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Donald Trump. Photo courtesy of BGR.
Summary: Over ten years ago, Donald Trump was accused of destroying email evidence.
Donald Trump loves to bring up rival Hillary Clinton’s use of her personal account for work purposes and her deleted emails, but he may have been guilty of doing something similar. USA Today reports that in 2006, Trump was ordered by a judge to submit Trump Organization emails from 1996 to 2001. However, the organization said they not only frequently deleted their work emails but they also used their personal accounts to conduct business.
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A Trump IT director testified that in 2001 Trump Tower executives used their personal email accounts even though high-speed internet was provided since 1998. Another person said that there was no process to preserve emails prior to 2005, and the company often destroyed old computers and did not have routine data saving processes in place. The information seemed to stun the judge at the time.
“[Trump] has a house up in Palm Beach County listed for $125 million, but he doesn’t keep emails. That’s a tough one,” Judge Jeffrey Streitfeld had said during the case.
Recently, Trump instigated a Twitter fight with Clinton, in which she famously responded, “Delete your account.” Trump replied, “And where are your 33,000 emails that you deleted?” Trump often brings up Clinton’s use of her personal email account while she was Secretary of State, and he told CBS, “What she did is a criminal situation. She wasn’t supposed to do that with the server and the emails.”
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While some could defend Trump’s email deletion because he was not a public official like Clinton was, his emails or lack thereof had been pivotal in a 2004 lawsuit filed by Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts against Richard Fields, a former employee who left the company to create his own casino. Trump said Fields stole business, and Fields and his partners said that in order for him to win, Trump needed to produce emails and other records proving he had wanted to do a similar deal. Trump’s team couldn’t provide any evidence, because Trump’s lawyer said the company did not keep data. In turn, the defendants then asked the judge to sanction Trump for destroying evidence. If Trump had been able to prove his original claim, he may have been entitled to almost $1 billion. However, the case was eventually settled and Trump was not sanctioned.
Do you think Trump’s email situation parallels Clinton’s? Let us know in the comments below.
Source: USA Today
