Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Trump SCREWED by His OWN Accountant in DEVASTATING Trial Testimony

Episode Date: October 4, 2023

Former Trump accountant Don Bender of Mazurs was witness #1 for the New York AG and he dumped on Trump claiming that he had been mislead for years by Trump and his executives leading to unreliable audited financial statements. Michael Popok of Legal AF reports on the fact that Bender’s testimony was so bad for Trump that it made Eric Trump literally bite his fingernails in court. Go to https://Bambee.com RIGHT NOW and type in LEGALAF under PODCAST when you sign up! Remember to subscribe to ALL the Meidas Media Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://pod.link/1510240831 Legal AF: https://pod.link/1580828595 The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://pod.link/1595408601 The Influence Continuum: https://pod.link/1603773245 Kremlin File: https://pod.link/1575837599 Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://pod.link/1530639447 The Weekend Show: https://pod.link/1612691018 The Tony Michaels Podcast: https://pod.link/1561049560 American Psyop: https://pod.link/1652143101 Burn the Boats: https://pod.link/1485464343 Majority 54: https://pod.link/1309354521 Political Beatdown: https://pod.link/1669634407 Lights On with Jessica Denson: https://pod.link/1676844320 Uncovered: https://pod.link/1690214260 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Michael Popok, legal AF, want to sure, far ahead way to piss off Donald Trump and make his son Eric Trump by his fingernails in the courtroom. And you're the attorney general call early in your case. Maybe even as your first witness, Donald Bender, Donald Bender used to be or is a partner at the accounting firm, Mazers, Mazers was the accounting and auditing firm that for over a dozen years, not only did the Trump organization tax returns, he did all the tax returns for the baby trumps for Ivanka, for Eric, for Don Jr., for Don, him, Sadon, Donald Trump himself. He did the personal tax returns and he did it for the CFO, Alan Weiselberg, the disgraced former

CFO who went to jail for six months for tax evasion. And Donald Bender is a tried and trusted witness because he already testified successfully against Donald Trump and the Trump organization. Now Alan Weiselberg in the last year, Trump Organization, dot, dot, tax evasion criminal trial tried in front of Judge Mershon by the Manhattan DA's office, where all those Trump entities, major ones, got convicted of 17 counts of tax fraud. And Alan Weiselberg did also, including for personal income tax fraud. Don Bender was a lead witness for the testified in that case as well.

So they've been dreading that day over in Trump world that Don Bender would take the stand. They just did realize it was going to be on day one. I mean, I know his name starts with a B and he was at the top of the chart, but it was an alphabetical listing by the New York Attorney General of Witnesses. Who knew they were going to start with Don Bender? And so they did. They did. And the lead lawyer that's representing the New York Attorney General, special counsel

for the economic justice division of the Office of Attorney General, I love the sound of that. It's much better than which hunt, you know, election interference and all of that. That's what the lead prosecutors do. They have been walking Don Bender through his testimony. The other big issue that is very important to understand in this case, and all cases about Donald Trump and his business practices is that measures fired the client, but they didn't just fire the client and walk away from representing Donald Trump, Alan Weisselberg, Don Jr., and Eric, who's biting his finger

nails to the courtroom, as I said, literally, as reported by reporters, while his slideshows going on, but they fired all the Trumps in a noisy way. They announced to the world as soon as Latisha James's New York attorney general case started, right? Soon as her civil fraud case started and she started subpoenaing measures around the time that Dom Bender was about to take the stand. Last year in the criminal tax evasion case against them, measures his wife, their hands, and issued a public statement that nothing that they have submitted

as audited financials to banks, lenders and other stakeholders for Donald Trump and his organization can be relied upon. Don't rely on a thing that we said because we can't rely on the underlating data. Aha. There's the rub. The underlying data comes from where, the Trump organization, Alan Weiselberg, Donald Trump's long time chief financial officer. Been around so long that he was Donald Trump's father's chief financial officer, Fred Trump, and others there, Mr. McConney, who was the controller for the Trump organization. He also supplied information. Donald Trump himself supplied data and information to Don Bender.

And they certified, all these people certified to Don Bender because that's what you have to do is an auditor and account. You have to have people attest and swear that what they're providing you is everything complete and reliable. And they did. And they showed with Don Bender in trial testimony today. They showed the document signed by the Trump organization that everything in this financial statement of conditions is true and accurate and complies with generally accepted accounting

principles. Sign on the bottom line, Al O'isleburg, Jeff McConney, and also Donald Trump signed a very similar, almost identical one about his statement of financial condition that I, Donald J, Trump attest and certify everything in here, complies with generally, account, a generally accepted accounting principles. So they flashed that up on the board too,

and they said, is that true, Mr. Bender, in the trial today? Mr. Bender said no. I mean, it took him a couple of questions and answers to come out and say that. They walked him through all the returns and information and audited financials that he did as the lead partner for for measures whose biggest client, Mr. Bender's biggest client was Donald Trump, the Trump organization, all the little trumpers, that the, the, the office of inspector general attorney walked him through all returns, all audited financials 2012 to 2016. So Kevin Wallace, the lawyer for Latisha James, the special counsel for the economic justice division walks him through it now.

In the beginning, before a break, you know, because of some rulings by the, the, the appellate court that sits above judge Angoran who's presiding, like their, his bosses, they said certain of the transactions are outside the statute of limitations. And that's why they cut Ivanka Trump free. I have another hot take about why Ivanka may testify, but she's not a defendant in the case. When running a business, your employees can create all kinds of interesting situations. Like somebody isn't showing up when they're supposed to. Talk to Bambi.

An employee reports a serious issue like sexual harassment, and you're not sure if you have a documented policy. Talk to Bambi. With Bambi, get access to your own dedicated HR manager, starting at just $99 per month. They're available by phone, email, and real-time chat. So onboarding and terminations, they run smoothly. Team members reach peak performance and your business stays compliant with changing HR regulations. And with Bambi's HR autopilot, you'll automate important HR practices like setting policies, training, and feedback. Bambi's dedicated HR managers are US-based people dedicated to your business, giving you

access to the HR expertise and personal touch you need. HR managers can easily cost 80 grand a year, but Bambi starts at $99 per month. Schedule your free conversation today to see how much Bambi can take off your plate. Go to Bambi.com right now and type in legal AF under podcast. When you sign up, it'll really help the show. Spell B-A-M-B-E-E. com, bambee dot com, and type in legal AF. But just because certain transactions might be outside of statute limitations, as Judge Angora reminded the defense lawyers today, doesn't mean that the continued use of these

of these financial statements, these corrupt fraudulent financial statements and statements of financial condition, which are also fraudulent. If they continue to be used persistently and consistently, then they can be part of the case. And that seems to be something that is lost on the defense team and on Donald Trump, who's very upset and pounding on the table, especially when Don Bender testifies against him. And so, Don Bender also said that while the Trump organization, Donald Trump and others had an obligation not to mislead their auditor and their accountant, right, to give him accurate

and full and complete information upon requests. And otherwise, he said, that's not true. That they frequently did not give him in retrospect, 2020 hindsight. They frequently misled him and didn't give him the full financial data and information that he was requesting over over a number of years. He also testified that as we've heard before from the New York Times reporting, that Donald Trump was in an alleged loss position of billions of dollars for a lot of his tax return years. You know, the New York Times looked at 18 years of tax returns that they got, I think, ultimately from the Mary Trump case and determined that in 11 out of the 18 years, Donald Trump

was in a lost position and owed no federal income tax. One year, he only owed $730 at income tax. This from the guy who stands on the courthouse steps and inside the courthouse during breaks and as you walk, and it says, I have a beautiful company. It's worth billions of dollars and billions and billions. Really? Billions of dollars where you've lost, maybe you'll miss you'll lost billions of dollars. Because that's what your tax returns look like.

And that's what they've walked through. Dom Bender on the stand in front of not a jury because we have a a judge here, a judge is presiding in a bench trial. And so as promised, Kevin Wallace for the office of inspector general tied it all together, you know, the, the lying that began in 2012 continued continuously 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and the like as we get in beyond the statute of limitations problem for the case. And so this is why Donald Trump today with furrowed brow and unhappy face and thumbs down and chewing off the ear. I mean, Chris, Chris Kice's lawyer is going to have like a cauliflower ear by the time he's

done listening to Donald Trump banging, banging on the table and folding up pieces of paper and Alina Habo who's sitting at the kitty table, I'm not even sure that computer screen that they have in front of her will show a picture. I'm not even sure that screen works. That just might be a baby's computer monitor by Fisher Price. I really don't know.

I know she's sitting in the courtroom. I know when they need an attack dog, they push a button somewhere on her back and she jumps up and says things against the judge and mimics and parrots whatever Donald Trump says but You know, it's a high it's a high paying ventriloquist act that we're watching with Alina Haaba. Chris Geiss is no better by the way

I'm not just I'm equally bashing both of the attorneys Related to them and the things that they say allowed in the courtroom. Don Bender, bad day for Donald Trump. He'll be cross examined later today. But in day two, after we, day one was all about the openings and the stomping of feet and ridiculous attacks on prosecutors and on the judge by Donald Trump that continued all the way through the day, at lunch breaks and at breaks. Day two should be remembered for the testimony of Don Bender, partner, mazers who threw Donald Trump and the others including Eric under the bus and said that they basically lied to their auditors

and their accountants in order to mislead them, leading to financial statements that ultimately could not be relied upon and were fraudulent to the marketplace. That is, again, the heart of the case as the New York Attorney General's Office continues to chip away and to prove to the presiding judge that there was intent to defraud a necessary element in this case in the remaining six counts that are now being tried, the judge having already determined that the standalone fraud claim had already been met and made and granted judgment in favor of the New York Attorney General. Now we're just on to fraudulent insurance fraud, fraudulent insurance forms and statements, fraudulent personal financial statements, fraudulent business forms and statements, fraudulent, personal financial statements,

fraudulent business records, and the conspiracies around them, all of which require intent, not the level of criminal intent, but intent to be proven by the proponderance of evidence. I'll continue to follow all things related to Don Bender and every other witness over the next three to four months that the New York Attorney General calls up and the cross examination that results one place on the Midas Touch YouTube channel. Free subscribe, help them get the two million, the bigger they get, the more your voice has heard. You like what I'm doing on hot takes, I do them about every day, sometimes every hour,

right here on the Midas Touch network. On Wednesdays and Saturdays, catch me, along with my co-anchors, on the Midas Touch Network on Wednesdays and Saturdays catch me along with my co-anchors on the Midas Touch legal AF. It's what you think. It's five or six of these stories from the week that we curate and talk about with our collective 75 years of experience as the leaders of legal AF. Give me a thumbs up here, helps with the ratings until my next hot take. Until my next legal AF. This is Michael Popock reporting. you