Trump's Troubles

Trump Hotels accountant admits 'overstating' when he said company had $290 million in cash (msn.com)

Mark Hawthorn, the chief accounting officer of the Trump Hotels division of the Trump Organization, testified at former President Donald Trump's civil fraud trial in New York that he "overstated" the value of the company's assets in 2018, reported ABC News on Monday.

According to the report, when a third-party accounting agency asked for the total amount of Trump's liquid assets, "Hawthorn said he consulted the financial statement that listed 'cash equivalents in excess of $290 million'." But New York Attorney General Letitia James alleges that 30 percent of those liquid assets were actually owned by Vornado Partnerships, a company with whom Trump had a partnership interest but was distinct from the Trump Organization, which was not disclosed on the statement.

"It appears to have been overstated," Hawthorn admitted, adding that he had only viewed the statement once during a 20-minute session on Google Meet and hadn't examined it closely.

 

Cannon going off the rails again. Scolds Smith for not providing a SCIF that is convenient to the defense

"Shouldn't we refer to her as Trump defense counsel?": Experts slam Cannon order scolding Jack Smith (msn.com)

U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon, who is presiding over former President Donald Trump's classified documents case in Florida, issued an order to special counsel Jack Smith's office Tuesday scolding the prosecutors for not providing access to classified materials to the defense in an "accredited facility" within the Southern District of Florida, MSNBC's Katie Phang reports. The order follows the prosecution and defense's squabble this week over the case's discovery process, during which both parties exchange records about witnesses and evidence they may present at trial, according to The Messenger.

In a Sunday night filing, Trump's attorneys said Smith's office had not yet made around 2,400 pages of classified discovery available for review in the district and asked for an extension to file additional motions. Prosecutors, who have provided over 1.3 million pages of unclassified records in the case, partially objected to the extension request Tuesday. While they did not reject a 10-day extension regarding classified records, of which the case involves thousands of pages, they did oppose any motion to extend deadlines for unclassified discovery motions.

Experts criticized Cannon's order online. "Shouldn’t we just refer to her as Trump defense counsel Cannon?" Norman Ornstein, an emeritus scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, said on X, formerly Twitter. "I'm trying to think of a single time in a case involving classified information that my convenience or proximity to access to the relevant [sensitive compartmented information facility] was a consideration," national security lawyer Bradley Moss added. Phang pointed out that Cannon also recently scolded a prosecutor on Smith's team in Trump co-defendant Walt Nauta's contentious conflict-of-interest

 

ruh roh raggy

 

would him threatening her violate his gag order in the NY case? Will every judge sans Cannon be imposing separate gag orders on him?