Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Trump Caught LYING AGAIN in Appeal of Massive Judgment

Episode Date: March 19, 2024

Trump and his lawyers like Alina Habba continue shamelessly to MISLEAD APPELLATE COURTS about the value of Mar a Lago, overstating it by at least 5x in a case about FALSE INFLATED VALUATIONS! Michael Popok, who practices real estate and land use litigation in Florida, explains how Trump, in financial straits in the 1990s, agreed to PERMANENTLY SUPPRESS THE VALUE and use of Mar a Lago as he lived in a fake mansion that he could only afford by selling strangers memberships to his “house”. Thanks to Prizepicks! Download the Prizepicks app today and use code LEGALAF for a first deposit match up to $100! Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast The Influence Continuum: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show Burn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 Political Beatdown: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown Lights On with Jessica Denson: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/lights-on-with-jessica-denson On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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This is Michael Popok with The Legal AF Hot Take. There are so many lies and misrepresentations about Mar-a-Lago and about property value in Donald Trump's recent filing before the New York Appellate Division First Department that I don't even know where to begin. His argument is I don't need to post a big enough bond because I own lots of property, including Mar-a-Lago, that have been completely undervalued by the trial judge

and Goran, and therefore the $465 million judgment against me, which I'm gonna overturn one day, I don't need to post the bond at all. I have real estate. And then he lies incessantly about Mar-a-Lago, the history of Mar-a-Lago, the deed restrictions on Mar-a-Lago, the things that depress and suppress the value of Mar-a-Lago

that he doesn't wanna to tell anybody about. But I'm going to tell you about them from my unique position and vantage point of having practiced law for more than 30 years, including 25 in Florida, in Palm Beach County, directly across from Mar-a-Lago. Let's start with how Donald Trump acquired the property and the promises he had to make to the island of Palm Beach.

It's a separate village in order to be able to live there. When he bought it for about $10 million, it was a giant white elephant. Nobody wanted it. It was in disrepair. Think Gray Gardens. It was owned by the Post family, heir to the post serial fortune, but it had fallen on hard times. He bought it, he put some money into it, but he then fell on hard times, as has been oft reported, including on the Midas Touch Network and on Legal AF. Three or four bankruptcies during the 90s, he's the only person I know of in the world that lost money running a casino where the house always wins. Shows you what a great business person he is. But after three or four bankruptcies, in fact, you know, most of the companies that Donald Trump touches have either gone bankrupt, have been a

judge to be committed, have committed fraud, or been convicted of tax fraud. This is his body of work and his resume to be reelected president of the United States. Set that aside for a moment. Let's focus on Mar-a-Lago. He gets the property. He can't afford to run the property, to maintain the property.

It doesn't have a ballroom. It's not a club. It's a house. He can't afford to live there. So he goes on bended knee and hat in hand to the Palm Beach, the Isle of Palm Beach's commissioners, council people, and he begs them. He begs them to allow him to either subdivide the 17 acres into one acre parcels and sell it off, acres into one acre parcels and sell it off, right? So he can make some money. In other words, build a series of houses, develop the property, tear down the house, Mar-a-Lago, the one he calls the

Mona Lisa today. He didn't call it the Mona Lisa in the 90s. He was ready to bulldoze it in the middle of the night and put up seven or 10 mini mansions. But they said, no, you're not going to take this historic property with this historic building on it and 17 acres that sits between the sea and the ocean, the mar and the lago, we're not allowing you to do that. So he says he had to come up with another plan. Aha, I have an idea. I'll convert it into a private club and I'll reside in part of it. So in order for him to convert it into a private club and allow him reside in part of it. So in order for him to convert it into a private

club and allow him to develop it, put in a ballroom, put in all the amenities, it had to be converted from a house into a club and sell memberships. The memberships being the chief source of income to Donald Trump, he had to get permission from the Zoning and Land Use Board and the council people of Palm Beach, that island strip that sits in Palm Beach County. It's a town. It's actually the town of Palm Beach, sorry. So they granted it, but they placed on it and in the real estate law parlance, we say they burdened the property. It's literally a burden on the property. They burdened the property with certain restrictive easements, covenants, historic trust deeds,

and other things that restrict severely how this property can ever be used or developed in the future. This all goes to the value. This is why you can't value it. Like when Ken Griffith of one of these big hedge funds in New York decided to go down and buy a single family home on the intercoastal waterway or on the ocean drive or on the beach front of Palm Beach County and paid several hundred million dollars, that house had no restrictions. He could develop a house on it. He could put a couple of houses on it.

He could redo it. He could build a dock. He could do all sorts of things. Donald Trump's property doesn't have that benefit. It is burdened with a series of restrictions. In fact, it cannot be used as a single family house. He got a special exception to reside there, to reside within it.

He calls it the biggest single family house around. It's not. It is a private club with members paying fees and dues and he is not allowed to sell it as a single family house. He's not allowed to tear it down and divide it. He's not allowed to tear it down at all. It's in a historic trust, the building. The one where they say in their most recent filing that there is a, that Mar-a-Lago is a unique property that almost is in value, you can't value it. Here's what they say on page 21,

which is again a misstatement and a lie. The Supreme Court did not consider that Mar-a-Lago is a property in a league of its own because of its history, architecture, finishes, characteristics, and prime and unique location in Palm Beach spanning from the lake, the intercoastal waterway to the Atlantic Ocean. What they've left out is the deed restrictions. It can't be used as a single family house. It can't be sold that way. It can't be torn down. It can't be developed separately. It has to be, so the only value it has

is keeping this giant white elephant of a building that he likes to live in, this gaudy house from the 1920s that he can't tear down. It has to remain there. He can sell memberships, which gives him a source of income. He makes 20 or $30 million a year, basically rent free and remain there. He can sell memberships, which gives him a source of income. He makes 20 or 30 million dollars a year basically rent free in living there. We know that for a fact, but it can't be valued as a single family house.

And even if it was valued at the single family house, the highest single family house value of something similar to Donald Trump is no more than three or $400 million, which is a lot of money, but it's not the $1 billion that Donald Trump continues to claim that Mar-a-Lago is worth. In fact, on page 21 again of the brief he just filed to the appellate court, he says, trial evidence established

that Mar-a-Lago could have sold for 705 million in 2011 or 1.2 billion in 2021, including membership sales. That is not only is it mixing apples and bowling balls, it's just wrong. That suggests to the appellate court, wrongly, that there was a contract of sale that he turned down in 2011 for $700 million. That's untrue.

Most in 2011, that property, and I was living there, almost at that exact same time. I was there in Palm Beach County and West Palm Beach just across the bridge and the intercoastal. I was there, right, in, let's get it right, 1995 to 2000. was there, right? In, let's get it right, 1995 to 2000. So, even in 2011, I was down in Miami, there is no way that property was worth $705 million. A 17-acre burdened property that can't be torn down and subdivided, that can't be used as a private residence and has to be maintained as a club,

making limited money from memberships? I mean, if that thing's worth, I'm telling you straight, if that thing is worth $100 million, I'd be shocked. Well, football season may be over, but the action on the floor is heating up. Whether it's tournament season or the fight for playoff home court, there's no shortage of high stakes basketball moments

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for a first deposit match up to $100. Again, download the app today and use code LEGALAF for a first deposit match up to $100. Pick more, pick less. It's that easy. Even if he could go to the planning board and zoning board in Palm Beach County and convince the town council to allow him to go to its highest and best use as a single family house, the most it would go for, the most that you could get somebody to pay for that is three to $500 million. And that's it.

So, you know, to continue to say to the court, it's worth a billion dollars. Now, look, I got their point. They don't like the fact that the judge, Judge Angoran in the trial level court only credited the amount that the Palm Beach County tax assessor credited, valued the property at. And I get it. That's a low number. But the remedy for that is not to lie to the court and

say it's worth three or four times more than it's actually worth. That's what got Donald Trump into trouble the first time. That's why he got a judge to be committing persistent fraud in the state of New York for the last 10 years. Why his auditors abandoned him and fired him, his accountants fired him, his appraisers fired him, his insurers fired him, his banks fired him, and his bonding companies apparently have fired him. This is his claim to fame to run for national office. This is the body of work that people are judging him on.

This failed recidivist of a business person who lies about the value of his assets and his personal financial statements. I mean, I've had it. It's like enough. What do the Italians say? Basta, enough. He's lying to the American people

about the value of Mar-a-Lago and he does it over and over again. The truth is he bought a white elephant he couldn't afford. He went into dire straits financially in the 1990s based on his own lack of business acumen, right? He's not an amazing business person. He's a failed business person over and over again. He went hat in hand and begging the town council

of Palm Beach to allow him to develop it for a club. What billionaire actually can't afford his own mansion and has to convert it into a club to have other people living there with him because he can't afford it? That's a phony billionaire. That's a fake billionaire. You think, I'll just throw it out there. You think Mark Cuban, you think Bill Gates, you think the guy that owns Oracle, you think the Facebook guy, you think Elon Musk lives in an apartment complex, lives in a country club to subsidize their expenses?

They don't. Did anybody ever think that was weird that he lives inside of a club, that he has to live in a hotel in one floor because he can't afford it any other way? What does that tell you about this entire charade, this whole paper mache world of his that has no truth to it, none about his finances.

That was the biggest indicator that he's a liar when it comes to his assets is that he lives in an apartment complex of his own making, right? A hotel that takes in memberships. That's what he needs to subsidize his lifestyle. It's a Potemkin village, right? I'm waiting any moment now for somebody to go, cut, and then they pull back the set and there's nothing there but Donald Trump sitting on a pot that he's pissing in. Think about that imagery. So enough with the lying to the courts about the value and valuation and restrictions and

lack of burdens on a property that's heavily burdened by deed restrictions, by requirements, by deeds of trust. And I know the lawyer who testified on, one of the lawyers who testified on behalf of Donald Trump, he will remain nameless. He's somebody that I've had cases with. Let me just put it this way. I did not credit and neither did the trial judge his testimony particularly, and I'll read it on page 22,

that the deed of conservation and preservation easement to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the deed of developmental rights, the Palm Beach Zoning Code, the Palm Beach's decision to allow him to use it as a residence, and all of that supported the unrebutted conclusion that no prohibition exists on Mar-a-Lago being used

and valued as a private residence. That's a lie. And that's a lie that the judge did not credit. And neither should anybody watching this hot take. So look, I'm going to continue to follow. I practice a fair amount of land use and zoning real estate litigation in my day in Florida, in these counties, and I'm giving it to you straight without blowing smoke or sunshine. And when I see it, I call it out. And I do it right here on the Midas Touch Network and on this YouTube channel. So if you like what we're doing, we pull it all together on Wednesdays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. Eastern time. Only one place on the Midas Touch Network on a show we call Legal AF. Yes, it's cheeky. It's exactly what we mean.

If you like lawyers talking about things, they know what they're talking about at the intersection of law and politics. And in this case, land use and zoning, you've come to the right place. Legal AF and Michael Popak is your co-anchor. So until my next hot take, until my next Legal AF, this is Michael Popak, annoyed, frustrated,

coming to you here on the Midas Touch Network. Love this video? Make sure you stay up to date on the latest breaking news and all things Midas by signing up to the Midas Touch newsletter at MidasTouch.com slash newsletter.