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Lawyers once did to Trump what the media won't: Make him admit his lies

By Laura Clawson
Wednesday Aug 10, 2016 · 11:56 AM CST

Donald Trump is not new to this lying game. Trump has been Trumping for years, and a deposition Trump gave in one of his own lawsuits in 2007 shows how central a part of Trump’s persona and reputation his lies are. Trump had sued author Timothy O’Brien after O’Brien reported Trump’s wealth at significantly less than a billion dollars, never mind the multiple billions Trump claims. But it didn’t work out so well for Trump—the lawsuit was dismissed and O’Brien’s lawyers got him on the record with a series of whoppers. Thirty of them, in fact.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/2016-election/trump-lies/

The lawyer played a clip from Larry King’s talk show, in which King asked Trump how many people worked for him. “Twenty-two thousand or so,” Trump said.

“Are all those people on your payroll?” Ceresney asked him.

“No, not directly,” Trump said. He said he was counting employees of other companies that acted as suppliers and subcontractors to his businesses.

That’s like saying your plumber is your employee. The government can arguably say that subcontractor jobs funded by government contracts count as government-created jobs, but Trump’s business is nowhere near big enough to make that claim—even if you believe he’s worth as much as he says he is. Not to mention, Trump’s is a particularly outrageous claim because many of those subcontractors have ended up suing Trump after he stiffed them on what he owed.

Trump’s list of lies included claiming to have been paid $1 million for a speech for which he was paid $400,000, not having borrowed from his father’s estate when he’d borrowed around $9 million, and having sold golf course memberships for $300,000 that he actually sold for $200,000.

In short, Trump lies like he breathes: loudly and constantly.

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/8/10/1558752/-Lawyers-once-did-to-Trump-what-the-media-won-t-Make-him-admit-his-lies

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/2016-election/trump-lies/

Trump: A true story

The mogul, in a 2007 deposition, had to face up to a series of falsehoods and exaggerations. And he did. Sort of.
Hover over the claims above for more information

By David A. Fahrenthold and Robert O’Harrow Jr. August 10, 2016

The lawyer gave Donald Trump a note, written in Trump’s own handwriting. He asked Trump to read it aloud.

Trump may not have realized it yet, but he had walked into a trap.

“Peter, you’re a real loser,’” Trump began reading.

The mogul had sent the note to a reporter, objecting to a story that said Trump owned a “small minority stake” in a Manhattan real estate project. Trump insisted that the word “small” was incorrect. Trump continued reading: “I wrote, ‘Is 50 percent small?’?”

“This [note] was intended to indicate that you had a 50 percent stake in the project, correct?” said the lawyer.

“That’s correct,” Trump said.

For the first of many times that day, Trump was about to be caught saying something that wasn’t true.

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LAWYER: Mr. Trump, do you own 30 percent or 50 percent of the limited partnership?

TRUMP: I own 30 percent.

It was a mid-December morning in 2007 — the start of an interrogation unlike anything else in the public record of Trump’s life.

Trump had brought it on himself. He had sued a reporter, accusing him of being reckless and dishonest in a book that raised questions about Trump’s net worth. The reporter’s attorneys turned the tables and brought Trump in for a deposition.

For two straight days, they asked Trump question after question that touched on the same theme: Trump’s honesty.

The lawyers confronted the mogul with his past statements — and with his company’s internal documents, which often showed those statements had been incorrect or invented. The lawyers were relentless. Trump, the bigger-than-life mogul, was vulnerable — cornered, out-prepared and under oath.

Thirty times, they caught him.

Trump had misstated sales at his condo buildings. Inflated the price of membership at one of his golf clubs. Overstated the depth of his past debts and the number of his employees.

That deposition — 170 transcribed pages — offers extraordinary insights into Trump’s relationship with the truth. Trump’s falsehoods were unstrategic — needless, highly specific, easy to disprove. When caught, Trump sometimes blamed others for the error or explained that the untrue thing really was true, in his mind, because he saw the situation more positively than others did.

“Have you ever lied in public statements about your properties?” the lawyer asked.

“I try and be truthful,” Trump said. “I’m no different from a politician running for office. You always want to put the best foot forward.”

In his presidential campaign, Trump has sought to make his truth-telling a selling point. He nicknamed his main Republican opponent “Lyin’ Ted” Cruz. He called his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, “A PATHOLOGICAL LIAR!” in a recent Twitter message. “I will present the facts plainly and honestly,” he said in the opening of his speech at the Republican National Convention. “We cannot afford to be so politically correct anymore.”

Trump has had a habit of telling demonstrable untruths during his presidential campaign. The Washington Post’s Fact Checker has awarded him four Pinocchios — the maximum a statement can receive — 39 times since he announced his bid last summer. In many cases, his statements echo those in the 2007 deposition: They are specific, checkable — and wrong.

Trump said he opposed the Iraq War at the start. He didn’t. He said he’d never mocked a disabled New York Times reporter. He had. Trump also said the National Football League had sent him a letter, objecting to a presidential debate that was scheduled for the same time as a football game. It hadn’t.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/2016-election/trump-lies/