A New York judge just ordered a former real estate attorney of Donald Trump’s to hand over “hundreds” of documents to investigators looking into whether the president falsely reported land values to acquire loans or tax benefits, Bloomberg reports. This ruling comes just ahead of the presidential election, so Trump is not having a good day.
Letitia James does not mess around.
“Charles Martabano went too far in asserting attorney-client privilege over documents relating to his past work for the Trump Organization, Justice Arthur Engoron ruled Oct. 30,” the outlet reports. “The judge reviewed the documents before ordering Martabano to hand them over to New York Attorney General Letitia James.”
“The mere presence of an attorney on an email chain amongst an organization’s employees does not trigger the cloak of attorney-client privilege,” Engoron wrote. “Moreover, a client waives the privilege if communications are made in the presence of a third party.”
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After Trump’s former personal lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen testified in front of Congress in 2019 to say that Trump repeatedly inflated the value of his assets to garner loans, James launched her civil investigation of potential fraud in Trump’s business dealings. And Donald Trump has lied about his wealth before.
If Trump loses to Democratic nominee Joe Biden, this could hamper Trump’s businesses along with other legal matters. While Trump tries to paint Biden as “corrupt,” that schtick might have worked in 2016 when he repeatedly called Hillary Clinton “crooked,” but the president is the king of projection. This time it won’t work, as Trump has flouted laws and norms while in office.
James took legal action in August to enforce a half-dozen subpoenas for testimony and documents, culminating in a ruling in her favor that required Trump’s Manhattan-based company to start handing over more documents and forced the president’s son, Eric Trump, to sit for a sworn deposition last month.
Eric must not have been pleased about that since he sought to have the sit-down with James after the election. James has been a thorn in the president’s side as she leaves no stone unturned. The election is tomorrow, and one has to wonder if Trump is fighting for reelection because of the legal battles he will face if he is not victorious on Election Day.
Featured image via DoD photo by U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Marianique Santos
