Trump Lied About Secret Service Concerns to Throw Off New York AG
SAFE SPACE
Trump wanted home court advantage for a deposition with the New York attorney general, so he cited Secret Service concerns with the AG’s office. The Secret Service had no concerns.
In confidential court documents, former President Donald Trump tried to squirm his way out of taking a trip to the New York Attorney General’s office last month, telling a judge that the Secret Service had security concerns about the AG’s office, according to two sources familiar with the matter.
In the days before his Aug. 10 deposition, according to those two sources and a third person familiar with the discussions, Trump’s legal team asked that the contentious interview at the AG’s office be relocated to a more comfortable, convenient spot for the former president: Trump Tower.
The excuse appalled those who read it, spurring them to speak to The Daily Beast.
In correspondence that was filed in secret, Trump’s legal team notified state investigators that the Secret Service was opposed to transporting him to the AG’s office in Manhattan’s Financial District, both sources said. The letter cited some sort of safety concern related to having the former president at the 60-story skyscraper at 28 Liberty Street—which is located just across the street from a Trump-owned building.
Notably, however, these confidential court filings did not come with any kind of official affirmation or statement from the law enforcement agency itself, according to two sources. The correspondence does not appear on the public court docket.
Trump’s last-ditch effort failed and the interview went on as planned, where Trump faced off with AG Letitia James herself. He refused to answer questions by pleading the Fifth hundreds of times, strengthening the AG’s civil case that the Trump Organization was routinely involved in business fraud and dodging taxes and lying about the value of numerous properties across the country.
Reached on Tuesday, the Secret Service was caught by surprise by the allegations and had not been made aware of any perceived security threat—or court filings detailing them.
Anthony Guglielmi, chief of communications for the agency, said in a statement to The Daily Beast that the Secret Service is “unaware of any security challenges at the Office of the New York State Attorney General.”
Trump’s lawyer on the case, Alina Habba, declined to comment about the correspondence, telling The Daily Beast the matter was ordered confidential by the court.
The notion that Trump tried to change the rules of the game shortly before his law enforcement interview followed more than seven months of delay tactics. Trump first ignored a subpoena and refused to show up for the deposition, then he was held in contempt and hit with $110,000 in fines for refusing to turn over records, and then he eventually relented after losing an appeal in a New York state court.
But if Secret Service agents weren’t worried about Trump’s safe space, what could the real reason be? Former Trump associates said they know.
“He’d be sitting behind the big desk, where he has the authority. That’s the only thing I can think of. It’s his desk, with chairs all around. It puts him at a very superior position,” said Barbara A. Res, a former Trump Organization construction executive who walked into that very office up to three times a day for more than four years.
more:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-lied-about-secret-service-concerns-to-throw-off-new-york-attorney-general?via=newsletter&source=DDMorning
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