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| Image is from this reporting. |
When the Trump Brand makes news, is it fake news? Real news? Something between reality and fiction, reality and ideals?
_______________UPDATE_______________
The link in the photo caption links here, where early in the item this excerpt occured:
In one email, according to four people who have seen it, the Trumps discussed how to coordinate false information they had given to prospective buyers. In another, according to a person who read the emails, they worried that a reporter might be onto them. In yet another, Donald, Jr. spoke reassuringly to a broker who was concerned about the false statements, saying that nobody would ever find out, because only people on the email chain or in the Trump Organization knew about the deception, according to a person who saw the email.
There was “no doubt” that the Trump children “approved, knew of, agreed to, and intentionally inflated the numbers to make more sales,” one person who saw the emails told us. “They knew it was wrong.”
In 2010, when the Major Economic Crimes Bureau of the D.A.’s office opened an investigation of the siblings, the Trump Organization had hired several top New York criminal defense lawyers to represent Donald, Jr. and Ivanka. These attorneys had met with prosecutors in the bureau several times. They conceded that their clients had made exaggerated claims, but argued that the overstatements didn’t amount to criminal misconduct.
No prosecution seems a bottom line of the Trump-Soho saga. Is old news good news? And, what is a material misstatement of a present fact, which differs from a statement of a future expectation or a future hope? And how does one prove any intent to deceive? All such questions are a part of prosecutorial discretion, and usually are nuanced rather than clear beyond any reasonable doubt.
_____________FURTHER UPDATE_____________
The prosecutor who declined to prosecute was Cyrus Vance, Jr. Cyrus Vance,Sr. was Secretary of State under Jimmy Carter. You can do some web searching. There are Yale and Georgetown ties. Boarding school. Clinton and Trump had a phone conversation at the initiation of Trump running for office. Ferreting out possible ties and concessions is a big ball of sticky taffy, so have a pull.
____________FURTHER UPDATE______________
The Independent published a parallel report.