We just concluded the seventh day of our trial against Donald Trump, the Trump Organization, and other defendants. One of those defendants is Allen Weisselberg, the former chief financial officer at the Trump Organization. Yesterday, we asked Mr. Weisselberg to confirm who had final sign off on [00:00:16] the fraudulent statements of financial condition at the center of our case. You know what he said? Good question. And it was a good question, one of more than 100 that Mr. Weisselberg could not answer. But Mr. Weisselberg was able to remember that Donald Trump himself [00:00:33] reviewed the statements. And today, our witness, Nicholas Haigh, a former risk manager at Deutsche Bank, testified that he relied on those statements of financial condition to approve loans to the Trump Organization. Hundreds of millions of dollars in loans with unfairly advantageous terms. [00:00:54] >> Speaker 2: Right, so more on that Deutsche Bank testimony. Basically, all this is about the overinflating of assets in order to get more assets, right? In order to bankrupt a casino, because you're a genius. Trump's 2011 financial statement listed his net worth at $4.3 billion, [00:01:13] however, Deutsche Bank, and this is 2011, who knows what it's at now? Deutsche Bank pegged it around $ 2.4 billion in an internal credit report as he sought the Doral loan. The bank knocked 75% off the worth he'd given for [00:01:28] planned developments with the internal document citing, the uncertainty in valuing undeveloped land, for example. [LAUGH], the bankers have the value he listed for his golf courses and had $94 million difference of opinion on how to account for [00:01:43] golf membership deposits among his liquid assets. He's, but we're charging a billion a year to golf with me. And they're, no, dude, you can't do that. This land is sinking, homie, this is a dump. Just cuz you put grass over it doesn't mean it's worth more. [00:02:02] Trump's statements of financial condition were key, however, to his approval for that $125 million loan in the building of Doral, Florida, and $107 million loan for a 2012 Chicago hotel and condo skyscraper, former Deutsche Bank risk manager officer Nicholas Haigh testified too. [00:02:21] Trump's defense, however, said it was, but look at me, solid gold. Trump denies any wrongdoing, emphasizing disclaimers on the documents that he says alerted lenders to do their own homework. Again with the homework line. The disclaimers say, among other things, that the financial statements aren't [00:02:39] audited and that others, quote, might reach different conclusions about Trump's financial position if they had more information. So this is the same thing Trump said openly to the press last week when he was asked about it, where he's, everyone needs to do their own research. Just like COVID-19, is it real? [00:02:56] Is it not real? Do your own research. Is the vaccine good? Do your own research. He literally said that verbatim about all of the financial institutions, effectively admitting guilt, which, again, once again, this is all about how much he's gonna owe and whether the Trump Organization is kind of dead as we know it, at least in New York. [00:03:15] It'll revive itself in Florida in a million different ways. But, Bret. Yeah, in Florida, I love that because it gives me the imagery of those iguanas that freeze at night and you're, they're dead in the trees. And then they fall, warm up and come back to life and just squirrel back into [00:03:33] an everglade, that is the perfect visual for the Trump Organization in Florida. Yeah, in New York, they've tried real hard not to be able to do pretty much anything ever just by being jerks. [00:03:49] And then various elements of Trump's businesses and charities, defrauding children and all of that, and being on the record as being super shady in a legal sense as well, like decided cases. I love this because at any point I love that we [00:04:07] teach about triangles in elementary school. I love that we teach about how to play soccer or whatever. But I think we really need to teach how rich people move money around and how taxes work and how many people just kind of look the other way. [00:04:26] And the reason that it's so ridiculous- >> It's called business school. >> Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly, there needs to be some, when you look back at the old ways I used to teach kids, it was if you work on a farm and there's this many bales of hay because and people are, I know all about it. And now it's none of that practical stuff is really taught. [00:04:43] They need to teach it because this is the hilariously terrible stuff that everybody does. Everybody, when they want to find a tax break, suddenly they are the worst business person in the world on paper. And when they're searching for some kind of way to flex their muscle and clout, [00:05:02] suddenly they bought a shoe and they write it as like eight bajillion dollars worth of worth when it's really just a freaking shoe. >> Speaker 2: They want a loan and they're, but it's a magic shoe. >> Speaker 3: And these are the things that all of us together have known about [00:05:17] Trump's business. And, anyway, anyone who says this isn't at all political, it is political, but it's also true that he's breaking the law. And you can't say you should give me a pass on breaking the law just because the person prosecuting me for it is political, in a little bit. [00:05:34] >> Yeah, I do just wanna say that it's really important to know that Allen Weisselberg also testified and it seems as though Forbes caught him in a lie. Real quick, under questioning, Weisselberg acknowledged that the 30,000-square-foot [00:05:50] figure this was from a Trump penthouse in New York was wrong. He tried to suggest, however, that he had little to do with the bogus calculation, batting away several questions about the financial documents and discussions with Forbes, which has been valuing Trump's fortune since 1982. I never focus on the triplex, to be honest with you, Weisselberg said. [00:06:10] It was almost de minimis relative to his net worth, so I didn't really focus on it. But that's not true according to Forbes, again, they reviewed old emails and notes where Weisselberg basically pushed the idea that this apartment was 30,000-square-feet. [00:06:29] And it absolutely contributed to Donald Trump's overall wealth. Why would they be lobbying Forbes about Donald Trump's overall wealth? It's cuz the Trump Organization is so vain and Trump is so vain, they wanted to be on the Forbes 500 list over and over, or top 20 or whatever the hell they do. [00:06:47] America's, not next top billionaire, you know what I mean? So they kept on including it, when in fact Forbes uncovered property records that showed the penthouse that's not 30,000, it's only 10,996 square feet, I mean, barely room for a little soiree, honestly, not 30,000 feet, not 33,000 square feet. [00:07:07] Reporters reach out to Weisselberg and others of the Trump Organization to ask about the discrepancy emails that are now being used as evidence in this case. So again, on some dumb stuff, like how big is your apartment, your penthouse? It's 33,000 square feet. [00:07:23] So even small little lies like that, that Forbes has caught them in, shows just how it was common in place to over inflate all the things that Trump had. Listen how there's yards and that's one yard is three feet, I'm sure that's just what happened. [00:07:40] >> Speaker 3: Yeah, it's in meters. >> I'm sure they were using metrics or something. It's not his fault. [MUSIC]