraine. His younger brother, Bryan, is also married to a Ukrainian woman. The brothers “were directors of International Ethanol of Ukraine, according to 2006 filings,” Newsweek reported.
According to Buzzfeed, before he became Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen “worked on behalf of a company controlled by …Viktor Topolov, a politician whose associates are members of the Russian and Ukrainian underworld.” Buzzfeed reported that Topolov “has also been investigated twice for money laundering and embezzlement,” and owned an ethanol company “with his longtime business partner, Alex Oronov.”
Bryan Cohen is married to Oronov’s daughter, according to Buzzfeed, which added that Cohen insisted he had only played a “small role” in the company. Here is the document that lists Michael Cohen’s ties to the company.
3. Cohen Shared a Controversial Photo of His Daughter Wearing Lingerie
Michael Cohen shared what some considered a cringe-worthy photo of his adult daughter wearing black lingerie. “So proud of my Ivy League daughter… brains and beauty channeling her Edie Sedgwick,” he wrote on Twitter with the photo of his daughter Samantha, then 21.
The tweet caused a firestorm on social media with some people accusing Cohen of being creepy. According to BBC, when a Twitter user wrote Cohen, “Most fathers don’t post lingerie shots of their daughters. I guess #Trump must be rubbing off on you,” Cohen retorted, “Beauty and brains you a-hole! It’s a modeling shot remake from an old Edie Sedgwick photo. #hater.”
On Instagram, Samantha Blake Cohen listed herself as “UPenn ‘18.” With one Instagram photo, she wrote, “My dad made me stand here because I match the wall
 .” Her posts showcase a glamorous life. “Another day another Cabernet,” she wrote with one Instagram photo.4. Cohen’s Daughter Called Him ‘the Best Dad in the Whole World’
On Instagram, Samantha Cohen wrote, “Happy birthday to the best dad in the whole world !!!
   ” She captioned another photo, “fam, fam.”
In 2016, she posted another photo with her dad and wrote, “Happy Birthday to the best dad in the whole wide world !!!!!!!!!!!!! 50 never looked so good
 ”5. Cohen’s Father Survived the Holocaust
GettyDonald Trump has called the raid on Michael Cohen’s offices a “disgraceful situation.”
A 2011 profile by ABC News reported that Cohen was raised on Long Island. “His mother was a nurse and his father was a surgeon who escaped a Nazi concentration camp with his family during World War II,” the story reported.
He was first introduced to politics as a child when his parents’ neighbor “invited him to walk precincts with New York Mayor John Lindsay in Atlantic Beach, Queens and Brooklyn,” according to ABC News.
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| The three intersecting threads linking Trump's campaign to Russian intelligence - Thehour.com | ||
The three intersecting threads linking Trump's campaign to Russian intelligence Thehour.com
Many questions remain about President Donald Trump's familiarity during the 2016 campaign with a proposed development project in Moscow. Those questions ...
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| Supreme Court will let possible Mueller company file papers in secret | ||
Key Points
Robert Mueller
Getty Images
The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed redacted and sealed court documents to be filed by a mysterious foreign government-owned company that wants to avoid being forced to turn over information in an investigation that is widely thought to be led by special counsel Robert Mueller.
The high court did not rule on the merits of the company’s argument that it should not have to comply with a subpoena issued by a federal grand jury in Washington earlier this year. That grand jury is believed to be acting at Mueller’s request.
Instead, the Supreme Court said it would allow the company’s application for a stay in the subpoena, as well as for any responses to be filed without the public seeing all or some of the documents.
The company’s petition to the Supreme Court asking for it to consider its appeal of the subpoenawas released shortly after the court’s order.
Several areas of the filing are blacked out, including the names of the attorneys representing the company, and the “corporate disclosure statement.”
But in an unsealed portion, lawyers for the firm that that the Supreme Court “should reverse” a federal appeals court ruling upholding the subpoena “before it upsets foreign relations in a way that an American judicial decision never should.”
“The questions presented in this petition go to the very nature of sovereign dignity and power,” they said.
The lawyers said the appeals court ruling was the first “in American history to exercise criminal jurisdiction over a foreign state.”
“Since America’s founding, foreign states have been immune from American criminal jurisdiction, and yet the United States is not overrun with criminal syndicates backed by foreign states,” the lawyers argued.
The Supreme Court’s decision sets up the possibility that the company will seek to have the case heard by the court’s nine justices in a courtroom sealed to the public.
That would be a highly unusual — and possibly unprecedented — event if the Supreme Court granted the company’s request for a sealed hearing.
However, the high court could also end up rejecting the company’s request that it consider the appeal.
Walter Dellinger, a former acting solicitor general for the United States, told CNBC last week that he was unaware of any past case in which the Supreme Court had allowed a party in a case to file documents asking it to consider a case under seal, or one in which the justices heard oral arguments in a session closed to the public.
The company is currently subject to a $50,000 per day penalty for not complying with the subpoena.
The firm already is on the hook for more than $600,000 in fines after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington denied its bid to quash the subpoena.
In its filing partially unsealed Tuesday, the company says federal law did not authorize contempt sanctions, like the one imposed on it in this case, “against a foreign state.
Much about the case is unknown, because it has been playing out in courtrooms closed to the public in Washington, and because most of the documents filed in the case have been sealed.
But it is known that the company is “wholly owned by a foreign state,” according to its lawyers, and that it has argued it should be immune from the subpoena for information because complying with it would violate its country’s laws.
The strong suspicion that the subpoena is being sought by Mueller stems from sightings of lawyers from the special counsel’s office being seen going into or coming out of hearings related to the case, and other circumstantial evidence.
A spokesman for Mueller declined to comment Tuesday.
Mueller is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election that sent Donald Trump to the White House. He also is investigating possible collusion by members of Trump’s campaign with Russian agents, and possible obstruction of justice by the president.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing.
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| Is the mysterious foreign-government-owned company Russian Sberbank? - Google Search | ||
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| Is the mysterious foreign-government-owned company Russian Sberbank? - Google Search | ||
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| Is the mysterious foreign-government-owned company Russian Sberbank? - Google Search | ||
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| Is the mysterious foreign-government-owned company Russian Sberbank? - Google Search | ||
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| How did we get to a place where the FBI wondered if an American president was a Russian asset? - Bangor Daily News | ||
How did we get to a place where the FBI wondered if an American president was a Russian asset? Bangor Daily News
Forget the government shutdown. Forget the Washington power games. It's time to remember what we need from a president.. Maine news, sports, politics, ...
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| The growing ‘leverage’ questions about Trump and Russia - The Washington Post | ||
The growing ‘leverage’ questions about Trump and Russia The Washington Post
A number of developments in the last month illuminate the specter of Russia knowing something about Trump it could use against him.
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