Behold the genius of Donald Trump:
The first time Donald Trump was deposed by New York Attorney General Letitia James – who's spent more than two years calling him an inveterate fraudster – the former president pleaded the Fifth repeatedly.
But in a second deposition held this past April, the AG's office couldn't get him to shut up, including about the "beautiful" marble bathrooms in his "tremendous" properties, a newly-released transcript shows.
In a seven-hour grilling that's a prelude to Trump's October 2, $250 million civil fraud trial, his answers were so long-winded, that one of James' lawyers worried aloud that if he didn't speed it up, everyone in the room would "be here until midnight."
At least, I expect it to be reported that way by mainstream media:
"We're going to be here until midnight if you keep asking questions that are all over the map," Trump's lawyer Chris Kise complained early on to one of James' top lawyers on the fraud case, Kevin Wallace.
"Chris," Wallace responded, "we're going to be here until midnight if your client answers every question with an eight-minute speech."
Trump had just launched into a stem-winder about his "brand" when the tiff broke out.
"If I wanted to build a big statement just for the sake of a statement, I would go out and I would value the brand and — which is much more than the $3 billion," Trump said. "And as I said once before today, I became President of the United States because of my brand."
Wallace attempted to get Trump back on track.
"I just want to go back to a couple of things you said," Wallace said. "The first is, you said, 'I didn't need banks for the most part.'"
"So why did you use banks?" he asked.
"Because you do it. It's better tax wise," Trump said. "You do it."
Trump told the lawyer he paid off all the loans that he took out from banks to pay for his properties.
"Politics hurt. When I get sued by you — fortunately, I don't need banks," Trump continued. "I mean, paid off all that stuff that you used to talk about. I paid it off."
He went on to claim that "prior to [getting] sued by the Attorney General of the State of New York, banks wanted to do business with me so badly."
In other ramblings, Trump launched into a soliloquy about the beauty of the marble bathrooms at his Miami golf resort, Trump National Doral Golf Club.
"In the case of the villas, 800 rooms, they were gutted out down to the steel and rebuilt and they're incredible," he said of his renovation of the property.
"I could have done what I called a paint and wallpaper job. You just paint and wallpaper it. But it was time — it was tired," he said.
"I started using marble instead of carpet," he added, continuing a line of thought that was irrelevant.
"They're all marble bathrooms. I mean, they're beautiful."
There's a character in "Derry Girls" who always starts giving long, rambling stories at the drop of a hat, meandering tales that somehow relate to the conversation, if you've got the time. People around him start looking for the exits when he starts one of those.
Trump sounds like that, except he thinks that, as long as he talks, he's winning. This is not a "beautiful mind" at work, or a feral genius cunningly eluding the traps laid by his interlocutors. This is a rambling old fool who still equates "fancy" with "better," "talking" with "obfuscation," and who can't clearly answer business questions related directly to the business he's been operating for decades:
"So why did you use banks?" he asked.
"Because you do it. It's better tax wise," Trump said. "You do it."
...
"Politics hurt. When I get sued by you — fortunately, I don't need banks," Trump continued. "I mean, paid off all that stuff that you used to talk about. I paid it off."
He went on to claim that "prior to [getting] sued by the Attorney General of the State of New York, banks wanted to do business with me so badly."
I'm not saying he gave away the store here, revealing matters that clinch the case for the NYAG. I'm saying this is hardly the voice that commands millions and holds them in his thrall. This is a sad, rambling old clown who would need directions to the bathroom written down for him. This is not a commanding figure the jury will see as a wizard of Wall Street and a titan of New York real estate.
This is Grandpa telling you a long, pointless story at Thanksgiving.
