Highlights: Former President Donald Trump relied on a Forbes article to “prove” his net worth when placing a bid to buy the NFL’s Buffalo Bills – a decade-old business move that came under scrutiny during his New York civil fraud trial on Tuesday.

K. Don Cornwell of Morgan Stanley testified in court that Trump distributed printouts from Forbes regarding the highest-paid entertainers to affirm his financial standing to Buffalo Bills executives after claiming a net worth of over $8 billion in an offer letter. The former president refused to disclose financial statements to bankers involved in his $1 billion bid for the football team in 2014.

  • Heresy_generator
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    10211 months ago

    That’s actually devious. He submitted incomplete and false documentation to Forbes as evidence of his worth and then used a Forbes article to try to convince banks.

    Because submitting incomplete and false documentation to Forbes isn’t a crime and trying to use a Forbes article as evidence of your finances isn’t a crime (though it is pathetic, embarrassing, and dumb) but taking out that middle step and submitting incomplete and false documentation directly to a bank is fraud.

    • @jeffwOP
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      3211 months ago

      That’s not really how crimes work afaik. You can’t just add an extra step and say you’re innocent. That’s like if I put a car in neutral at the top of a cliff and waited for someone else to bump into it and make it roll into somebody, then said they were guilty of murder, despite my intent clearly being murder/manslaughter.

      • angelsomething
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        2111 months ago

        I agree but we all know what you’ve described is exactly what trump thought.

        • @Wrench
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          311 months ago

          And it’s certainly enough to give prosecutors pause when trying to bring a case.

        • @hemmes
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          111 months ago

          Right, we’re all in agreement here but it does make you want to spell it out again due to the share madness of it all

      • @Wilibus
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        111 months ago

        This type of argument is why establishing motive is so integral to criminal prosecution.

    • @[email protected]
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      1811 months ago

      I’m not too sure about the second part there. We can see if/how they pursue it, but I’m pretty sure using something like a Forbes article containing lies in order to lie in court testimony (or even to fraudulently enter into a contract is fraud.

      He loves to skirt the line on these things. He’s watched so many mafia movies literally all of his lawyers have said that’s his technique. He doesn’t say “make fake votes,” he says “I need you to find some votes.”

      That’s the level of criminal mastermind it takes to run the United States and the gop.

    • FuglyDuck
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      1511 months ago

      Because submitting incomplete and false documentation to Forbes isn’t a crime and trying to use a Forbes article as evidence of your finances isn’t a crime (though it is pathetic, embarrassing, and dumb) but taking out that middle step and submitting incomplete and false documentation directly to a bank is fraud.

      pretty sure, that middle step is still bank fraud. Submitting information you know to be false is fraud. Doesn’t matter if there was an extra step or not. though the bank was pretty fucking stupid for accepting it- an that’s the crux of trump’s legal defense. (and his defense is hilariously bad.)

    • partial_accumen
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      1511 months ago

      That’s actually devious. He submitted incomplete and false documentation to Forbes as evidence of his worth and then used a Forbes article to try to convince banks.

      Post hoc ergo propter hoc

    • @Crackhappy
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      511 months ago

      You are totally correct. I never thought of that, that man is a genius. Lying to one person and getting them to write my lies totally obfuscates my years of lying to everyone else. Simple genius.

      • @Crackhappy
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        311 months ago

        While you may think what I just said was sarcasm, what you may not know is that I just took an IQ test. It came back negative.