Courtesy of the Fact Checker at the Washington Post, posted by Glenn Kessler, as documented in the book, “Trump Revealed,” by his Washington Post colleagues Michael Kranish and Marc Fisher.
The actual post is titled Trump’s claim that a racial discrimination suit was ‘brought against many real estate firms’
From Kessler:
The book notes that Trump, in an interview, falsely claimed “there were many, many landlords that were sued under that case.” Similarly, in the debate, Trump claimed “that was a lawsuit brought against many real estate firms.” But the suit was squarely aimed at the Trumps and their company; it was titled: United States of America v. Fred C. Trump, Donald Trump and Trump Management, Inc.
The one other notable case in the same time frame had been against another major developer, Samuel Lefrak’ Lefrak Organization (as in Lefrak City), but Lefrak had settled.
Here are two key paragraphs from the piece:
All the Justice Department wanted was to obtain a settlement in which Trump and his father would promise not to discriminate. But Trump instead hired Roy Cohn, a notoriously combative attorney, and countersued the Justice Department for $100 million ($500 million in today’s dollars) for making false and misleading statements. But his allegations were dismissed by the courts, and two years of litigation later, Trump decided in 1975 to settle before the case went to trial.
“The settlement was much like what the Trumps could initially have gotten,” the book says. As part of the deal, the Trumps were required to place ads assuring minorities that they would have equal access to housing. Trump initially balked at paying for the ads but ultimately was forced to do so.
Now, for a further context not addressed in the article, we have seen Trump claim multiple times that he doesn’t settle or lose when he is sued. The Trumps settled this. Then got sued again 3 years later,
as the Justice Department in 1978 alleged that they had reneged on the agreement to allow minorities to rent properties. The case was not formally closed until 1982.
That means the issue was legally pending for a period of 9 years. And for Trump to get the facts wrong, both about other firms and that Lefrak had settled earlier puts him in another contradiction — after all, he has claimed multiple times how wonderful his memory is.
It is also worthwhile noting what Kessler has to say in the paragraph about the Pinocchio test, specifically about the other “defense” Trump offered:
While Trump touts there was no admission of guilt, that’s rather typical in these sorts of settlements. The Justice Department simply wanted to get the Trumps to agree to rent to African American tenants — which they failed to do even after agreeing to settle the case.
Not that anyone here is going to be surprised by the evaluation of Trump’s remarks by the Post.
Oh, and as long as I am here, Kurt Eichenwald has tweeted that he will have another big story Newsweek piece dropping tomorrow afternoon:
However, my guess is this is NOT about his business practices. Here is a tweet from Saturday:
Although we will know by tomorrow afternoon, won’t we?
