Trump and Deutsche Bank lawsuits: M.N.: Did Trump, and/or his lawyers and investigators have access to some specific compromising for the Deutsche Bank and/or Germany information? - 1:32 PM 1/12/2019
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M.N.: Did Trump, and/or his lawyers and investigators have access to some specific compromising for the Deutsche Bank and/or Germany information, like for example, their hypothetical roles in the events of 9/11?
Had Deutsche Bank eventually got rid of this bothersome customer by selling his debt, possibly to the Russian Sberbank?
"If Mr. Trump manages to persuade a judge that the current crisis provides him with a good reason not to meet his obligations, he will have some great tales to tell in his next book."
A Fascinating Lawsuit From Trump
trump and deutsche bank lawsuits - Google Search
November 2008: Trump Sues Deutsche Bank for $3 Billion
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, compared joining 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.”
Read the whole story
· ·
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, compared joining 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.”
Read the whole story
· ·
Deutsche Bank’s Troubles Are Donald Trump’s Troubles
Deutsche Bank AG, the sprawling German financial giant, is in trouble again. And, to a certain extent, Deutsche's troubles are going to be President Donald Trump's troubles.
German police raided Deutsche's Frankfurt headquarters on Thursday as part of a money-laundering probe related to the Panama Papers scandal. Investigations tied to the 2016 disclosure of previously private bank and legal records linked to shell companies created by a Panama-based law firm, Mossack Fonseca & Co., revealed that Deutsche had used that network to help its clients create offshore accounts and avoid taxes.
German officials said Thursday's raid was unrelated to another problem currently hanging over Deutsche: its role in helping Danske Bank A/S launder billions of dollars for the Denmark bank's clients.
Authorities identified two bank employees by their ages only as primary targets in the new Deutsche investigation and said they are focused on a unit of the bank based in the British Virgin Islands. The raid adds to a long list of management and legal problems that have eroded the bank's standing and reputation in recent years. German regulators have appointed a monitor to oversee Deutsche's money-laundering and terrorism-financing controls, and it has been forced to cough up more than $18 billion to settle lawsuits and pay fines since 2008. That includes a $7 billion settlement with the U.S. Justice Department last year related to its trading and sales practices in the mortgage market during the financial crisis of the mid-2000s.
Other activities by its employees and bankers that have sullied Deutsche include market manipulation in commodities and debt, rigging Libor rates, and the suspicious departure of about $10 billion from Russia via Deutsche's Moscow branch. U.S. and U.K. regulators fined Deutsche about $700 million last year for compliance failures that a New York regulator said could have allowed for money laundering.
All of which brings us to the president of the United States.
When Trump nearly went personally bankrupt in the early 1990s, he left a handful of major U.S. banks on the hook for about $3.4 billion in loans he couldn't repay (and about $900 million of which he had personally guaranteed). Hotels, casinos, real estate, an airline and other parts of his debt-ridden portfolio went into bankruptcy protection. In the wake of that collapse, Trump became a pariah among major U.S. banks, and he had to find unique ways of lining up money for the infrequent and small-bore
deals he pursued thereafter. That left him borrowing money from labor unions and small, local lenders. Deutsche, keen at the time to make a name for itself in U.S. investment banking and commercial lending, was less hesitant to do business with Trump.
Deutsche's first transaction with Trump involved a modest renovation loan for 40 Wall Street, a Manhattan skyscraper Trump controls, in 1998. Trump did little to merit Deutsche's involvement after that until the early 2000s, when it agreed to loan him as much as $640 million for a Chicago project — the Trump International Hotel and Tower.
I was working on a biography of Trump at the time, and he told me that one of things he learned from his financial collapse in the early '90s was that he had ignored valuable business advice from his father, Fred: Never personally guarantee a loan. Yet he still went ahead and guaranteed $40 million of the Deutsche loan for the Chicago project. (Trump sued me for libel in 2006, claiming the biography, "TrumpNation," had misrepresented his business history and finances; he lost the suit in 2011.)
Deutsche had a relatively intimate understanding of Trump's finances. Although Trump told me in 2004 and 2005 that his net worth was anywhere from $1.7 billion to $6 billion (and suggested it might even be $9.5 billion), my sources at the time told me his wealth was closer to $150 million to $250 million. When Trump litigated the point with me, my lawyers produced a Deutsche assessment of his finances that pegged his wealth at $788 million in 2005.
Trump's relationship with Deutsche briefly soured in a dispute over the Chicago project. When the financial crisis landed in 2008 and imperiled that development, Trump sued Deutsche to avoid paying the $40 million he had guaranteed (claiming, in part, that Deutsche was responsible for the global economic distress unleashed by the crisis). A clash like that can permanently unwind a real estate partnership, but Deutsche and Trump agreed to settle, with the bank extending a loan from its private banking division to allow Trump to pay back its real estate lending unit, according to the New York Times.
Deutsche's private banking arm has hung in there ever since, with Rosemary Vrablic as the Deutsche banker serving as Trump's primary liaison there. She also has helped Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and a White House adviser, as well as his mother, arrange multimillion-dollar loans and lines of credit at Deutsche. In recent years, Deutsche's private banking unit has loaned Trump money — about $300 million, according to Bloomberg News and Trump's government financial disclosure forms — for such projects as his Washington hotel and the Trump National Doral golf course.
The Trump SoHo Hotel, which stripped Trump's name from the property last year, was financed in the mid-2000s in part with loans channeled through Icelandic banks that collapsed during the financial crisis. I've written extensively about Trump's involvement with the firm originally behind that project, Bayrock Group LLC, and about the murky funds from Europe used to build it. While Deutsche was closely involved with Icelandic banks at the time of the collapse, no information has surfaced that it played a direct role in the Trump SoHo.
What's likely now, however, is that Trump's dealings with Deutsche — which have represented, at a minimum, a serious and long-standing financial conflict for him given the influence he wields over law enforcement and financial regulation as president — are about to draw greater scrutiny.
The House Financial Services Committee, which Democrats will take control of in January, has the power to subpoena Deutsche for banking records and other information regarding its relationship with the president, the Trump Organization and the Kushner family. It seems almost certain that the committee will deploy that power — especially given the news that Deutsche has landed in the middle of yet another money-laundering probe.
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.
Read the whole story
· · · ·
Deutsche Bank AG, the sprawling German financial giant, is in trouble again. And, to a certain extent, Deutsche's troubles are going to be President Donald Trump's troubles.
German police raided Deutsche's Frankfurt headquarters on Thursday as part of a money-laundering probe related to the Panama Papers scandal. Investigations tied to the 2016 disclosure of previously private bank and legal records linked to shell companies created by a Panama-based law firm, Mossack Fonseca & Co., revealed that Deutsche had used that network to help its clients create offshore accounts and avoid taxes.
German officials said Thursday's raid was unrelated to another problem currently hanging over Deutsche: its role in helping Danske Bank A/S launder billions of dollars for the Denmark bank's clients.
Authorities identified two bank employees by their ages only as primary targets in the new Deutsche investigation and said they are focused on a unit of the bank based in the British Virgin Islands. The raid adds to a long list of management and legal problems that have eroded the bank's standing and reputation in recent years. German regulators have appointed a monitor to oversee Deutsche's money-laundering and terrorism-financing controls, and it has been forced to cough up more than $18 billion to settle lawsuits and pay fines since 2008. That includes a $7 billion settlement with the U.S. Justice Department last year related to its trading and sales practices in the mortgage market during the financial crisis of the mid-2000s.
Other activities by its employees and bankers that have sullied Deutsche include market manipulation in commodities and debt, rigging Libor rates, and the suspicious departure of about $10 billion from Russia via Deutsche's Moscow branch. U.S. and U.K. regulators fined Deutsche about $700 million last year for compliance failures that a New York regulator said could have allowed for money laundering.
All of which brings us to the president of the United States.
When Trump nearly went personally bankrupt in the early 1990s, he left a handful of major U.S. banks on the hook for about $3.4 billion in loans he couldn't repay (and about $900 million of which he had personally guaranteed). Hotels, casinos, real estate, an airline and other parts of his debt-ridden portfolio went into bankruptcy protection. In the wake of that collapse, Trump became a pariah among major U.S. banks, and he had to find unique ways of lining up money for the infrequent and small-bore
deals he pursued thereafter. That left him borrowing money from labor unions and small, local lenders. Deutsche, keen at the time to make a name for itself in U.S. investment banking and commercial lending, was less hesitant to do business with Trump.
deals he pursued thereafter. That left him borrowing money from labor unions and small, local lenders. Deutsche, keen at the time to make a name for itself in U.S. investment banking and commercial lending, was less hesitant to do business with Trump.
Deutsche's first transaction with Trump involved a modest renovation loan for 40 Wall Street, a Manhattan skyscraper Trump controls, in 1998. Trump did little to merit Deutsche's involvement after that until the early 2000s, when it agreed to loan him as much as $640 million for a Chicago project — the Trump International Hotel and Tower.
I was working on a biography of Trump at the time, and he told me that one of things he learned from his financial collapse in the early '90s was that he had ignored valuable business advice from his father, Fred: Never personally guarantee a loan. Yet he still went ahead and guaranteed $40 million of the Deutsche loan for the Chicago project. (Trump sued me for libel in 2006, claiming the biography, "TrumpNation," had misrepresented his business history and finances; he lost the suit in 2011.)
Deutsche had a relatively intimate understanding of Trump's finances. Although Trump told me in 2004 and 2005 that his net worth was anywhere from $1.7 billion to $6 billion (and suggested it might even be $9.5 billion), my sources at the time told me his wealth was closer to $150 million to $250 million. When Trump litigated the point with me, my lawyers produced a Deutsche assessment of his finances that pegged his wealth at $788 million in 2005.
Trump's relationship with Deutsche briefly soured in a dispute over the Chicago project. When the financial crisis landed in 2008 and imperiled that development, Trump sued Deutsche to avoid paying the $40 million he had guaranteed (claiming, in part, that Deutsche was responsible for the global economic distress unleashed by the crisis). A clash like that can permanently unwind a real estate partnership, but Deutsche and Trump agreed to settle, with the bank extending a loan from its private banking division to allow Trump to pay back its real estate lending unit, according to the New York Times.
Deutsche's private banking arm has hung in there ever since, with Rosemary Vrablic as the Deutsche banker serving as Trump's primary liaison there. She also has helped Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and a White House adviser, as well as his mother, arrange multimillion-dollar loans and lines of credit at Deutsche. In recent years, Deutsche's private banking unit has loaned Trump money — about $300 million, according to Bloomberg News and Trump's government financial disclosure forms — for such projects as his Washington hotel and the Trump National Doral golf course.
The Trump SoHo Hotel, which stripped Trump's name from the property last year, was financed in the mid-2000s in part with loans channeled through Icelandic banks that collapsed during the financial crisis. I've written extensively about Trump's involvement with the firm originally behind that project, Bayrock Group LLC, and about the murky funds from Europe used to build it. While Deutsche was closely involved with Icelandic banks at the time of the collapse, no information has surfaced that it played a direct role in the Trump SoHo.
What's likely now, however, is that Trump's dealings with Deutsche — which have represented, at a minimum, a serious and long-standing financial conflict for him given the influence he wields over law enforcement and financial regulation as president — are about to draw greater scrutiny.
The House Financial Services Committee, which Democrats will take control of in January, has the power to subpoena Deutsche for banking records and other information regarding its relationship with the president, the Trump Organization and the Kushner family. It seems almost certain that the committee will deploy that power — especially given the news that Deutsche has landed in the middle of yet another money-laundering probe.
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.
Read the whole story
· · · ·
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A Fascinating Lawsuit From Trump
“Would you consider the biggest depression we have had in this country since 1929 to be such an event? I would,” he said in an interview. “A depression is not within the control of the borrower.”
He wants a state judge in the Queens borough of New York to order the bank to delay efforts to collect the loan until “a reasonable time” after the financial crisis ends.
Deutsche Bank thinks the idea that an economic downturn should free people from the obligation to pay their debts is laughable.
Mr. Trump, it may be noted, does not think remorseful condominium buyers are in a similar position. When I asked him if he would let them walk away from contracts to buy apartments at predepression prices, he said he would not. “They don’t have a force majeure clause,” he said.
The suit, and a parallel one by Deutsche Bank seeking the money, provide a glimpse into both how Mr. Trump does business and into the way the real estate loan market was operating in 2005, when the loan was made.
For this big project, built on the site of the old Chicago Sun-Times building, it appears from the court papers that Mr. Trump put in little of his own money. He got a construction loan for up to $640 million from a syndicate headed by Deutsche Bank and a $130 million junior loan from another syndicate headed by Fortress Investments, a hedge fund operator that has troubles stemming in part from bad loans made for other real estate projects.
The people who negotiated the construction loan did not think real estate prices could tumble. The loan agreement requires partial repayment each time an apartment is sold and provides a detailed list of the minimum prices to be charged.
According to Mr. Trump’s suit, he cannot cut prices without the unanimous consent of the lenders, and that has not been forthcoming. There are a lot of lenders in the deal, and some of them appear to be banks and hedge funds that are no longer in good shape.
The loan was due Nov. 7, and the lenders did not grant a requested extension. Mr. Trump filed his lawsuit just before that deadline.
Mr. Trump sees a dark conspiracy. He says Deutsche Bank, through a subsidiary, owns $30 million of the junior loan, and he says that is a blatant conflict of interest because in some cases the interests of the two loans can differ. To Mr. Trump, the bank’s actions suggest it is trying to seize the building just before its great success is assured.
The bank responds that the loan agreement makes clear that it has a right to do everything it has done, and that Mr. Trump should live up to his obligations, paying $40 million of the $334 million outstanding balance on the construction loan. The rest is owed by the Trump-controlled company sponsoring the project but is not personally guaranteed by him.
If Mr. Trump was forced to pay the $40 million, he would be unlikely to permanently lose it, since his company would owe it to him. If the project went under, his claim would rank higher than the Fortress loan. Deutsche will make nothing from its investment in the junior loan if Mr. Trump does lose any money.
Some sort of settlement seems wise. It is in everyone’s interest that construction be completed, and in fact the bank advanced $13 million to pay contractors’ bills this week.
Mr. Trump has not said by how much he thinks the apartments are overpriced, and he did not tell me. But it seems unlikely that sales will be very good until prices are cut.
In his suit, Mr. Trump claims that the bank’s “predatory lending practices” are harming his reputation, “which is associated worldwide with on-time, under-budget, first-class construction projects and first-class luxury hotel operations.”
The bank seized on the opportunity to discuss Mr. Trump’s reputation. “Trump is no stranger to overdue debt,” it said in asking that his suit be thrown out of court. It noted that Mr. Trump’s casino operations have filed for bankruptcy twice, adding, “This suit is classic Trump.”
The bank did not discuss why that history did not dissuade it from making the loan. One explanation might be that the fees it got for arranging the loan more than offset the risk from the small part of the loan it kept on its own books.
Mr. Trump is vigilant in protecting his reputation. After I interviewed him and two associates, his general counsel sent me a note saying “it was a pleasure” talking to me, and adding: “Please be assured that if your article is not factually correct, we will have no choice but to sue you and The New York Times.”
The Friday after Thanksgiving was not a really good one for Mr. Trump. Trump Entertainment Resorts, the casino company, announced it would miss an interest payment on its bonds, raising the likelihood of a third bankruptcy. Most of the shares are publicly owned, having been distributed to creditors in the last bankruptcy. They have fallen from a peak of $23.80 two years ago to 24 cents on Thursday.
Mr. Trump is doing his best to sound like that is not important to him. The casino company’s announcement emphasized that Mr. Trump was the “nonexecutive chairman” who was “not involved in the daily operations” of the company. He told me that “less than 1 percent of my net worth” is in the casino company.
At the current price, no shareholder could have a large net worth in that stock.
On the same day, in New York, Deutsche Bank asked a judge to issue a summary judgment requiring Mr. Trump to pay the $40 million.
In that filing, the bank quoted from a best-selling book Mr. Trump wrote last year, “Think Big and Kick Ass in Business and Life.” In it, the developer said he loved “to crush the other side and take the benefits” and mocked the banks that had lost money on loans made to him before another real estate downturn, in the 1990s:
“I figured it was the bank’s problem, not mine. What the hell did I care? I actually told one bank, ‘I told you you shouldn’t have loaned me that money. I told you the goddamn deal was no good.’ ”
If Mr. Trump manages to persuade a judge that the current crisis provides him with a good reason not to meet his obligations, he will have some great tales to tell in his next book.
Continue reading the main story
Read the whole story
· · · ·
“Would you consider the biggest depression we have had in this country since 1929 to be such an event? I would,” he said in an interview. “A depression is not within the control of the borrower.”
He wants a state judge in the Queens borough of New York to order the bank to delay efforts to collect the loan until “a reasonable time” after the financial crisis ends.
Deutsche Bank thinks the idea that an economic downturn should free people from the obligation to pay their debts is laughable.
Mr. Trump, it may be noted, does not think remorseful condominium buyers are in a similar position. When I asked him if he would let them walk away from contracts to buy apartments at predepression prices, he said he would not. “They don’t have a force majeure clause,” he said.
The suit, and a parallel one by Deutsche Bank seeking the money, provide a glimpse into both how Mr. Trump does business and into the way the real estate loan market was operating in 2005, when the loan was made.
For this big project, built on the site of the old Chicago Sun-Times building, it appears from the court papers that Mr. Trump put in little of his own money. He got a construction loan for up to $640 million from a syndicate headed by Deutsche Bank and a $130 million junior loan from another syndicate headed by Fortress Investments, a hedge fund operator that has troubles stemming in part from bad loans made for other real estate projects.
The people who negotiated the construction loan did not think real estate prices could tumble. The loan agreement requires partial repayment each time an apartment is sold and provides a detailed list of the minimum prices to be charged.
According to Mr. Trump’s suit, he cannot cut prices without the unanimous consent of the lenders, and that has not been forthcoming. There are a lot of lenders in the deal, and some of them appear to be banks and hedge funds that are no longer in good shape.
The loan was due Nov. 7, and the lenders did not grant a requested extension. Mr. Trump filed his lawsuit just before that deadline.
Mr. Trump sees a dark conspiracy. He says Deutsche Bank, through a subsidiary, owns $30 million of the junior loan, and he says that is a blatant conflict of interest because in some cases the interests of the two loans can differ. To Mr. Trump, the bank’s actions suggest it is trying to seize the building just before its great success is assured.
The bank responds that the loan agreement makes clear that it has a right to do everything it has done, and that Mr. Trump should live up to his obligations, paying $40 million of the $334 million outstanding balance on the construction loan. The rest is owed by the Trump-controlled company sponsoring the project but is not personally guaranteed by him.
If Mr. Trump was forced to pay the $40 million, he would be unlikely to permanently lose it, since his company would owe it to him. If the project went under, his claim would rank higher than the Fortress loan. Deutsche will make nothing from its investment in the junior loan if Mr. Trump does lose any money.
Some sort of settlement seems wise. It is in everyone’s interest that construction be completed, and in fact the bank advanced $13 million to pay contractors’ bills this week.
Mr. Trump has not said by how much he thinks the apartments are overpriced, and he did not tell me. But it seems unlikely that sales will be very good until prices are cut.
In his suit, Mr. Trump claims that the bank’s “predatory lending practices” are harming his reputation, “which is associated worldwide with on-time, under-budget, first-class construction projects and first-class luxury hotel operations.”
The bank seized on the opportunity to discuss Mr. Trump’s reputation. “Trump is no stranger to overdue debt,” it said in asking that his suit be thrown out of court. It noted that Mr. Trump’s casino operations have filed for bankruptcy twice, adding, “This suit is classic Trump.”
The bank did not discuss why that history did not dissuade it from making the loan. One explanation might be that the fees it got for arranging the loan more than offset the risk from the small part of the loan it kept on its own books.
Mr. Trump is vigilant in protecting his reputation. After I interviewed him and two associates, his general counsel sent me a note saying “it was a pleasure” talking to me, and adding: “Please be assured that if your article is not factually correct, we will have no choice but to sue you and The New York Times.”
The Friday after Thanksgiving was not a really good one for Mr. Trump. Trump Entertainment Resorts, the casino company, announced it would miss an interest payment on its bonds, raising the likelihood of a third bankruptcy. Most of the shares are publicly owned, having been distributed to creditors in the last bankruptcy. They have fallen from a peak of $23.80 two years ago to 24 cents on Thursday.
Mr. Trump is doing his best to sound like that is not important to him. The casino company’s announcement emphasized that Mr. Trump was the “nonexecutive chairman” who was “not involved in the daily operations” of the company. He told me that “less than 1 percent of my net worth” is in the casino company.
At the current price, no shareholder could have a large net worth in that stock.
On the same day, in New York, Deutsche Bank asked a judge to issue a summary judgment requiring Mr. Trump to pay the $40 million.
In that filing, the bank quoted from a best-selling book Mr. Trump wrote last year, “Think Big and Kick Ass in Business and Life.” In it, the developer said he loved “to crush the other side and take the benefits” and mocked the banks that had lost money on loans made to him before another real estate downturn, in the 1990s:
“I figured it was the bank’s problem, not mine. What the hell did I care? I actually told one bank, ‘I told you you shouldn’t have loaned me that money. I told you the goddamn deal was no good.’ ”
If Mr. Trump manages to persuade a judge that the current crisis provides him with a good reason not to meet his obligations, he will have some great tales to tell in his next book.
Continue reading the main story
Read the whole story
· · · ·
trump and deutsche bank lawsuits - Google Search
Deutsche Bank targeted by Dems over Trump ties
The Hill-Dec 19, 2018
Deutsche Bank has fallen dramatically from its perch among the most powerful global investment banks. Mounting costs from years of litigation ...
The Hill-Dec 19, 2018
Deutsche Bank has fallen dramatically from its perch among the most powerful global investment banks. Mounting costs from years of litigation ...
How Russian Money Helped Save Trump's Business
Foreign Policy-Dec 21, 2018
But in a deposition related to Trump SoHo litigation, Trump said he was .... Trump and Deutsche Bank, and between the bank and Russia.
Foreign Policy-Dec 21, 2018
But in a deposition related to Trump SoHo litigation, Trump said he was .... Trump and Deutsche Bank, and between the bank and Russia.
House Democrats Get Ready to Fight Trump. And Each Other
TIME-Jan 10, 2019
And she did not once mention President Donald Trump. ... governments and entities–part of a lawsuitDemocrats filed alleging that Trump ... Representative Maxine Waters sent letters to executives at Deutsche Bank in 2017, ...
TIME-Jan 10, 2019
And she did not once mention President Donald Trump. ... governments and entities–part of a lawsuitDemocrats filed alleging that Trump ... Representative Maxine Waters sent letters to executives at Deutsche Bank in 2017, ...
Democrats Start Investigative Gears, but Slowly
New York Times-Jan 9, 2019
The impasse over Mr. Trump's proposed border wall and the death late last ... the Affordable Care Act in a lawsuit brought by Republican state attorneys general. ... Loans from Deutsche Bank — hundreds of millions of dollars ...
Read the whole story
· ·
New York Times-Jan 9, 2019
The impasse over Mr. Trump's proposed border wall and the death late last ... the Affordable Care Act in a lawsuit brought by Republican state attorneys general. ... Loans from Deutsche Bank — hundreds of millions of dollars ...
Read the whole story
· ·
FBI said to have probed whether Trump was compromised by Russia
President Donald Trump speaks to reporters with Vice President Mike Pence (R) and U.S. Senators’ John Barrasso (R-WY) and John Thune (R-SD) after Trump addressed a closed Senate Republican policy lunch while a partial government shutdown enters its 19th day on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., January 9, 2019.
Jim Young | Reuters
Federal investigators, alarmed by President Donald Trump’s behavior in the immediate aftermath of his firing in 2017 of former FBI director James Comey, opened a probe into whether the president had been secretly working with Russia, The New York Times reported late Friday.
Citing unnamed sources familiar with the investigation, the publication said that counterintelligence officials weighed whether Trump’s actions were undermining national security, and whether he was either working at the behest of Moscow, or was somehow influenced by the Kremlin.
Trump has repeatedly denied that he colluded with Russia, while even Comey has stated publicly that Trump himself was not a focus of the FBI’s probe into his campaign’s ties to Moscow. In a lengthy diatribe on Twitter, the president blasted The Times, and renewed his critique of the former FBI director as “a total sleaze” and a poor leader.
Allegations that Trump was somehow compromised by Russia were first broached by the controversial Steele dossier, a raw intelligence document assembled by a former British spy that was interspersed with lurid and largely uncorroborated accusations against the president.
The Times reported on Friday that agents and senior FBI officials had their suspicions aroused about Trump’s ties to Russia during the 2016 election, but refrained from opening an investigation into him because of how sensitive the undertaking would be. However, sources told the publication that on two occasions, Trump tied Comey’s dismissal to the Russia probe, which led to a counterintelligence track being added to the original Russia inquiry.
In theory, Comey’s axing would constitute obstruction, because of the impact it would have had on the FBI’s ability to learn about Moscow’s meddling, and whether U.S. citizens were involved. On Saturday, Trump reiterated his position that he’s been far tougher on Russian than any of his predecessors.
According to The Times report, it’s unclear if Special Counsel Robert Mueller is still pursuing the counterintelligence probe as he pursues a wide ranging investigation into whether campaign officials, or Candidate Trump himself, knew of Russia’s efforts to influence the election. Still, the investigation into whether the president obstructed justice by firing Comey was lumped in with the counterintelligence inquiry, according to former law enforcement officials who spoke with the Times.
Rudolph W. Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer and the former mayor of New York City, dismissed the counterintelligence effort. “The fact that it goes back a year and a half and nothing came of it that showed a breach of national security means they found nothing,” Giuliani told The Times on Friday, but added that he had no insight into that particular track of the investigation.
A spokesperson for the FBI did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
The Times’ full report can be found on its website.
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President Donald Trump speaks to reporters with Vice President Mike Pence (R) and U.S. Senators’ John Barrasso (R-WY) and John Thune (R-SD) after Trump addressed a closed Senate Republican policy lunch while a partial government shutdown enters its 19th day on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., January 9, 2019.
Jim Young | Reuters
Federal investigators, alarmed by President Donald Trump’s behavior in the immediate aftermath of his firing in 2017 of former FBI director James Comey, opened a probe into whether the president had been secretly working with Russia, The New York Times reported late Friday.
Citing unnamed sources familiar with the investigation, the publication said that counterintelligence officials weighed whether Trump’s actions were undermining national security, and whether he was either working at the behest of Moscow, or was somehow influenced by the Kremlin.
Trump has repeatedly denied that he colluded with Russia, while even Comey has stated publicly that Trump himself was not a focus of the FBI’s probe into his campaign’s ties to Moscow. In a lengthy diatribe on Twitter, the president blasted The Times, and renewed his critique of the former FBI director as “a total sleaze” and a poor leader.
Allegations that Trump was somehow compromised by Russia were first broached by the controversial Steele dossier, a raw intelligence document assembled by a former British spy that was interspersed with lurid and largely uncorroborated accusations against the president.
The Times reported on Friday that agents and senior FBI officials had their suspicions aroused about Trump’s ties to Russia during the 2016 election, but refrained from opening an investigation into him because of how sensitive the undertaking would be. However, sources told the publication that on two occasions, Trump tied Comey’s dismissal to the Russia probe, which led to a counterintelligence track being added to the original Russia inquiry.
In theory, Comey’s axing would constitute obstruction, because of the impact it would have had on the FBI’s ability to learn about Moscow’s meddling, and whether U.S. citizens were involved. On Saturday, Trump reiterated his position that he’s been far tougher on Russian than any of his predecessors.
According to The Times report, it’s unclear if Special Counsel Robert Mueller is still pursuing the counterintelligence probe as he pursues a wide ranging investigation into whether campaign officials, or Candidate Trump himself, knew of Russia’s efforts to influence the election. Still, the investigation into whether the president obstructed justice by firing Comey was lumped in with the counterintelligence inquiry, according to former law enforcement officials who spoke with the Times.
Rudolph W. Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer and the former mayor of New York City, dismissed the counterintelligence effort. “The fact that it goes back a year and a half and nothing came of it that showed a breach of national security means they found nothing,” Giuliani told The Times on Friday, but added that he had no insight into that particular track of the investigation.
A spokesperson for the FBI did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
The Times’ full report can be found on its website.
Read the whole story
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White House Slams NY Times Report On FBI Concern That Trump Acted On Behalf Of Russia
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders has denounced a New York Times report that the FBI launched an investigation into whether President Trump had been working on behalf of Russia when he fired James Comey as director of the bureau in May 2017. Sanders issued the statement on Friday night.
"This is absurd," Sanders said. "James Comey was fired because he's a disgraced partisan hack, and his Deputy Andrew McCabe, who was in charge at the time, is a known liar fired by the FBI. Unlike President Obama, who let Russia and other foreign adversaries push America around, President Trump has actually been tough on Russia."
The Times reported that U.S. counterintelligence investigators were concerned that the president's actions were a possible threat to national security. They also wanted to determine whether the president "was knowingly working for Russia or had unwittingly fallen under Moscow's influence."
The Times added,
"The investigation the F.B.I. opened into Mr. Trump also had a criminal aspect, which has long been publicly known: whether his firing of Mr. Comey constituted obstruction of justice.
"Agents and senior F.B.I. officials had grown suspicious of Mr. Trump's ties to Russia during the 2016 campaign but held off on opening an investigation into him, the people said, in part because they were uncertain how to proceed with an inquiry of such sensitivity and magnitude. But the president's activities before and after Mr. Comey's firing in May 2017, particularly two instances in which Mr. Trump tied the Comey dismissal to the Russia investigation, helped prompt the counterintelligence aspect of the inquiry, the people said."
According to the Times, special counsel Robert Mueller took over the investigation when he was appointed. The story says it is unclear whether Mueller is pursuing the counterintelligence case.
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders has denounced a New York Times report that the FBI launched an investigation into whether President Trump had been working on behalf of Russia when he fired James Comey as director of the bureau in May 2017. Sanders issued the statement on Friday night.
"This is absurd," Sanders said. "James Comey was fired because he's a disgraced partisan hack, and his Deputy Andrew McCabe, who was in charge at the time, is a known liar fired by the FBI. Unlike President Obama, who let Russia and other foreign adversaries push America around, President Trump has actually been tough on Russia."
The Times reported that U.S. counterintelligence investigators were concerned that the president's actions were a possible threat to national security. They also wanted to determine whether the president "was knowingly working for Russia or had unwittingly fallen under Moscow's influence."
The Times added,
"The investigation the F.B.I. opened into Mr. Trump also had a criminal aspect, which has long been publicly known: whether his firing of Mr. Comey constituted obstruction of justice."Agents and senior F.B.I. officials had grown suspicious of Mr. Trump's ties to Russia during the 2016 campaign but held off on opening an investigation into him, the people said, in part because they were uncertain how to proceed with an inquiry of such sensitivity and magnitude. But the president's activities before and after Mr. Comey's firing in May 2017, particularly two instances in which Mr. Trump tied the Comey dismissal to the Russia investigation, helped prompt the counterintelligence aspect of the inquiry, the people said."
According to the Times, special counsel Robert Mueller took over the investigation when he was appointed. The story says it is unclear whether Mueller is pursuing the counterintelligence case.
FBI reportedly opened inquiry into whether Trump was working for Russia | US news
In May 2017, the FBI opened an inquiry into whether Donald Trump was working on behalf of Russia, the New York Times has reported.
Citing unnamed former law enforcement officials, the paper reported on Friday that in the days after the president fired FBI director James Comey, law enforcement officials were so worried about his behavior that they began investigating whether the president was working against US interests and on behalf of Moscow.
Counterintelligence investigators were reportedly considering whether Trump’s actions constituted a national security threat, an extraordinary line of inquiry against a sitting president. They also sought to determine whether the president was knowingly working for Russia, the report said.
Trump responded on Saturday morning with a volley of tweets which did not question the Times’ reporting but lambasted “the corrupt former leaders of the FBI” for opening an investigation “for no reason & with no proof”.
“Funny thing about James Comey,” Trump said. “Everybody wanted him fired, Republican and Democrat alike. My firing of James Comey was a great day for America. He was a Crooked Cop.”
Of the leaders who opened the investigation, Trump claimed without offering evidence that “almost all [were] fired or forced to leave the agency for some very bad reasons”.
He then accused special counsel Robert Mueller of protecting Comey and made familiar attacks on Mueller’s ongoing investigation for failing to go after “the Real Collusion (and much more)” of Democrats with Russia in the 2016 election.
The Times report quoted private House testimony from Lisa Page, a former FBI lawyer who worked for Mueller and who with fired FBI agent Peter Strzok has been a target of Republican ire.
Comey, who last year published a bestselling memoir and has become a strident critic of Trump, responded on Twitter on Saturday.
“I ask you to judge me by the enemies I have made,” he wrote, slightly misquoting Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who actually said “My friends, judge me by the enemies I have made” in a speech in Portland, Oregon in September 1932.
FDR's words are familiar in political circles. Six years ago, when he was still a property mogul and reality TV star, Trump tweeted them himself.
On Friday, responding to the Times story, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement: “James Comey was fired because he’s a disgraced partisan hack, and his Deputy Andrew McCabe, who was in charge at the time, is a known liar fired by the FBI.
McCabe, who was fired just short of retirement in March last year, will publish his own book next month. Trump mentioned all four of his FBI bêtes noires in another Saturday tweet.
Sanders continued: “Unlike President Obama, who let Russia and other foreign adversaries push America around, President Trump has actually been tough on Russia.” Trump echoed those sentiments on Saturday.
Rudolph Giuliani, one of Trump’s attorneys, also sought to downplay the significance of the FBI investigation, telling the Times: “The fact that it goes back a year and a half and nothing came of it that showed a breach of national security means they found nothing.”
In an interview with CBS Face the Nation due to be broadcast on Sunday, secretary of state Mike Pompeo, director of the CIA at the time of the Comey firing, said the Times report was “silly on its face and not worthy of a response”.
The remarkable report is sure to ramp up the pressure for a White House already feeling the heat from months of investigations. In August, Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort was convicted of financial charges and later pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud the US and conspiring to obstruct justice. Trump’s longtime lawyer and aide Michael Cohen is set to begin a three-year prison sentence in March after pleading guilty to fraud, campaign finance violations and lying under oath.
Manafort was charged as part of the investigation by the special counsel Robert Mueller into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. The deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein, appointed Mueller shortly after Comey’s firing in May 2017 to lead the investigation into Russian meddling and ties between the Trump campaign and Russian officials. Mueller is reportedly also investigating whether the president tried to impede the investigation into Russia’s role in the election.
It was reported this week that Rosenstein will soon step down. Trump’s acting attorney general Matthew Whitaker remains in place despite controversy over his view of the Russia investigation and qualifications for the role. The nominee to become attorney general, William Barr, is also the subject of debate about his fitness to oversee Mueller’s work.
Mueller took over the FBI counterintelligence investigation, the Times reported, just days after it was first opened. FBI spokespeople did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The report may also raise new questions for congressional investigators looking into Russian meddling. Newly in control of the House of Representatives, Democrats have vowed to further scrutinize Trump’s Russia ties.
Read the whole story
· · · ·
In May 2017, the FBI opened an inquiry into whether Donald Trump was working on behalf of Russia, the New York Times has reported.
Citing unnamed former law enforcement officials, the paper reported on Friday that in the days after the president fired FBI director James Comey, law enforcement officials were so worried about his behavior that they began investigating whether the president was working against US interests and on behalf of Moscow.
Counterintelligence investigators were reportedly considering whether Trump’s actions constituted a national security threat, an extraordinary line of inquiry against a sitting president. They also sought to determine whether the president was knowingly working for Russia, the report said.
Trump responded on Saturday morning with a volley of tweets which did not question the Times’ reporting but lambasted “the corrupt former leaders of the FBI” for opening an investigation “for no reason & with no proof”.
“Funny thing about James Comey,” Trump said. “Everybody wanted him fired, Republican and Democrat alike. My firing of James Comey was a great day for America. He was a Crooked Cop.”
Of the leaders who opened the investigation, Trump claimed without offering evidence that “almost all [were] fired or forced to leave the agency for some very bad reasons”.
He then accused special counsel Robert Mueller of protecting Comey and made familiar attacks on Mueller’s ongoing investigation for failing to go after “the Real Collusion (and much more)” of Democrats with Russia in the 2016 election.
The Times report quoted private House testimony from Lisa Page, a former FBI lawyer who worked for Mueller and who with fired FBI agent Peter Strzok has been a target of Republican ire.
Comey, who last year published a bestselling memoir and has become a strident critic of Trump, responded on Twitter on Saturday.
“I ask you to judge me by the enemies I have made,” he wrote, slightly misquoting Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who actually said “My friends, judge me by the enemies I have made” in a speech in Portland, Oregon in September 1932.
FDR's words are familiar in political circles. Six years ago, when he was still a property mogul and reality TV star, Trump tweeted them himself.
On Friday, responding to the Times story, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement: “James Comey was fired because he’s a disgraced partisan hack, and his Deputy Andrew McCabe, who was in charge at the time, is a known liar fired by the FBI.
McCabe, who was fired just short of retirement in March last year, will publish his own book next month. Trump mentioned all four of his FBI bêtes noires in another Saturday tweet.
Sanders continued: “Unlike President Obama, who let Russia and other foreign adversaries push America around, President Trump has actually been tough on Russia.” Trump echoed those sentiments on Saturday.
Rudolph Giuliani, one of Trump’s attorneys, also sought to downplay the significance of the FBI investigation, telling the Times: “The fact that it goes back a year and a half and nothing came of it that showed a breach of national security means they found nothing.”
In an interview with CBS Face the Nation due to be broadcast on Sunday, secretary of state Mike Pompeo, director of the CIA at the time of the Comey firing, said the Times report was “silly on its face and not worthy of a response”.
The remarkable report is sure to ramp up the pressure for a White House already feeling the heat from months of investigations. In August, Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort was convicted of financial charges and later pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud the US and conspiring to obstruct justice. Trump’s longtime lawyer and aide Michael Cohen is set to begin a three-year prison sentence in March after pleading guilty to fraud, campaign finance violations and lying under oath.
Manafort was charged as part of the investigation by the special counsel Robert Mueller into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. The deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein, appointed Mueller shortly after Comey’s firing in May 2017 to lead the investigation into Russian meddling and ties between the Trump campaign and Russian officials. Mueller is reportedly also investigating whether the president tried to impede the investigation into Russia’s role in the election.
It was reported this week that Rosenstein will soon step down. Trump’s acting attorney general Matthew Whitaker remains in place despite controversy over his view of the Russia investigation and qualifications for the role. The nominee to become attorney general, William Barr, is also the subject of debate about his fitness to oversee Mueller’s work.
Mueller took over the FBI counterintelligence investigation, the Times reported, just days after it was first opened. FBI spokespeople did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The report may also raise new questions for congressional investigators looking into Russian meddling. Newly in control of the House of Representatives, Democrats have vowed to further scrutinize Trump’s Russia ties.
Read the whole story
· · · ·
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Trump AG pick poised to reclaim old job in a changed capital
When William Barr was attorney general in the early 1990s, he was outspoken about some of America's biggest problems — violent crime, drug addiction, teenage pregnancy. The "Age of Aquarius," he warned, had given way to crack babies and broken families, misery and squalor.
The rhetoric reflected Barr's deep-seated personal beliefs and was typical talk for a conservative Republican at a time when family values and tough-on-crime stances defined the party.
Now, as President Donald Trump's nominee for attorney general, Barr is poised to return to the same job in a dramatically different Washington.
Republicans just pushed through the biggest criminal justice overhaul in a generation, easing prison sentences. Family-values are seldom discussed while Trump, twice-divorced and accused of affairs and sexual misconduct, sits in the White House. Serving Trump, who faces intensifying investigations from the department Barr would lead, is unlikely to compare with his tenure under President George H.W. Bush.
When William Barr was attorney general in the early 1990s, he was outspoken about some of America's biggest problems — violent crime, drug addiction, teenage pregnancy. The "Age of Aquarius," he warned, had given way to crack babies and broken families, misery and squalor.
The rhetoric reflected Barr's deep-seated personal beliefs and was typical talk for a conservative Republican at a time when family values and tough-on-crime stances defined the party.
Now, as President Donald Trump's nominee for attorney general, Barr is poised to return to the same job in a dramatically different Washington.
Republicans just pushed through the biggest criminal justice overhaul in a generation, easing prison sentences. Family-values are seldom discussed while Trump, twice-divorced and accused of affairs and sexual misconduct, sits in the White House. Serving Trump, who faces intensifying investigations from the department Barr would lead, is unlikely to compare with his tenure under President George H.W. Bush.
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Trump demands loyalty, breaking with the practice of shielding law enforcement from political influence. He publicly browbeats Justice Department leadership and ousted his first attorney general, Jeff Sessions, for not protecting him in the Russia investigation. Though the pressures on Barr are bound to be enormous if he is confirmed, allies describe him as driven by his commitment to the department and clear-eyed about what is ahead.
"I have no doubt that he's aware of any unique or unusual challenges that this Justice Department, his Justice Department, will confront," said longtime friend and former colleague Chuck Cooper, who is also Sessions' lawyer. "He approaches these challenges as a public servant who loves his country and who's answering the call to service. That's the spirit in which Bill Barr is accepting these challenges."
The first challenge comes Tuesday when Democrats press him at his Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on his broad views of presidential power, including an unsolicited memo he sent the Justice Department last year criticizing special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into whether the president had sought to obstruct the Russia investigation.
Barr is likely to win confirmation and, given his past experience, probably won't face challenges over his qualifications the way other Trump nominees have. Republicans control the Senate and could pick up some support from Democrats eager for the departure of acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker. Democrats wanted Whitaker to step aside from overseeing Mueller's investigation into links between Russia and the Trump campaign, citing Whitaker's criticism of the inquiry before he joined the department.
Barr would inherit that investigation as it reaches critical decisions and as Mueller's most prominent protector inside the department, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, expects to depart.
Though Barr's handling of the investigation is the most pressing issue confronting him, equally important will be stabilizing a department riven by leadership tumult — as well as his own dynamic with Trump.
Though both Trump and Barr are plain-spoken native New Yorkers and generational contemporaries, the two appear to have little in common.
Barr, 68, is a practicing Catholic and longtime creature of Washington — a CIA alumnus who climbed the Justice Department ranks, associated with establishment figures long maligned by Trump and delivered legal reasoning behind some of the most consequential actions of the time, including the invasion of Panama.
Even if Barr doesn't introduce sweeping policy changes, he might nonetheless have to adjust to the shifting winds of the White House or fellow Republicans on Capitol Hill.
The administration, for instance, recently backed legislation reducing mandatory minimum punishments and giving judges more discretion when sentencing some drug offenders.
Barr will reassure lawmakers that he supports the law, according to a person close to the confirmation process who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. That's a striking departure from Barr's insistence as attorney general, in the face of homicide rates that dwarf today's totals, that "we are not punitive enough" about violent crime.
Recipients of mandatory minimum sentences richly deserve them, he once said, denouncing as a myth the notion sympathetic and "hapless victims of the criminal-justice system" are languishing in prison longer than they deserve.
Barr's pro-law enforcement stance is so entrenched, one friend said, that as a Columbia University student in the 1960s he brought police coffee as they encountered protesters.
"He's very much a law-and-order guy. He believes the primary responsibility of government is to maintain the security of its citizens," said longtime friend Andrew G. McBride, a former Justice Department colleague.
As attorney general, Barr connected violent crime to a "moral crisis" in society, decrying high rates of divorce and drug addiction, and rising secularism that he said prevented children from discerning right from wrong.
"The prophets of the sexual revolution and the drug culture proclaimed the dawn of a new era of maturity and freedom, of peace and love," he said at a 1992 Chicago event. "That's not what happened — not by a long shot. Today we can see the grim harvest of the Age of Aquarius: Broken families, venereal diseases, teenage pregnancies, crack babies. We see misery and squalor, confusion and loneliness."
In speeches, he repeatedly mocked Woody Allen's justification — "The heart wants what it wants" — for his relationship with partner Mia Farrow's adopted daughter.
Try that rationale, he said, "as a foundation for any sort of human behavior and you will see at once the danger and moral corruption it entails."
The perspective could create an awkward coexistence with a president known for misstatements and embellishments and who, prosecutors say, directed hush money payments to cover up claims of extramarital relationships with two women.
It's not clear how often he and Trump will interact and under what circumstances. Friends insist he won't easily bend to the president's will, describing Barr as principled, smart and strong-willed.
"Bill is not a shrinking violet," said former colleague Timothy Flanigan. "Bill is tough, tough in a good way."
Barr didn't campaign for the job and even proposed other names to the White House instead of his own, one friend. Returning as attorney general to stabilize the department could be a career capstone of sorts.
"He can take this without worrying about career advancement," said C. Boyden Gray, White House counsel to George H.W. Bush. "If he were a lot younger, I'm not sure he would have done it."
Read the whole story
· · · · ·
For the most comprehensive local coverage, subscribe today.
Trump demands loyalty, breaking with the practice of shielding law enforcement from political influence. He publicly browbeats Justice Department leadership and ousted his first attorney general, Jeff Sessions, for not protecting him in the Russia investigation. Though the pressures on Barr are bound to be enormous if he is confirmed, allies describe him as driven by his commitment to the department and clear-eyed about what is ahead.
"I have no doubt that he's aware of any unique or unusual challenges that this Justice Department, his Justice Department, will confront," said longtime friend and former colleague Chuck Cooper, who is also Sessions' lawyer. "He approaches these challenges as a public servant who loves his country and who's answering the call to service. That's the spirit in which Bill Barr is accepting these challenges."
The first challenge comes Tuesday when Democrats press him at his Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on his broad views of presidential power, including an unsolicited memo he sent the Justice Department last year criticizing special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into whether the president had sought to obstruct the Russia investigation.
Barr is likely to win confirmation and, given his past experience, probably won't face challenges over his qualifications the way other Trump nominees have. Republicans control the Senate and could pick up some support from Democrats eager for the departure of acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker. Democrats wanted Whitaker to step aside from overseeing Mueller's investigation into links between Russia and the Trump campaign, citing Whitaker's criticism of the inquiry before he joined the department.
Barr would inherit that investigation as it reaches critical decisions and as Mueller's most prominent protector inside the department, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, expects to depart.
Though Barr's handling of the investigation is the most pressing issue confronting him, equally important will be stabilizing a department riven by leadership tumult — as well as his own dynamic with Trump.
Though both Trump and Barr are plain-spoken native New Yorkers and generational contemporaries, the two appear to have little in common.
Barr, 68, is a practicing Catholic and longtime creature of Washington — a CIA alumnus who climbed the Justice Department ranks, associated with establishment figures long maligned by Trump and delivered legal reasoning behind some of the most consequential actions of the time, including the invasion of Panama.
Even if Barr doesn't introduce sweeping policy changes, he might nonetheless have to adjust to the shifting winds of the White House or fellow Republicans on Capitol Hill.
The administration, for instance, recently backed legislation reducing mandatory minimum punishments and giving judges more discretion when sentencing some drug offenders.
Barr will reassure lawmakers that he supports the law, according to a person close to the confirmation process who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. That's a striking departure from Barr's insistence as attorney general, in the face of homicide rates that dwarf today's totals, that "we are not punitive enough" about violent crime.
Recipients of mandatory minimum sentences richly deserve them, he once said, denouncing as a myth the notion sympathetic and "hapless victims of the criminal-justice system" are languishing in prison longer than they deserve.
Barr's pro-law enforcement stance is so entrenched, one friend said, that as a Columbia University student in the 1960s he brought police coffee as they encountered protesters.
"He's very much a law-and-order guy. He believes the primary responsibility of government is to maintain the security of its citizens," said longtime friend Andrew G. McBride, a former Justice Department colleague.
As attorney general, Barr connected violent crime to a "moral crisis" in society, decrying high rates of divorce and drug addiction, and rising secularism that he said prevented children from discerning right from wrong.
"The prophets of the sexual revolution and the drug culture proclaimed the dawn of a new era of maturity and freedom, of peace and love," he said at a 1992 Chicago event. "That's not what happened — not by a long shot. Today we can see the grim harvest of the Age of Aquarius: Broken families, venereal diseases, teenage pregnancies, crack babies. We see misery and squalor, confusion and loneliness."
In speeches, he repeatedly mocked Woody Allen's justification — "The heart wants what it wants" — for his relationship with partner Mia Farrow's adopted daughter.
Try that rationale, he said, "as a foundation for any sort of human behavior and you will see at once the danger and moral corruption it entails."
The perspective could create an awkward coexistence with a president known for misstatements and embellishments and who, prosecutors say, directed hush money payments to cover up claims of extramarital relationships with two women.
It's not clear how often he and Trump will interact and under what circumstances. Friends insist he won't easily bend to the president's will, describing Barr as principled, smart and strong-willed.
"Bill is not a shrinking violet," said former colleague Timothy Flanigan. "Bill is tough, tough in a good way."
Barr didn't campaign for the job and even proposed other names to the White House instead of his own, one friend. Returning as attorney general to stabilize the department could be a career capstone of sorts.
"He can take this without worrying about career advancement," said C. Boyden Gray, White House counsel to George H.W. Bush. "If he were a lot younger, I'm not sure he would have done it."
Read the whole story
· · · · ·
Ex-FBI Officials Say Spy Inquiry into President Trump Is ‘Uncharted Territory’
Paris Explosion at Bakery Leaves at Least 2 Firefighters Dead
PARIS — A powerful explosion tore through a bakery in central Paris on Saturday morning, killing at least two firefighters and leaving smoke, flames and scattered debris in its wake, the authorities said.
The police and city authorities said the blast, which occurred on Rue de Trévise, was believed to have been caused by a gas leak.
Christophe Castaner, the interior minister, initially said two civilians and two firefighters were among the dead. He later corrected the toll on Twitter to two dead from the Paris Fire Department.
Mr. Castaner said that shortly after 8:30 a.m. on Saturday, firefighters responded to reports of a gas leak at No. 6 Rue de Trévise.
“As they were intervening, a dramatic explosion occurred,” Mr. Castaner told reporters at the site of the blast, praising the firefighters for saving at least seven people, including one firefighter who was trapped underneath rubble for over two hours. About 200 firefighters battled the blaze and rescued people with ladders after the explosion.
The Paris prosecutor’s office said that 47 people had been injured by the explosion, 10 of them critically. Emergency medical workers used helicopters to help evacuate some of the injured, landingthem on the square in front of the Paris Opera house.
Rémy Heitz, the Paris prosecutor, said that the blast had been “manifestly accidental,” telling reporters at the site: “First there was a gas leak, then the arrival of the firefighters, followed by an explosion that caused the fire.”
But Mr. Heitz said investigators were just beginning to ascertain what had caused the leak and that all hypotheses were still being considered.
The explosion came as Paris and other cities around France were bracing on Saturday for a ninth week of protests by the “Yellow Vests” movement, which have previously been marked by episodes of violence and vandalism of high-end stores. But there was no indication that the explosion on Saturday had anything to do with the protests.
The Yellow Vests are protesting the social and economic policies of President Emmanuel Macron, whom they consider to be out of touch with their everyday needs. But the demonstrations have also come to express a wider discontent with the political and media elites.
On Saturday, the biggest demonstrations were held in Paris and in Bourges, a much smaller town in central France that some protest organizers had chosen because it was closer to the regions where many of the Yellow Vests live. At midday, thousands were peacefully demonstrating in both cities.
After the large explosion in Paris, pictures on social media showed a blackened store front at the corner of Rue Trévise and Rue Sainte-Cécile, in the 9th Arrondissement of Paris, with windows blown out, debris strewn around the street and fires still burning. Other images showed damaged buildings and broken windows stretching for several blocks.
Mr. Castaner said on Saturday that the situation was “under control” but that he was still “under shock” after seeing the site of the explosion. He said that firefighters would continue to check that neighboring buildings were safe over the coming days.
The explosion occurred on a residential street in an area of Paris that is also well known to tourists, with many hotels and attractions nearby, including the Grévin wax museum and the Folies Bergère music hall.
One person wrote on Twitter: “Woke up to the apartment building shaking as if I had never left California … not an earthquake, but an explosion on Rue de Trévise not even a mile from me.” Another person wrote of hearing screams.
Residents told French television that firefighters had been responding to reports of a gas leak in the neighborhood and were ordering residents to turn off their gas supply and stay inside when the explosion occurred.
Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, said that all those who had been affected by the explosion, who were in need of shelter or who were looking for information about the blast could seek help at the 9th Arrondissement Town Hall.
Many apartment buildings in Paris use gas for heating and other purposes, but deadly explosions because of leaks are rare. In 2016, an explosion caused by a gas leak in the 6th Arrondissement tore off the roof of an apartment building and wounded 17 people.
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PARIS — A powerful explosion tore through a bakery in central Paris on Saturday morning, killing at least two firefighters and leaving smoke, flames and scattered debris in its wake, the authorities said.
The police and city authorities said the blast, which occurred on Rue de Trévise, was believed to have been caused by a gas leak.
Christophe Castaner, the interior minister, initially said two civilians and two firefighters were among the dead. He later corrected the toll on Twitter to two dead from the Paris Fire Department.
Mr. Castaner said that shortly after 8:30 a.m. on Saturday, firefighters responded to reports of a gas leak at No. 6 Rue de Trévise.
“As they were intervening, a dramatic explosion occurred,” Mr. Castaner told reporters at the site of the blast, praising the firefighters for saving at least seven people, including one firefighter who was trapped underneath rubble for over two hours. About 200 firefighters battled the blaze and rescued people with ladders after the explosion.
The Paris prosecutor’s office said that 47 people had been injured by the explosion, 10 of them critically. Emergency medical workers used helicopters to help evacuate some of the injured, landingthem on the square in front of the Paris Opera house.
Rémy Heitz, the Paris prosecutor, said that the blast had been “manifestly accidental,” telling reporters at the site: “First there was a gas leak, then the arrival of the firefighters, followed by an explosion that caused the fire.”
But Mr. Heitz said investigators were just beginning to ascertain what had caused the leak and that all hypotheses were still being considered.
The explosion came as Paris and other cities around France were bracing on Saturday for a ninth week of protests by the “Yellow Vests” movement, which have previously been marked by episodes of violence and vandalism of high-end stores. But there was no indication that the explosion on Saturday had anything to do with the protests.
The Yellow Vests are protesting the social and economic policies of President Emmanuel Macron, whom they consider to be out of touch with their everyday needs. But the demonstrations have also come to express a wider discontent with the political and media elites.
On Saturday, the biggest demonstrations were held in Paris and in Bourges, a much smaller town in central France that some protest organizers had chosen because it was closer to the regions where many of the Yellow Vests live. At midday, thousands were peacefully demonstrating in both cities.
After the large explosion in Paris, pictures on social media showed a blackened store front at the corner of Rue Trévise and Rue Sainte-Cécile, in the 9th Arrondissement of Paris, with windows blown out, debris strewn around the street and fires still burning. Other images showed damaged buildings and broken windows stretching for several blocks.
Mr. Castaner said on Saturday that the situation was “under control” but that he was still “under shock” after seeing the site of the explosion. He said that firefighters would continue to check that neighboring buildings were safe over the coming days.
The explosion occurred on a residential street in an area of Paris that is also well known to tourists, with many hotels and attractions nearby, including the Grévin wax museum and the Folies Bergère music hall.
One person wrote on Twitter: “Woke up to the apartment building shaking as if I had never left California … not an earthquake, but an explosion on Rue de Trévise not even a mile from me.” Another person wrote of hearing screams.
Residents told French television that firefighters had been responding to reports of a gas leak in the neighborhood and were ordering residents to turn off their gas supply and stay inside when the explosion occurred.
Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, said that all those who had been affected by the explosion, who were in need of shelter or who were looking for information about the blast could seek help at the 9th Arrondissement Town Hall.
Many apartment buildings in Paris use gas for heating and other purposes, but deadly explosions because of leaks are rare. In 2016, an explosion caused by a gas leak in the 6th Arrondissement tore off the roof of an apartment building and wounded 17 people.
Read the whole story
· · ·
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