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Thursday, October 27, 2016 10:41:42 AM
The Trump Files: Trump's Long History of Getting Sued By His Own Lawyers
"He's a deadbeat."
Max J. RosenthalOct. 27, 2016 6:00 AM
Ivylise Simones
Until the election, we're bringing you "The Trump Files," a daily dose of telling episodes, strange but true stories, or curious scenes from the life of GOP nominee Donald Trump.
During his decades in the real estate world, Donald Trump famously shortchanged many small businesses on the money he owed them. The list includes companies that worked on Trump's properties or supplied him with chandeliers, pianos, marble, and other luxury touches. But Trump also tried to underpay the very same lawyers who helped him save money, and some ended up suing their former client.
As our own Hannah Levintova reported in March, the Atlantic City law firm of Levine Staller saved one of Trump's companies tens of millions of dollars in taxes—and then sued the company, Trump Entertainment, after the business tried to pay Levine Staller $1.25 million less than the firm was owed.
In 2012, Levine Staller won a settlement that returned $35 million in overpaid taxes and cut $15 million from the company's future liabilities, leading to a total savings of $50 million for the corporation. Trump agreed to pay $7.25 million to the law firm in legal fees, but then only paid Levine Staller $6 million before trying to claim the rest as unsecured debt in ongoing bankruptcy proceedings. In response, Levine Staller sued its former client, Trump Entertainment, and in 2014, a judge rejected Trump Entertainment's request to be absolved of this debt and told the company to pay up.
It wasn't an isolated case. Trump underpaid at least four law firms or lawyers who worked for him, according to various news outlets that looked into Trump's history of cheating his contractors. One of them, Morrison Cohen LLP of New York City, had represented Trump in a lawsuit against a construction contractor that Trump claimed had overcharged him for work on golf course. According to USA Today, Trump sued Morrison Cohen for using the case to help promote its work, and the firm countersued for almost $500,000 in unpaid bills. The case was settled in 2009.
It wasn't just big amounts Trump tried to get out of paying, either. Bill Scherer, a lawyer in Fort Lauderdale, had to sue Trump in 1994 to collect $5,000 in unpaid legal bills from a case Scherer won for the billionaire. The lawyer told Reuters last year he had offered Trump a low rate to "curry favor" with the mogul, but still had to sue. "He's a deadbeat," Scherer told South Florida's Sun-Sentinel newspaper. Trump told Reuters that he couldn't remember Scherer or the case at all.
Read the rest of "The Trump Files":
Trump Files #1: The Time Andrew Dice Clay Thanked Donald for the Hookers
Trump Files #2: When Donald Tried to Stop Charlie Sheen's Marriage to Brooke Mueller
Trump Files #3: The Brief Life of the "Trump Chateau for the Indigent"
Trump Files #4: Donald Thinks Asbestos Fears Are a Mob Conspiracy
Trump Files #5: Donald's Nuclear Negotiating Fantasy
Trump Files #6: Donald Wants a Powerball for Spies
Trump Files #7: Donald Gets An Allowance
Trump Files #8: The Time He Went Bananas on a Water Cooler
Trump Files #9: The Great Geico Boycott
Trump Files #10: Donald Trump, Tax-Hike Crusader
Trump Files #11: Watch Donald Trump Say He Would Have Done Better as a Black Man
Trump Files #12: Donald Can't Multiply 17 and 6
Trump Files #13: Watch Donald Sing the "Green Acres" Theme Song in Overalls
Trump Files #14: The Time Donald Trump Pulled Over His Limo to Stop a Beating
Trump Files #15: When Donald Wanted to Help the Clintons Buy Their House
Trump Files #16: He Once Forced a Small Business to Pay Him Royalties for Using the Word "Trump"
Trump Files #17: He Dumped Wine on an "Unattractive Reporter"
Trump Files #18: Behold the Hideous Statue He Wanted to Erect In Manhattan
Trump Files #19: When Donald Was "Principal for a Day" and Confronted by a Fifth-Grader
Trump Files #20: In 2012, Trump Begged GOP Presidential Candidates to Be Civil
Trump Files #21: When Donald Couldn't Tell the Difference Between Gorbachev and an Impersonator
Trump Files #22: His Football Team Treated Its Cheerleaders "Like Hookers"
Trump Files #23: Donald Tried to Shut Down a Bike Race Named "Rump"
Trump Files #24: When Donald Called Out Pat Buchanan for Bigotry
Trump Files #25: Donald's Most Ridiculous Appearance on Howard Stern's Show
Trump Files #26: How Donald Tricked New York Into Giving Him His First Huge Deal
Trump Files #27: Donald Told Congress the Reagan Tax Cuts Were Terrible
Trump Files #28: When Donald Destroyed Historic Art to Build Trump Tower
Trump Files #29: Donald Wanted to Build an Insane Castle on Madison Avenue
Trump Files #30: Donald's Near-Death Experience (That He Invented)
Trump Files #31: When Donald Struck Oil on the Upper West Side
Trump Files #32: When Donald Massacred Trees in the Trump Tower Lobby
Trump Files #33: When Donald Demanded Other People Pay for His Overpriced Quarterback
Trump Files #34: The Time Donald Sued Someone Who Made Fun of Him for $500 Million
Trump Files #35: Donald Tried to Make His Ghostwriter Pay for His Book Party
Trump Files #36: Watch Donald Shave a Man's Head on Television
Trump Files #37: How Donald Helped Make It Harder to Get Football Tickets
Trump Files #38: Donald Was Curious About His Baby Daughter's Breasts
Trump Files #39: When Democrats Courted Donald
Trump Files #40: Watch the Trump Vodka Ad Designed for a Russian Audience
Trump Files #41: Donald's Cologne Smelled of Jamba Juice and Strip Clubs
Trump Files #42: Donald Sued Other People Named Trump for Using Their Own Name
Trump Files #43: Donald Thinks Asbestos Would Have Saved the Twin Towers
Trump Files #44: Why Donald Threw a Fit Over His "Trump Tree" in Central Park
Trump Files #45: Watch Trump Endorse Slim Shady for President
Trump Files #46: The Easiest 13 Cents He Ever Made
Trump Files #47: The Time Donald Burned a Widow's Mortgage
Trump Files #48: Donald's Recurring Sex Dreams
Trump Files #49: Trump's Epic Insult Fight With Ed Koch
Trump Files #50: Donald Has Some Advice for Citizen Kane
Trump Files #51: Donald Once Turned Down a Million-Dollar Bet on "Trump: The Game"
Trump Files #52: When Donald Tried to Shake Down Mike Tyson for $2 Million
Trump Files #53: Donald and Melania's Creepy, Sex-Filled Interview With Howard Stern
Trump Files #54: Donald's Mega-Yacht Wasn't Big Enough For Him
Trump Files #55: When Donald Got in a Fight With Martha Stewart
Trump Files #56: Donald Reenacts an Iconic Scene From Top Gun
Trump Files #57: How Donald Tried to Hide His Legal Troubles to Get His Casino Approved
Trump Files #58: Donald's Wall Street Tower Is Filled With Crooks
Trump Files #59: When Donald Took Revenge by Cutting Off Health Coverage for a Sick Infant
Trump Files #60: Donald Couldn't Name Any of His "Handpicked" Trump U Professors
Trump Files #61: Watch a Clip of the Awful TV Show Trump Wanted to Make About Himself
Trump Files #62: Donald Perfectly Explains Why He Doesn't Have a Presidential Temperament
Trump Files #63: Donald's Petty Revenge on Connie Chung
Trump Files #64: Why Donald Called His 4-Year-Old Son a "Loser"
Trump Files #65: The Time Donald Called Some of His Golf Club Members "Spoiled Rich Jewish Guys"
Trump Files #66: "Always Be Around Unsuccessful People," Donald Recommends
Trump Files #67: Donald Said His Life Was "Shit." Here's Why.
Trump Files #68: Donald Filmed a Music Video. It Didn't Go Well.
Trump Files #69: Donald Claimed "More Indian Blood" Than the Native Americans Competing With His Casinos
Trump Files #70: Donald Has Been Inflating His Net Worth for 40 Years
Trump Files #71: Donald Weighs In on "Ghetto Supastar"
Trump Files #72: The Deadly Powerboat Race Donald Hosted in Atlantic City
Trump Files #73: When Donald Fat-Shamed Miss Universe
Trump Files #74: Yet Another Time Donald Sued Over the Word "Trump"
Trump Files #75: Donald Thinks Exercising Might Kill You
Trump Files #76: Donald's Big Book of Hitler Speeches
Trump Files #77: When Donald Ran Afoul of Ancient Scottish Heraldry Law
Trump Files #78: Donald Accuses a Whiskey Company of Election Fraud
Trump Files #79: When Donald's Anti-Japanese Comments Came Back to Haunt Him
Trump Files #80: The Shady Way Fred Trump Tried to Save His Son's Casino
Trump Files #81: Donald's Creepy Poolside Parties in Florida
Trump Files #82: Donald Gives a Lesson in How Not to Ski With Your Kids
Trump Files #83: Listen to Donald Brag About His Affairs—While Pretending to Be Someone Else
Trump Files #84: How Donald Made a Fortune by Dumping His Debt on Other People
Trump Files #85: The Saga of Donald's Short-Lived Weight-Loss Program
Trump Files #86: When Donald Bought a Nightclub From an Infamous Mobster
Trump Files #87: Donald Sues Himself—And Wins!
Trump Files #88: Donald's War on His Scottish Neighbors
Trump Files #89: When Donald Had to Prove He Was Not the Son of an Orangutan
Trump Files #90: Donald Made Charity Pledges In His Dead Brother's Name, Then Apparently Never Delivered
Trump Files #91: There Once Was a Horse Named DJ Trump
Trump Files #92: How Donald's Lawyers Dealt With His Constant Lying
Trump Files #93: Donald Flipped Out When an Analyst (Correctly) Predicted His Casino's Failure
Trump Files #94: Cosmo Once Asked Donald to Pose Nude for $50,000
Trump Files #95: Donald Attacks a Reporter Who Questioned His Claim to Own the Empire State Building
Trump Files #96: When He Had the Hots for Princess Diana and Then Denied It
Trump Files #97: Famous Tic Tac Gobbler Donald Trump Had This Breath Advice for Larry King
Trump Files #98: How Donald Drove Palm Beach Nuts With an American Flag
Trump Files #99: Trump Finds the Silver Lining in an Ebola Outbreak
Trump Files #100: How Donald Screwed Over New York City on His Tax Bill
Trump Files #101: Donald's Words to a Grieving Mother
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/10/trump-files-time-trumps-lawyers-sued-trump
"He's a deadbeat."
Max J. RosenthalOct. 27, 2016 6:00 AM
Ivylise Simones
Until the election, we're bringing you "The Trump Files," a daily dose of telling episodes, strange but true stories, or curious scenes from the life of GOP nominee Donald Trump.
During his decades in the real estate world, Donald Trump famously shortchanged many small businesses on the money he owed them. The list includes companies that worked on Trump's properties or supplied him with chandeliers, pianos, marble, and other luxury touches. But Trump also tried to underpay the very same lawyers who helped him save money, and some ended up suing their former client.
As our own Hannah Levintova reported in March, the Atlantic City law firm of Levine Staller saved one of Trump's companies tens of millions of dollars in taxes—and then sued the company, Trump Entertainment, after the business tried to pay Levine Staller $1.25 million less than the firm was owed.
In 2012, Levine Staller won a settlement that returned $35 million in overpaid taxes and cut $15 million from the company's future liabilities, leading to a total savings of $50 million for the corporation. Trump agreed to pay $7.25 million to the law firm in legal fees, but then only paid Levine Staller $6 million before trying to claim the rest as unsecured debt in ongoing bankruptcy proceedings. In response, Levine Staller sued its former client, Trump Entertainment, and in 2014, a judge rejected Trump Entertainment's request to be absolved of this debt and told the company to pay up.
It wasn't an isolated case. Trump underpaid at least four law firms or lawyers who worked for him, according to various news outlets that looked into Trump's history of cheating his contractors. One of them, Morrison Cohen LLP of New York City, had represented Trump in a lawsuit against a construction contractor that Trump claimed had overcharged him for work on golf course. According to USA Today, Trump sued Morrison Cohen for using the case to help promote its work, and the firm countersued for almost $500,000 in unpaid bills. The case was settled in 2009.
It wasn't just big amounts Trump tried to get out of paying, either. Bill Scherer, a lawyer in Fort Lauderdale, had to sue Trump in 1994 to collect $5,000 in unpaid legal bills from a case Scherer won for the billionaire. The lawyer told Reuters last year he had offered Trump a low rate to "curry favor" with the mogul, but still had to sue. "He's a deadbeat," Scherer told South Florida's Sun-Sentinel newspaper. Trump told Reuters that he couldn't remember Scherer or the case at all.
Read the rest of "The Trump Files":
Trump Files #1: The Time Andrew Dice Clay Thanked Donald for the Hookers
Trump Files #2: When Donald Tried to Stop Charlie Sheen's Marriage to Brooke Mueller
Trump Files #3: The Brief Life of the "Trump Chateau for the Indigent"
Trump Files #4: Donald Thinks Asbestos Fears Are a Mob Conspiracy
Trump Files #5: Donald's Nuclear Negotiating Fantasy
Trump Files #6: Donald Wants a Powerball for Spies
Trump Files #7: Donald Gets An Allowance
Trump Files #8: The Time He Went Bananas on a Water Cooler
Trump Files #9: The Great Geico Boycott
Trump Files #10: Donald Trump, Tax-Hike Crusader
Trump Files #11: Watch Donald Trump Say He Would Have Done Better as a Black Man
Trump Files #12: Donald Can't Multiply 17 and 6
Trump Files #13: Watch Donald Sing the "Green Acres" Theme Song in Overalls
Trump Files #14: The Time Donald Trump Pulled Over His Limo to Stop a Beating
Trump Files #15: When Donald Wanted to Help the Clintons Buy Their House
Trump Files #16: He Once Forced a Small Business to Pay Him Royalties for Using the Word "Trump"
Trump Files #17: He Dumped Wine on an "Unattractive Reporter"
Trump Files #18: Behold the Hideous Statue He Wanted to Erect In Manhattan
Trump Files #19: When Donald Was "Principal for a Day" and Confronted by a Fifth-Grader
Trump Files #20: In 2012, Trump Begged GOP Presidential Candidates to Be Civil
Trump Files #21: When Donald Couldn't Tell the Difference Between Gorbachev and an Impersonator
Trump Files #22: His Football Team Treated Its Cheerleaders "Like Hookers"
Trump Files #23: Donald Tried to Shut Down a Bike Race Named "Rump"
Trump Files #24: When Donald Called Out Pat Buchanan for Bigotry
Trump Files #25: Donald's Most Ridiculous Appearance on Howard Stern's Show
Trump Files #26: How Donald Tricked New York Into Giving Him His First Huge Deal
Trump Files #27: Donald Told Congress the Reagan Tax Cuts Were Terrible
Trump Files #28: When Donald Destroyed Historic Art to Build Trump Tower
Trump Files #29: Donald Wanted to Build an Insane Castle on Madison Avenue
Trump Files #30: Donald's Near-Death Experience (That He Invented)
Trump Files #31: When Donald Struck Oil on the Upper West Side
Trump Files #32: When Donald Massacred Trees in the Trump Tower Lobby
Trump Files #33: When Donald Demanded Other People Pay for His Overpriced Quarterback
Trump Files #34: The Time Donald Sued Someone Who Made Fun of Him for $500 Million
Trump Files #35: Donald Tried to Make His Ghostwriter Pay for His Book Party
Trump Files #36: Watch Donald Shave a Man's Head on Television
Trump Files #37: How Donald Helped Make It Harder to Get Football Tickets
Trump Files #38: Donald Was Curious About His Baby Daughter's Breasts
Trump Files #39: When Democrats Courted Donald
Trump Files #40: Watch the Trump Vodka Ad Designed for a Russian Audience
Trump Files #41: Donald's Cologne Smelled of Jamba Juice and Strip Clubs
Trump Files #42: Donald Sued Other People Named Trump for Using Their Own Name
Trump Files #43: Donald Thinks Asbestos Would Have Saved the Twin Towers
Trump Files #44: Why Donald Threw a Fit Over His "Trump Tree" in Central Park
Trump Files #45: Watch Trump Endorse Slim Shady for President
Trump Files #46: The Easiest 13 Cents He Ever Made
Trump Files #47: The Time Donald Burned a Widow's Mortgage
Trump Files #48: Donald's Recurring Sex Dreams
Trump Files #49: Trump's Epic Insult Fight With Ed Koch
Trump Files #50: Donald Has Some Advice for Citizen Kane
Trump Files #51: Donald Once Turned Down a Million-Dollar Bet on "Trump: The Game"
Trump Files #52: When Donald Tried to Shake Down Mike Tyson for $2 Million
Trump Files #53: Donald and Melania's Creepy, Sex-Filled Interview With Howard Stern
Trump Files #54: Donald's Mega-Yacht Wasn't Big Enough For Him
Trump Files #55: When Donald Got in a Fight With Martha Stewart
Trump Files #56: Donald Reenacts an Iconic Scene From Top Gun
Trump Files #57: How Donald Tried to Hide His Legal Troubles to Get His Casino Approved
Trump Files #58: Donald's Wall Street Tower Is Filled With Crooks
Trump Files #59: When Donald Took Revenge by Cutting Off Health Coverage for a Sick Infant
Trump Files #60: Donald Couldn't Name Any of His "Handpicked" Trump U Professors
Trump Files #61: Watch a Clip of the Awful TV Show Trump Wanted to Make About Himself
Trump Files #62: Donald Perfectly Explains Why He Doesn't Have a Presidential Temperament
Trump Files #63: Donald's Petty Revenge on Connie Chung
Trump Files #64: Why Donald Called His 4-Year-Old Son a "Loser"
Trump Files #65: The Time Donald Called Some of His Golf Club Members "Spoiled Rich Jewish Guys"
Trump Files #66: "Always Be Around Unsuccessful People," Donald Recommends
Trump Files #67: Donald Said His Life Was "Shit." Here's Why.
Trump Files #68: Donald Filmed a Music Video. It Didn't Go Well.
Trump Files #69: Donald Claimed "More Indian Blood" Than the Native Americans Competing With His Casinos
Trump Files #70: Donald Has Been Inflating His Net Worth for 40 Years
Trump Files #71: Donald Weighs In on "Ghetto Supastar"
Trump Files #72: The Deadly Powerboat Race Donald Hosted in Atlantic City
Trump Files #73: When Donald Fat-Shamed Miss Universe
Trump Files #74: Yet Another Time Donald Sued Over the Word "Trump"
Trump Files #75: Donald Thinks Exercising Might Kill You
Trump Files #76: Donald's Big Book of Hitler Speeches
Trump Files #77: When Donald Ran Afoul of Ancient Scottish Heraldry Law
Trump Files #78: Donald Accuses a Whiskey Company of Election Fraud
Trump Files #79: When Donald's Anti-Japanese Comments Came Back to Haunt Him
Trump Files #80: The Shady Way Fred Trump Tried to Save His Son's Casino
Trump Files #81: Donald's Creepy Poolside Parties in Florida
Trump Files #82: Donald Gives a Lesson in How Not to Ski With Your Kids
Trump Files #83: Listen to Donald Brag About His Affairs—While Pretending to Be Someone Else
Trump Files #84: How Donald Made a Fortune by Dumping His Debt on Other People
Trump Files #85: The Saga of Donald's Short-Lived Weight-Loss Program
Trump Files #86: When Donald Bought a Nightclub From an Infamous Mobster
Trump Files #87: Donald Sues Himself—And Wins!
Trump Files #88: Donald's War on His Scottish Neighbors
Trump Files #89: When Donald Had to Prove He Was Not the Son of an Orangutan
Trump Files #90: Donald Made Charity Pledges In His Dead Brother's Name, Then Apparently Never Delivered
Trump Files #91: There Once Was a Horse Named DJ Trump
Trump Files #92: How Donald's Lawyers Dealt With His Constant Lying
Trump Files #93: Donald Flipped Out When an Analyst (Correctly) Predicted His Casino's Failure
Trump Files #94: Cosmo Once Asked Donald to Pose Nude for $50,000
Trump Files #95: Donald Attacks a Reporter Who Questioned His Claim to Own the Empire State Building
Trump Files #96: When He Had the Hots for Princess Diana and Then Denied It
Trump Files #97: Famous Tic Tac Gobbler Donald Trump Had This Breath Advice for Larry King
Trump Files #98: How Donald Drove Palm Beach Nuts With an American Flag
Trump Files #99: Trump Finds the Silver Lining in an Ebola Outbreak
Trump Files #100: How Donald Screwed Over New York City on His Tax Bill
Trump Files #101: Donald's Words to a Grieving Mother
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/10/trump-files-time-trumps-lawyers-sued-trump
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