According to a forthcoming book, Donald Trump once attempted to pay off a $2 million legal bill with the deed to a $5 million stallion.
When he was able to speak again, the lawyer “stammered… “This era is not the 1800s. You cannot pay me in horseback.
Trump is well known for his unwillingness to pay his debts, especially those due to his legal staff.
Additionally, there have been new allegations that he is not paying his lawyers in light of his recent legal issues, which are largely related to efforts to annul the 2020 election.
However, the New York Times writer David Enrich’s book, “Servants of the Damned: Giant Law Firms, Donald Trump and the Corruption of Justice,” reveals a creative side when it comes to paying off debts.
Before it was published on September 20th, The Guardian was given a copy.
Sometime in the 1990s, the unnamed attorney from a white-shoe firm took matters into his own hands to recover the debt.
The report states that the lawyer eventually ran out of waiting and unexpectedly arrived at Trump Tower.
He was delivered to Trump’s office by someone. The lawyer was steaming, but Trump seemed initially pleased to see him—he didn’t show any signs of being sheepish.
I’m really disappointed,’ he reprimanded Trump. “There is no excuse for your failure to pay.
Trump apologised a few times.
I’m not going to pay your bill, he continued.
I’ll offer you something more priceless.
The then-real estate tycoon “rummaged about in a file cabinet” and produced a deed for a horse with an alleged value of $5 million.
The attorney allegedly threatened to file a lawsuit, which finally led to Trump agreeing to pay at least some of the debt.
The book also describes how Trump almost retained the venerable Jones Day firm to defend him in the Russia inquiry.
A partner, Donald McGahn, served as Trump’s first White House counsel. The company provided advice to Trump’s campaign in 2016 and was crucial to his administration.
According to Enrich, he was committed to appointing conservative justices to the court and intended to spend time “dismantling the “administrative state”.”
However, there was an issue.
According to Enrich, “What McGahn increasingly found himself and his team working on was Trump’s personal legal issues.”
In light of the Russian election interference and Trump’s ties to Moscow, he came to the conclusion that Trump needed “his own, competent counsel.”
As a result, the president and Stephen Brogan, managing partner of Jones Day, had at least two meetings in the Oval Office.
Despite concerns from colleagues that the firm would be too closely associated with a divisive president mired in controversy, Brogan was eager to secure such a high-profile client.
Enrich writes, “In the end, Brogan didn’t get the job. It went to John Dowd instead.” Some senior Jones Day partners believed that Trump wanted a chief defender who was a little more bombastic than Brogan.
Dowd resigned in March 2018 after his defence of Trump received little praise from the legal community.
It took five months until McGahn himself departed.