Mendacity

• 1973: Trump brazenly lied when federal regulators sued his company for racial discrimination, claiming prosecutors had not contacted him before notifying the press of the charges against him, despite evidence that prosecutors had in fact called Trump before contacting the press. "The family's attempts to slow down the federal case were at times nonsensical. Trump submitted an affidavit contending that the government had engaged in some unspecified wrongdoing by releasing statements to the press on the day it brought the case without first having any "formal communications" with him; he contended that he'd learned of the complaint only while listening to his car radio that morning. But Trump's sworn statement was a lie. Court records show that the government had filed its complaint at 10 a.m. and phoned him almost immediately afterward. The government later notified the media with a press release. Prosecutors responded to Trump's affidavit by showing he had fudged his claim by using the term "formal communication"—an acknowledgment, they said, that he had received what only he would characterize as an informal notification—which they described as an intentional effort to mislead the court and the public. But the allegation slowed the case; it required government lawyers to appear in court to shoot down Trump's false charge." (Newsweek, October 31, 2016)
• 1984: The New York Times noted that news profiles of Trump had an unusual tendency to publish false and misleading information about the man and his wealth. “It is often pointed out that Mr. Trump is prone to exageration in describing his projects. Oh, he lies a great deal, says Philip Johnson with a laugh. But it's sheer exuberance, exaggeration. It's never about anything important. He's straight as an arrow in his business dealings. Sometimes exaggeration just seems to swirl around him. A recent television show, 'Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, reported that his Greenwich, Conn., waterfront home is a $10 million estate. Mr. Trump will admit that, yes he paid less than one-third of that and says: I didn't tell them that. Various figures, ranging from $6 million to $10 million have been reported as the amount he paid for the Generals, but, as one who was involved in the negotiations says, the figure is closer to $1 million. Mr. Trump answers: I never told them those other figures. And just about every profile ever written about Mr. Trump states that he graduated first in his class at Wharton in 1968. Although the school refused comment, the commencement program from 1968 does not list him as graduating with honors of any kind. He says he never told them that either.” (New York Times, April 8, 1984)
• In a deposition, Trump once argued that claims in promotional literature that he was "developing" a building didn't mean that he was in fact the "developer" of those buildings. “In one lawsuit -- filed against him by condo owners who wanted their money back for a Fort Lauderdale condo that was never built -- he testified in a sworn deposition, ‘Well, the word 'developing,' it doesn't mean that we're the developers.’” (USA Today, June 2, 2016)
• In another deposition, Trump defended marketing literature that claimed he personally "handpicked" instructors for Trump University, even though he had no role in selecting them. “In lawsuits over his Trump University, he testified that he had never met instructors who were described in the university's promotional materials as being ‘handpicked’ by him. ‘It depends on the definition of what that means, handpicked,’ Trump said during an exchange with a lawyer in a sworn deposition last December.” (USA Today, June 2, 2016)