trump empire. and what he found than probably wouldn t shock anyone today. but back then it was a big deal. tim o brien discovered that donald trump s much lauded business excellence was actually far less impressive than trump had anyone to believe. he found that donald trump had been significantly overstating his net worth by billions of dollars. that he wasn t remotely close to being a billionaire. and so in 2005, tim o brien wrote a book exposing donald trump s prolific lies, and exaggerations about his wealth. donald trump reported by suing time o brien for defamation a year later, and that is how we got to see what it s like when donald trump testifies under oath. quoting from the transcript, attorney, mr. trump, have you always been completely truthful in your public statements about your net worth of properties? trump, i try. attorney, have you ever not been truthful? trump, my net worth blocked away, and it goes up and down with a market and with attitudes and w
new information about the fbi s search of donald trump s florida home. trump world has now reportedly started speculating about who in the former presidents orbit, might have talked to the fbi, and what it could mean for the investigation. we will have more on that later. but let s go back in time a little. to 2005. more than a decade before donald trump s first run for president, before he started fighting with racist birtherism conspiracies, back when he was just a real estate guy, with a funny hairdo, and a reality tv show, that year the intrepid journalist, tim o brien, the guy on the left, the side to side digging into the so-called trump empire. and what he found then probably wouldn t shock anyone today. but back then it was a big deal. tim o brien discovered that donald trump s much lauded business success was actually far less impressive than trump had anyone to believe. he found that donald trump had been significantly overstating his net worth by billions of dollar
get into any more trouble in that criminal case into my businesses in new york. and that s an area in which you got great expertise, the says that trump may have quote, improperly obtained more than $5 million in federal tax benefits for misrepresenting his financial condition. does any of the evidence that is obtained into the new york investigation wind up and federal prosecutors hands? it definitely could. and i think that s all of this is a risk. it s interesting you see that the two of his children didn t take the fifth. with that, you just don t know what they are involvement is. there s a lot behind the curtain, but we just don t know what the evidence is. they decided not to. they had individual counsel. it s maybe that they didn t know a lot. there could ve been some deposition amnesia going on there. but with trump, it s a very real threat, and he was looking at it i think from the proceedings that he is facing and new york city that are criminal, that are very serious.
good to see you. clearly, there was some calculated on the part of donald trump today that plead the fifth. why would it make sense for him to do that in this particular trial? with most devices businesses, it s not a criminal trial. well definitely was a lot of thought went into it from trump and his legal teams, and i think the reason why is that you got this civil case, if that goes to trial, it can be used against him in that form. and there s a lot of people have talked about that today as people have been mulling over this case, but you have to look that he s got this criminal case going on in new york. they are looking at him individually, and right now that doesn t seem to be like it s percolating that if he didn t take the fifth and he says something, in a deposition, it could be used against him and that form. and also, he is heading to trial, both the trump organization and his cfo, and that could also you know, anything that he says in a
federal prosecutors hands? it definitely could. and i think that s all of this is a risk. it s interesting you see that the two of his children didn t take the fifth. with that, you just don t know what they are involvement is. there s a lot behind the curtain, but we just don t know what the evidence is. they decided not to. they had individual counsel. it may be that they didn t know a lot. there could ve been some deposition amnesia going on there. but with trump, it s a very real threat, and he was looking at it i think from the proceedings that he is facing in new york city that are criminal, that are very serious. the civil case is serious, it will come to some sort of conclusion, either a trial, or a settlement. i m sure the settlement will be large. but i think that that was sort of the factor that was paramount today when he was thinking about how to handle this. susanne, thank you so much, we appreciate the depth of your