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Our boy Trump has spent a lot of time and money in and out of court. The following very long and ongoing list of court cases won and lost, is compliments of Wikipedia:Trump and his businesses have been involved in 3,500 legal cases in U.S. federal courts and state court, an unprecedented number for a U.S. presidential candidate.[1]Of the 3,500 suits, Trump or one of his companies were plaintiffs in 1,900; defendants in 1,450; and bankruptcy, third party, or other in 150.[1]Trump was named in at least 169 suits in federal court.[2]Over 150 other cases were in the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit Court of Florida (covering Broward County, Florida) since 1983.[3]In about 500 cases, judges dismissed plaintiffs' claims against Trump. In hundreds more, cases ended with the available public record unclear about the resolution.[1]Where there was a clear resolution, Trump won 451 times, and lost 38.[4]The topics of the legal cases include contract disputes, defamation claims, and allegations of sexual harassment. Trump's companies have been involved in more than 100 tax disputes, and on "at least three dozen" occasions the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance has obtained tax liens against Trump properties for nonpayment of taxes.[1]On a number of occasions, Trump has threatened legal action but did not ultimately follow through.[5]Of Trump's involvement in the lawsuits, his lawyer Alan Garten said in 2015 that this was "a natural part of doing business in [the United States]",[5][6]and in the real estate industry, litigation to enforce contracts and resolve business disputes is indeed common.[5]Trump has, however, been involved in far more litigation than fellow real-estate magnates; the USA Today analysis in 2016 found that Trump had been involved in legal disputes more than Edward J. DeBartolo Jr., Donald Bren, Stephen M. Ross, Sam Zell, and Larry Silverstein combined.[1]The Trump lawsuits[5][6]have attracted criticism from Trump's opponents, who say that this is not a trait that conservatives should support.[5]James Copland, director of legal policy at the conservative-leaning Manhattan Institute, states that "Trump clearly has an affinity for filing lawsuits, partly because he owns a lot of businesses" and has sometimes used litigation as a "bullying tactic".[5]Although Trump has said that he "never" settles legal claims, Trump and his businesses have settled with plaintiffs in at least 100 cases (mostly involving personal injury claims arising from injuries at Trump properties), with settlements ranging as high as hundreds of thousands of U.S. dollars[1]and recently as high as tens of millions of dollars.[7]Among the most well-known Trump legal cases was the Trump University litigation. Three legal actions were brought alleging fraud, one by the New York State Attorney General and the others by class action plaintiffs.[8]In November 2016, Trump agreed to pay $25 million to settle the litigation.[7]In 1985, New York City brought a lawsuit against Trump for allegedly using tactics to force out tenants of 100 Central Park South,[17]which he intended to demolish together with the building next door. After ten years in court, the two sides negotiated a deal allowing the building to stand as condominiums.[18]In 1988, the Justice Department sued Trump for violating procedures related to public notifications when buying voting stock in a company related to his attempted takeovers of Holiday Corporation and Bally Manufacturing Corporation in 1986. On April 5, 1988, Trump agreed to pay $750,000 to settle the civil penalties of the antitrust lawsuit.[19]In late 1990, Trump was sued for $2 million by a business analyst for defamation, and Trump settled out of court.[20]Briefly before Trump's Taj Mahal opened in April 1990, the analyst had said that the project would fail by the end of that year. Trump threatened to sue the analyst's firm unless the analyst recanted or was fired. The analyst refused to retract the statements, and his firm fired him for ostensibly unrelated reasons.[21]Trump Taj Mahal declared bankruptcy in November 1990, the first of several such bankruptcies.[22]After, the NYSE ordered the firm to compensate the analyst $750,000; the analyst did not release the details of his settlement with Trump.[23]In 1991, Trump sued the manufacturers of a helicopter that crashed in 1989, killing three executives of his New Jersey hotel casino business.[24]The helicopter fell 2,800 feet after the main four-blade rotor and tail rotor broke off the craft, killing Jonathan Benanav, an executive of Trump Plaza, and two others: Mark Grossinger Etess, president of Trump Taj Mahal, and Stephen F. Hyde, chief executive of the Atlantic City casinos.[25][26][27]One of the defendants was owned by the Italian government, providing a basis for removing it to federal court, where the case was dismissed. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit upheld the dismissal in 1992, and the Supreme Court denied Trump's petition to hear the case in the same year.[28]In 1991, Trump Plaza was fined $200,000 by the New Jersey Casino Control Commission for moving African American and female employees from craps tables in order to accommodate high roller Robert LiButti, a mob figure and alleged John Gotti associate, who was said to fly into fits of racist rage when he was on losing streaks.[29]There is no indication that Trump was ever questioned in that investigation, he was not held personally liable, and Trump denies even knowing what LiButti looked like.[29]In 1991, one of Trump's casinos in Atlantic City, New Jersey, was found guilty of circumventing state regulations about casino financing when Donald Trump's father bought $3.5 million in chips that he had no plans to gamble. Trump Castle was forced to pay a $30,000 fine under the settlement, according to New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement Director Jack Sweeney. Trump was not disciplined for the illegal advance on his inheritance, which was not confiscated.[30]In 1993, Donald Trump sued Jay Pritzker, a Chicago financier and Trump's business partner since 1979 on the Grand Hyatt hotel. Trump alleged that Pritzker overstated earnings in order to collect excessive management fees.[31]In 1994, Pritzker sued Trump for violating their agreement by, among other ways, failing to remain solvent.[32]The two parties ended the feud in 1995 in a sealed settlement, in which Trump retained some control of the hotel and Pritzker would receive reduced management fees and pay Trump's legal expenses.[33]In 1993, Vera Coking sued Trump and his demolition contractor for damage to her home during construction of the Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino.[34]In 1997, she dropped the suit against Trump and settled with his contractor for $90,000.[35]Coking had refused to sell her home to Trump and ultimately won a 1998 Supreme Court decision that prevented Atlantic City from using eminent domain to condemn her property.[36][37]In 1996, Trump was sued by more than 20 African-American residents of Indiana who charged that Trump reneged on promises to hire 70% of his work force from the minority community for his riverboat casino on Lake Michigan. The suit also charged that he hadn't honored his commitments to steer sufficient contracts to minority-owned businesses in Gary, Indiana. The suit was eventually dismissed due to procedural and jurisdiction issues.[38][39]In the late 1990s, Donald Trump and rival Atlantic City casino owner Stephen Wynn engaged in an extended legal conflict during the planning phase of new casinos Wynn had proposed to build. Both owners filed lawsuits against one another and other parties, including the State of New Jersey, beginning with Wynn's antitrust accusation against Trump.[40][41]After two years in court, Wynn's Mirage casino sued Trump in 1999 alleging that his company had engaged in a conspiracy to harm Mirage and steal proprietary information, primarily lists of wealthy Korean gamblers. In response, Trump's attorneys claimed that Trump's private investigator dishonored his contract by working as a "double agent" for the Mirage casino by secretly taping conversations with Trump. All the cases were settled at the same time on the planned day of an evidentiary hearing in court in February 2000, which was never held.[42]Personal and sexualIn 1992, Trump sued ex-wife Ivana Trump for not honoring a gag clause in their divorce agreement by disclosing facts about him in her best-selling book. Trump won the gag order.[43][44][45]The divorce was granted on grounds that Ivana claimed Donald Trump's treatment of her was "cruel and inhuman treatment".[46][47]Years later, Ivana said that she and Donald "are the best of friends".[48]A sexual assault claim from 1994 for child rape was filed against Trump on October 14, 2016,[49]a case that was dropped and refiled, remaining in suspension as of November 4, 2016.[50]In April 1997, Jill Harth Houraney filed a $125,000,000 lawsuit against Trump for sexual harassment in 1993, claiming he "'groped' her under her dress and told her he wanted to make her his 'sex slave'". Harth voluntarily withdrew the suit when her husband settled a parallel case. Trump has called the allegations "meritless".[51][52]Lawsuits 2000–2009[edit]In 2000, Donald Trump paid $250,000 to settle fines related to charges brought by New York State Lobbying Commission director David Grandeau. Trump was charged with circumventing state law to spend $150,000 lobbying against government approval of plans to construct an Indian-run casino in the Catskills, which would have diminished casino traffic to Trump's casinos in Atlantic City.[53][54]From 2000 on, Trump tried to partner with a German venture in building a "Trump Tower Europe" in Germany. The company founded for this, "TD Trump Deutschland AG" was dissolved in 2003, several lawsuits following in the years thereafter.[55]In 2001, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission brought a financial-reporting case against Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts Inc., alleging that the company had committed several "misleading statements in the company's third-quarter 1999 earnings release". Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts Inc. consented to the Commission's cease-and-desist order, said the culprit had been dismissed, and that Trump had personally been unaware of the matter.[56][57][58]Trump sued Leona Helmsley,[59]and Helmsley counter-sued Trump[60]due to contentions regarding ownership and operation of the Empire State Building. In 2002, Trump announced that he and his Japanese business partners, were selling the Empire State Building to partners of his rival Leona Helmsley.[61][62]In 2003, the city of Stuttgart denied TD Trump Deutschland AG, a Trump Organization subsidiary, the permission to build a planned tower due to questions over its financing. Trump Deutschland sued the city of Stuttgart, and lost. In 2004 Trump's German corporate partner brought suit against the Trump Organization for failure to pay back a EUR 200 million pre-payment as promised. In 2005, the German state attorney prosecuted Trump Deutschland and its partners for accounting fraud.[63][64][65]In 2004, Donald Trump sued Richard T. Fields in Broward County Circuit Court (in Florida); Fields was once Trump's business partner in the casino business, but had recently become a successful casino developer in Florida apart from Trump. Fields counter-sued Trump in Florida court. Trump alleged that Fields misled other parties into believing he still consulted for Trump, and Fields alleged improprieties in Trump's business.[66]The two businessmen agreed in 2008 to drop the lawsuits when Fields agreed to buy Trump Marina in Atlantic City, New Jersey, for $316 million,[67]but the deal was unsettled again in 2009 because Trump resigned his leadership of Trump Entertainment after Fields lowered his bid.[68]Fields never bought the company, which went into bankruptcy about the same time and was sold for $38 million.[69][70]Trump's lawsuit was dismissed after a hearing in 2010.[71]In 2004, the Trump Organization partnered with Bayrock Group on a $200 million hotel and condo project in Fort Lauderdale Beach, to be called Trump International Hotel & Tower. After proceeding for five years, real estate market devaluation stymied the project in 2009 and Trump dissolved his licensing deal, demanding that his name be removed from the building. Soon after this, the project defaulted on a $139 million loan in 2010.[72]Investors later sued the developers for fraud. Trump petitioned to have his name removed from the suit, saying he had only lent his name to the project. However his request was refused since he had participated in advertising for it.[73]The insolvent building project spawned over 10 lawsuits, some of which were still not settled in early 2016.[74]In 2006, the Town of Palm Beach began fining Trump $250 per day for ordinance violations related to his erection of an 80-foot-tall (24 m) flagpole flying a 15 by 25 feet (4.6 by 7.6 m) American flag on his property. Trump sued the town for $25 million, saying that they abridged his free speech, also disputing an ordinance that local businesses be "town-serving". The two parties settled as part of a court-ordered mediation, in which Trump was required to donate $100,000 to veterans' charities. At the same time, the town ordinance was modified allowing Trump to enroll out-of-town members in his Mar-a-Lago social club.[75]Trump International Hotel and Tower in ChicagoAfter the 2008 housing-market collapse, Deutsche Bank attempted to collect $40 million that Donald Trump personally guaranteed against their $640 million loan for Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago. Rather than paying the debt, Trump sued Deutsche Bank for $3 billion for undermining the project and damage to his reputation.[76]Deutsche Bank then filed suit to obtain the $40 million. The two parties settled in 2010 with Deutsche Bank extending the loan term by five years.[77]In 2008, Trump filed a $100 million lawsuit for alleged fraud and civil rights violations[78]against the California city of Rancho Palos Verdes, over thwarted luxury home development and expansion plans upon part of a landslide-prone golf course in the area, which was purchased by Trump in 2002 for $27 million.[78]Trump had previously sued a local school district over land leased from them in the re-branded Trump National Golf Club, and had further angered some local residents by renaming a thoroughfare after himself.[78]The $100 million suit was ultimately withdrawn in 2012 with Trump and the city agreeing to modified geological surveys and permit extensions for some 20 proposed luxury homes (in addition to 36 homes previously approved).[79][80]Trump ultimately opted for a permanent conservation easement instead of expanded housing development on the course's driving range.[81]In 2009, Donald Trump sued a law firm he had used, Morrison Cohen, for $5 million for mentioning his name and providing links to related news articles on its website. This lawsuit followed a lawsuit by Trump alleging overcharging by the law firm, and a countersuit by Morrison Cohen seeking unpaid legal fees.[82]The suit was dismissed in a 15-page ruling by Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Eileen Bransten, who ruled that the links to news articles concerned "matters of public interest."[83]In 2009, Trump was sued by investors who had made deposits for condos in the canceled Trump Ocean Resort Baja Mexico.[84]The investors said that Trump misrepresented his role in the project, stating after its failure that he had been little more than a spokesperson for the entire venture, disavowing any financial responsibility for the debacle.[85]Investors were informed that their investments would not be returned due to the cancellation of construction.[84]In 2013, Trump settled the lawsuit with more than one hundred prospective condo owners for an undisclosed amount.[86]Lawsuits 2010–presentConstruction and property law matters[edit]In 2011, Donald Trump sued Scotland, alleging that it built the Aberdeen Bay Wind Farm after assuring him it would not be built. He had recently built a golf course there and planned to build an adjacent hotel. Trump lost his suit, with the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom unanimously ruling in favor of the Scottish government in 2015.[87][88]In 2013, 87-year-old Jacqueline Goldberg alleged that Trump cheated her in a condominium sale by bait-and-switch when she was purchasing properties at the Trump International Hotel and Tower.[89]In 2015, Trump initiated a $100 million lawsuit against Palm Beach County claiming that officials, in a "deliberate and malicious" act, pressured the FAA to direct air traffic to the Palm Beach International Airport over his Mar-a-Lago estate, because he said the airplanes damaged the building and disrupted its ambiance.[90]Trump had previously sued the county twice over airport noise; the first lawsuit, in 1995, ended with an agreement between Trump and the county; Trump's second lawsuit, in 2010, was dismissed.[90]Trump is suing the town of Ossining, New York, over the property tax valuation on his 147-acre (59 ha) Trump National Golf Club Westchester, located in Briarcliff Manor's portion of the town, which Trump purchased for around $8 million at a foreclosure sale in the 1990s and to which he claimed, at the club's opening, to have added $45 million in facility improvements.[91]Although Trump stated in his 2015 FEC filing that the property was worth at least $50 million, his lawsuit seeks a $1.4 million valuation on the property, which includes a 75,000-square-foot clubhouse, five overnight suites, and permission to build 71 condominium units,[91]in an effort to shave $424,176 from his annual local property tax obligations.(91A) Trump had to pay nearly $300,000 in attorney’s fees in Doral painter’s lawsuit related to unpaid bills brought by a local paint store against the Trump National Doral Miami golf resort, ordered the billionaire politician’s company to pay the Doral-based mom-and-pop shop nearly $300,000 in attorney’s fees. All because, according to the lawsuit, Trump allegedly tried to stiff The Paint Spot on its last payment of $34,863 on a $200,000 contract for paint used in the renovation of the home of golf’s famed Blue Monster two years prior.[92]Trump filed the action after separately being sued by Briarcliff Manor for "intentional and illegal modifications" to a drainage system that caused more than $238,000 in damage to the village's library, public pool, and park facilities during a 2011 storm.[92]In October 2016, the Ontario Court of Appeal ruled that Trump, together with two principals of a connected developer, could be sued for various claims, including oppression, collusion and breach of fiduciary duties, in relation to his role in the marketing of units in the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Toronto, Canada.[93]A subsequent application for leave to appeal was dismissed by the Supreme Court of Canada in March 2017.[94]Also in October 2016, JCF Capital ULC (a private firm that had bought the construction loan on the building) announced that it was seeking court approval under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act to have the building sold in order to recoup its debt, which then totaled $301 million.[95]The court allowed for its auction[96]which took place in March 2017, but no bidders, apart from one stalking horse offer, took part.[97]Defamation mattersAlso in 2011, an appellate court upheld a New Jersey Superior Court judge's decision dismissing Trump's $5 billion defamation lawsuit against author Timothy L. O'Brien, who had reported in his book, TrumpNation: The Art of Being the Donald (2005), that Trump's true net worth was really between $150 and $250 million. Trump had reportedly told O'Brien he was worth billions and, in 2005, had publicly stated such.[98]Trump said that the author's alleged underestimation of his net worth was motivated by malice and had cost him business deals and damage to his reputation.[99]The appellate court, however, ruled against Trump, citing the consistency of O'Brien's three confidential sources.[100]In 2014, the former Miss Pennsylvania Sheena Monnin ultimately settled a $5 million arbitration judgment against her, having been sued by Trump after alleging that the Miss USA 2012 pageant results were rigged. Monnin wrote on her Facebook page that another contestant told her during a rehearsal that she had seen a list of the top five finalists, and when those names were called in their precise order, Monnin realized the pageant election process was suspect, compelling Monnin to resign her Miss Pennsylvania title. The Trump Organization's lawyer said that Monnin's allegations had cost the pageant a lucrative British Petroleum sponsorship deal and threatened to discourage women from entering Miss USA contests in the future.[101]According to Monnin, testimony from the Miss Universe Organization and Ernst & Young revealed that the top 15 finalists were selected by pageant directors regardless of preliminary judges' scores.[102]As part of the settlement, Monnin was not required to retract her original statements.[101]On January 17, 2017, Summer Zervos, represented by attorney Gloria Allred, filed a defamation suit against President-Elect Donald Trump for claiming that she had lied in her public sexual assault allegations against him.[103]Financial mattersIn July 2011, New York firm ALM Unlimited filed a lawsuit against Trump, who ended payments to the company in 2008 after nearly three years. ALM was hired in 2003 to seek offers from clothing companies for a Trump fashion line, and had arranged a meeting between Trump and PVH, which licensed the Trump name for dress shirts and neckwear. ALM, which had received over $300,000, alleged in the lawsuit that Trump's discontinuation of payments was against their initial agreement. In pre-trial depositions, Trump and two of his business officials – attorney George H. Ross and executive vice president of global licensing Cathy Glosser – gave contradictory statements regarding whether ALM was entitled to payments. Trump, who felt that ALM had only a limited role in the deal between him and PVH, said "I have thousands of checks that I sign a week, and I don't look at very many of the checks; and eventually I did look, and when I saw them (ALM) I stopped paying them because I knew it was a mistake or somebody made a mistake."[104]In January 2013, a judge ordered that the case go to trial, after Trump and ALM failed to settle the lawsuit.[105]During the trial in April 2013, Trump said that ALM's role in the PVH agreement was insubstantial, stating that Regis Philbin was the one who recommended PVH to him. Trump's attorney, Alan Garten, said ALM was not legally entitled to any money.[105][106][107]The judge ruled in favor of Trump later that month because a valid contract between him and ALM was never created.[107]Trump University litigationMain article: Trump University § Allegations of impropriety and lawsuitsIn 2013, in a lawsuit filed by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, Trump was accused of defrauding more than 5,000 people of $40 million for the opportunity to learn Trump's real estate investment techniques in a for-profit training program, Trump University, which operated from 2005 to 2011.[108][109][110]Trump ultimately stopped using the term "University" following a 2010 order from New York regulators, who called Trump's use of the word "misleading and even illegal"; the state had previously warned Trump in 2005 to drop the term or not offer seminars in New York.[111][112][113]Although Trump has claimed a 98% approval rating on course evaluations, former students recounted high-pressure tactics from instructors seeking the highest possible ratings, including threats of withholding graduation certificates,[114]and more than 2,000 students had sought and received course refunds before the end of their paid seminars.[114]In a separate class action civil suit against Trump University in mid-February 2014, a San Diego federal judge allowed claimants in California, Florida, and New York to proceed;[115]a Trump counterclaim, alleging that the state Attorney General's investigation was accompanied by a campaign donation shakedown, was investigated by a New York ethics board and dismissed in August 2015.[116]Trump filed a $1 million defamation suit against former Trump University student Tarla Makaeff, who had spent about $37,000 on seminars, after she joined the class action lawsuit and publicized her classroom experiences on social media.[85]Trump University was later ordered by a U.S. District Judge in April 2015 to pay Makaeff and her lawyers $798,774.24 in legal fees and costs.[85][117]Breach of contract matters2013]In 2013 Trump sued comedian Bill Maher for $5 million for breach of contract.[118]Maher had appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and had offered to pay $5 million to a charity if Trump produced his birth certificate to prove that Trump's mother had not mated with an orangutan. This was said by Maher in response to Trump having previously challenged Obama to produce his birth certificate, and offering $5 million payable to a charity of Obama's choice, if Obama produced his college applications, transcripts, and passport records.[119][120]Trump produced his birth certificate and filed a lawsuit after Maher was not forthcoming, claiming that Maher's $5 million offer was legally binding. "I don't think he was joking," Trump said. "He said it with venom."[119]Trump withdrew his lawsuit against the comedian after eight weeks.[121]2014[edit]In 2014, model Alexia Palmer filed a civil suit against Trump Model Management for promising a $75,000 annual salary but paying only $3,380.75 for three years' work. Palmer, who came to the US at age 17 from Jamaica under the H-1B visa program in 2011,[122]claimed to be owed more than $200,000. Palmer contended that Trump Model Management charged, in addition to a management fee, "obscure expenses" from postage to limousine rides that consumed the remainder of her compensation. Palmer alleged that Trump Model Management promised to withhold only 20% of her net pay as agency expenses, but after charging her for those "obscure expenses", ended up taking 80%.[123]Trump attorney Alan Garten claimed the lawsuit is "bogus and completely frivolous".[124][125]Palmer filed a class-action lawsuit against the modeling agency with similar allegations.[126]The case was dismissed from U.S. federal court in March 2016, in part because Palmer's immigration status, via H1-B visa sponsored by Trump, required labor complaints to be filed through a separate process.[123][127]2015[edit]In 2015, Trump sued Univision, demanding $500 million for breach of contract and defamation when they dropped their planned broadcast of the Miss USA pageant. The network said that the decision was made because of Trump's "insulting remarks about Mexican immigrants".[128]Trump settled the lawsuit with Univision CEO Randy Falco out of court.[129]In July 2015, Trump filed a $10 million lawsuit in D.C. Superior Court for breach of contract against Spanish celebrity chef José Andrés, claiming that he backed out of a deal to open the flagship restaurant at Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C.[130][131]Andrés replied that Trump's lawsuit was "both unsurprising and without merit"[132]and filed an $8 million counterclaim against a Trump Organization subsidiary.[131][133]Also in July 2015, Chef Geoffrey Zakarian also withdrew from the Washington, D.C., project with Andrés in the wake of Trump's comments on Mexican illegal immigrants, and is expected to lose his own $500,000 restaurant lease deposit as a result.[132]Trump denounced and then sued Zakarian in August 2015 for a sum "in excess of $10 million" for lost rent and other damages.[134]Trump's lawsuit called Zakarian's offense at his remarks "curious in light of the fact that Mr. Trump's publicly shared views on immigration have remained consistent for many years, and Mr. Trump's willingness to frankly share his opinions is widely known".[134][135]Disputes with both chefs were eventually settled in April 2017.[136]In 2015, restaurant workers at Trump SoHo filed a lawsuit that from 2009 to at least the time of the filing, gratuities added to customers' checks were illegally withheld from employees. The Trump Organization has responded that the dispute is between the employees and their employer, a third-party contractor. Donald Trump has been scheduled to testify in court on September 1, 2016.[137][138]2018[edit]In 2018, Noel Cintron, the personal driver for Donald Trump before he became the President of the United States, filed a lawsuit Cintron v Trump Organization LLC with the Supreme Court of the State of New York (Manhattan). The lawsuit claims that during his 25-year employment by Trump, he was not compensated for overtime and the second time his salary was raised he was induced to surrender his health insurance, an action which saved Trump approximately $17,866 per year.[139]The lawsuit seeks $178,200 of overtime back pay, plus $5,000 in penalties that are seen under the New York State Labor Law.[140]Assault claims[edit]In September 2015, five men who had demonstrated outside of a Trump presidential campaign event at Trump Tower in New York City sued Donald Trump, alleging that Trump's security staff punched one of them. They also allege that Trump's security guards had been advised by city police that they were permitted to protest there. Several people videotaped the incident.[141][142]In June 2015, the Culinary Workers Union filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), alleging that the owners of Trump Hotel Las Vegas "violated the federally protected rights of workers to participate in union activities" and engaged in "incidents of alleged physical assault, verbal abuse, intimidation, and threats by management".[143]In October 2015, the Trump Ruffin Commercial and Trump Ruffin Tower I, the owners of Trump Hotel Las Vegas, sued the Culinary Workers Union and another union, alleging that they had knowingly distributed flyers that falsely stated that Donald Trump had stayed at a rival unionized hotel, rather than his own non-unionized hotel, during a trip to Las Vegas.[5][143]Poll watching controversy[edit]On October 31, 2016, a New Jersey federal judge, John Michael Vazquez, ordered the Republican National Committee (RNC) to hand over all communications with the Trump campaign related to poll watching and voter fraud. He asked for testimony and documents relating to Kellyanne Conway, RNC officials Ronna Romney McDaniel of Michigan, and Rob Gleason from Pennsylvania.[144]It is claimed Gleason, McDaniel, and Roger Stone recruited poll watchers to check for voter fraud. The state Democratic parties of Nevada, Pennsylvania, Arizona, and Ohio filed lawsuits against Trump for encouraging illegal voter intimidation. The states' Democratic parties are also suing their respective Republican party counterparts, along with Roger Stone, who is allegedly recruiting poll watchers and organizing ballot security efforts in a number of states. Stone runs the group "Stop the Steal." It claims Trump supporters yelled at voters outside Las Vegas area polling places when they said they weren't voting for the Republican nominee, and that Stone is asking supporters to conduct an illegitimate "exit polling" initiative aimed at intimidating voters of color.Pat McDonald, the director of Cuyahoga County Board of Elections in Ohio, reported that "Trump supporters have already visited the county elections board identifying themselves as poll observers, even though they did not appear to be credentialed as poll observers as required under Ohio law." Election officials have expressed concern about "instability on Election Day," one lawsuit claims, and discussed the possibility of bringing police to polling sites to address conflicts. In Clark County of Nevada, a lawsuit claims: "A Trump supporter harassed and intimidated multiple voters outside of the Albertson's supermarket early voting location on Lake Mead Boulevard, repeatedly asking voters for whom they were voting, and then yelling at them belligerently and attempting to keep them from entering the voting location when they stated they were not voting for Donald Trump." When poll staffers told the Trump supporters to stop harassing voters, "the Trump supporter told poll workers that he had 'a right to say anything he wanted to the voters.'" Poll staffers called police, and the Trump supporter left. The lawsuit also claims similar incidents took place in neighboring Nye County as well. In Pennsylvania, Murrysville City Councilman Josh Lorenz supposedly posted instructions for the way Clinton supporters could vote online, even though there is no online voting in Pennsylvania. Eight registered electors, mostly from the Philadelphia area, challenged the portion of the state Election Code that prevents poll watchers from observing elections outside of the counties where they live.[145][146][147]In Pompano Beach, Florida, police asked two poll watchers to leave a polling site. Two precinct clerks were also fired for not adhering to policy and training. No arrests were made. No other incidents were reported in South Florida.[148][149]Nevada early voting Latino turnout controversy[edit]On November 8, 2016, Trump filed a lawsuit claiming early voting polling places in Clark County, Nevada, were kept open too late. These precincts had high turnout of Latino voters. Nevada state law explicitly states that polls are to stay open to accommodate eligible voters in line at closing time. Hillary Clinton campaign advisor Neera Tanden says the Trump campaign is trying to suppress Latino voter turnout. A political analyst from Nevada, Jon Ralston tweeted that the Trump lawsuit is "insane" in a state that clearly allows the polls to remains open until everyone in line has voted. Former Nevada Secretary of State Ross Miller, posted the statute that states "voting must continue until those voters have voted". Miller said: "If there are people in line waiting to vote at 7 pm, voting must continue until everyone votes.... We still live in America, right?"[150]A Nevada judge denied Trump's request to separate early voting ballots. Judge Gloria Sturman, of the District Court for Clark County Nevada, ruled that County Registrar of Voters Joe P. Gloria was already obligated by state law to maintain the records that the Trump campaign is seeking. Sturman said: "That is offensive to me because it seems to go against the very principle that a vote is secret."[151][152]Diana Orrock, the Republican National Committeewoman for Nevada and a vocal Trump ally, said she was unaware of the lawsuit before Politico contacted her. "I know that the [Clark County] registrar was on TV this morning saying that anybody who's in line was allowed to participate in the voting process until all of them came through," she said. "If that's what they did, I don't have a problem with that ... I don't know that filing a suit's going to accomplish anything." Orrock doubts the lawsuit will have any impact.[153]Lawsuit for inciting violence at March 2016 campaign rally[edit]During a campaign rally on March 1, 2016 in Louisville, Kentucky, Trump repeatedly said "get 'em out of here" while pointing at anti-Trump protesters as they were forcibly escorted out by his supporters. Three protesters say they were repeatedly shoved and punched while Trump pointed at them from the podium, citing widely shared video evidence of the events. They also cited previous statements by Trump about paying the legal bills of supporters who got violent, or suggesting a demonstrator deserved to be "roughed up."[154][155][156][157]The lawsuit accuses Donald Trump of inciting violence against protesters in Louisville, Kentucky. The plaintiffs are Kashiya Nwanguma (21), Molly Shah (36) and Henry Brousseau (17). The suit is against Trump, his campaign, and three Trump supporters (Matthew Heimbach, Alvin Bamberger and an unnamed defendant). One defendant, Bamburger, who was wearing a Veteran's uniform in the video, apologized to the Korean War Veterans Association immediately after the event, writing that he "physically pushed a young woman down the aisle toward the exit" after "Trump kept saying 'get them out, get them out."[154]Trump's attorneys requested to get the case dismissed, arguing he was protected by free speech laws, and wasn't trying to get his supporters to resort to violence.[156][158]They also stated that Trump had no duty to the protesters, and they had assumed the personal risk of injury by deciding to protest at the rally.[154]On Friday, April 1, 2017, Judge David J. Hale in Louisville ruled against the dismissal of a lawsuit, stating there was ample evidence to support that the injuries of the protesters were a "direct and proximate result" of Trump's words and actions. Hale wrote, "It is plausible that Trump's direction to 'get 'em out of here' advocated the use of force," and, "It was an order, an instruction, a command." Hale wrote that the Supreme Court has ruled out some protections for free speech when used to incite violence.[159]Defendant Heimbach requested to dismiss the discussion in the lawsuit about his association with a white nationalist group, and also requested to dismiss discussion of statements he made about how a President Trump would advance the interests of the group. The request was declined, with the judge saying the information could be important for determining punitive damages because they add context.[154]Hale also declined to remove the allegation that Plaintiff Nwanguma, who is African-American, was victim to ethnic, racial and sexist slurs at the rally from the crowd. The judge stated that this context may support claims by the plaintiffs' of incitement and negligence by Trump and the Trump campaign. The judge wrote, "While the words themselves are repulsive, they are relevant to show the atmosphere in which the alleged events occurred."[154]The judge stated that all people have a duty to use care to prevent foreseeable injury. "In sum, the Court finds that Plaintiffs have adequately alleged that their harm was foreseeable and that the Trump Defendants had a duty to prevent it." The case was referred a federal magistrate, Judge H. Brent Brennenstuhl, who will handle preliminary litigation, discovery and settlement efforts.[160]Heimbach filed a separate counterclaim in April 2017, arguing that Trump was "responsible for any injuries" he [Heimbach] "might have inflicted because Mr. Trump directed him and others to take action". Heimbach, "a self-employed landscaper", and a member of the Traditionalist Youth Network, "which advocates separate American 'ethno states', "spends much of his time" online writing "against Jews, gays and immigrants and urging whites to stand up for their race." He wrote his own lawsuit which requested that Trump pay Heimbach's "legal fees, citing a promise Mr. Trump made at an earlier rally to pay legal costs of anyone who removed protesters."[161]Heimbach's "counterclaim" against Trump has "probed the limits of free speech and public protest while confronting the courts with a unique legal argument".[161]On May 5, Trump's lawyers submitted legal filings that argue that Heimbach's "indemnity claim should be dismissed on the same grounds". According to a University of Virginia law professor, Leslie Kendrick, this indemnity or "impleader" case is "highly unusual."[161]New York University's Samuel Issacharoff, a professor of constitutional law, argued that care must be taken to not allow speech, in the "context of a political rally" to be "turned into something that is legally sanctionable."[161]Payments related to alleged affairs[edit]See also: Stormy Daniels–Donald Trump scandal and Karen McDougal § Alleged affair with Donald TrumpAdult film actress Stormy Daniels has alleged that she and Trump had an extramarital affair in 2006, months after the birth of his youngest child.[162]Just before the 2016 presidential election Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, was paid $130,000 by Trump's attorney Michael Cohen as part of a non-disclosure agreement (NDA), through an LLC set up by Cohen; he says he used his own money for the payment.[163]In February 2018, Daniels filed suit against the LLC asking to be released from the agreement so that she can tell her story. Cohen filed a private arbitration proceeding and obtained a restraining order to keep her from discussing the case.[164]According to White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Trump has denied the allegations.[165]On March 6, 2018, Daniels sued Trump in California Superior Court, claiming among other things that the NDA never came into effect because Trump did not sign it personally.[166]On March 16 Cohen, with Trump's approval, asked for Daniels' suit to be moved from state to federal court, based on the criteria that the parties live in different places and the amount at stake is more than $75,000; Cohen asserted that Daniels could owe $20 million in liquidated damages for breaching the agreement.[167]The filing marked the first time that Trump himself, through his personal attorney, had taken part in the Daniels litigation.[168]In early April 2018, Trump said that he did not know about Cohen paying Daniels, why Cohen had made the payment or where Cohen got the money from.[169]On April 30, Daniels further sued Trump for defamation.[170]In May 2018, Trump's annual financial disclosure revealed that he reimbursed Cohen in 2017 for expenditures related to the Daniels case.[171]In August 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty to breaking campaign finance laws, admitting paying hush money of $130,000 and $150,000 "at the direction of a candidate for federal office", to two women who alleged affairs with that candidate, "with the purpose of influencing the election". The figures match sums of payments made to Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal.[172][173]American Media, Inc. had reportedly in 2016 bought for $150,000 the rights to a story by McDougal alleging an affair with a married Trump from 2006 which lasted between nine months to a year.[174][175][176]David Pecker (AMI CEO/Chairman and friend of Trump), Dylan Howard (AMI chief content officer) and Allen Weisselberg (chief financial officer of The Trump Organization) were reportedly granted witness immunity in exchange for their testimony regarding the illegal payments.[177][178]In response, Trump said that he only knew about the payments "later on"; Trump also said regarding the payments: "They didn't come out of the campaign, they came from me."[179]The Wall Street Journal reported on November 9, 2018 that federal prosecutors have evidence of Trump’s "central role" in payments to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal that violated campaign-finance laws.[180][181]Special Counsel investigation[edit]Main article: Special Counsel investigation (2017–present)The Special Counsel investigation is a United States law enforcement investigation of Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and any Russian (or other foreign) interference in the election, including exploring any possible links or coordination between Trump's campaign and the Russian government, "and any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation."[182]Since May 2017, the investigation has been led by a United States Special Counsel, Robert Mueller, a former Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation(FBI). Mueller's investigation took over several FBI investigations including those involving former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.It has been noted that Trump has experienced a high turnover with respect to the attorneys handling this matter, as well as a large number of prominent lawyers and law firms publicly declining offers to join Trump's legal team.[183][184]Attorneys known to have been approached include Robert S. Bennett of Hogan Lovells,[185]Paul Clement and Mark Filip, both with Kirkland & Ellis,[186][186]Robert Giuffra Jr. of Sullivan & Cromwell,[185]Theodore B. Olson of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher,[187]and Brendan V. Sullivan Jr. of Williams & Connolly.[186]Other firms with attorneys who have decided not to represent Trump include Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan,[188]Steptoe & Johnson,[188]and Winston & Strawn.[citation needed]Former U.S. Attorney Joseph diGenova and his wife Victoria Toensing were briefly slated to join Trump's legal team, but withdrew their services from Trump in March 2018, citing conflicts of interest.[189]In an article describing the "unique circumstance" of Rudy Giuliani's unpaid leave of absence from Greenberg Traurig while representing Trump, possibly because of "potential conflicts", Christine Simmons said some other law firms may have turned down representing Trump in the Russia case due to "public relations headaches or business and recruitment concerns".[190]Trump has called such views a "Fake News narrative".[191][192]In a National Law Journal article, Ryan Lovelace described how white-collar lawyers must weigh the "risks" and "stigma" of joining the Trump team. He quoted a prominent defense attorney's concerns about "the constant shuffle of attorneys in and out of the president's legal team", and the possibility that an attorney could invest resources and reputation in such representation "only to find yourself on the sidelines a short time later because the president saw someone he liked better on Fox News".[192]The quoted attorney also noted "a stigma to being linked to this president" that might impact business with other clients.[192]A list of other reasons for not wanting to represent Trump is provided by Jill Abramson for The Guardian:The problem for the white-collar defense bar's crème de la crème is that Donald Trump is so blatantly the client from hell. He won't listen. He won't obey instructions. He is headstrong. He is a bully. Sometimes, he doesn't pay his bills. Most of all, it's possible that he isn't capable of discerning fact from fiction. This last foible could get any lawyer who represents him into very deep legal hot water. No one wants to get disbarred for the fame and fortune of representing President Trump. Then there's the justifiable concern over all the unforced legal errors that the defense side, led by Trump himself, has already committed.[193]An Above the Law article states that some law firms have refused to represent the President of the United States because "Donald Trump has somehow turned POTUS into a dog of a client self-respecting lawyers do not want to touch", expressing concern that "[i]f all the good attorneys — the ones with reputations to preserve and ethics to uphold — refuse to represent the president, what's left are the 'bad' attorneys. The ones who don't have the slightest idea what a moral and ethical principle is".[194]Allegations of business links to organized crime[edit]Journalists David Cay Johnston and Wayne Barrett, the latter of whom wrote an unauthorized 1992 Trump biography, have claimed that Trump and his companies did business with New York and Philadelphia families linked to the Italian-American Mafia.[195][196]A reporter for The Washington Post writes, "he was never accused of illegality, and observers of the time say that working with the mob-related figures and politicos came with the territory."[197]Trump helped a financier for the Scarfo family get a casino license, and constructed a casino using firms controlled by Nicodemo Scarfo.[198]Trump also bought real estate from Philadelphia crime family member Salvatore Testa, and bought concrete from companies associated with the Genovese crime family and the Gambino crime family.[195][196][197]Trump Plaza paid a $450,000 fine leveled by the Casino Gaming Commission for giving $1.6 million in rare automobiles to Robert LiButti, the acquaintance of John Gotti already mentioned.[29]Starting in 2003, the Trump Organization worked with Felix Sater, who had a 1998 racketeering conviction for a $40 million Mafia-linked stock fraud scheme, and who had then become an informant against the mafia.[199]Trump's attorney has said that Sater worked with Trump scouting real estate opportunities, but was never formally employed.[200]Use of bankruptcy laws[edit]Trump has never filed for personal bankruptcy, but hotel and casino businesses of his have been declared bankrupt four times between 1991 and 2009 to re-negotiate debt with banks and owners of stock and bonds.[201][202]Because the businesses used Chapter 11 bankruptcy, they were allowed to operate while negotiations proceeded. Trump was quoted by Newsweek in 2011 saying, "I do play with the bankruptcy laws – they're very good for me" as a tool for trimming debt.[82][203]According to a report by Forbes in 2011, the four bankruptcies were the result of over-leveraged hotel and casino businesses in Atlantic City: Trump's Taj Mahal (1991), Trump Plaza Hotel (1992), Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts (2004), and Trump Entertainment Resorts (2009).[204][205]Trump said "I've used the laws of this country to pare debt.... We'll have the company. We'll throw it into a chapter. We'll negotiate with the banks. We'll make a fantastic deal. You know, it's like on The Apprentice. It's not personal. It's just business."[206]He indicated that many "great entrepreneurs" do the same.[204]1991[edit]In 1991, Trump Taj Mahal was unable to service its debt and filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy.[206]Forbes indicated that this first bankruptcy was the only one where Trump's personal financial resources were involved. Time, however, maintains that $72 million of his personal money was also involved in a later 2004 bankruptcy.[207]1992[edit]On November 2, 1992, the Trump Plaza Hotel filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and Trump lost his 49 percent stake in the luxury hotel to Citibank and five other lenders.[208]In return Trump received more favorable terms on the remaining $550+ million owed to the lenders, and retain his position as chief executive, though he would not be paid and would not have a role in day-to-day operations.[209]1994[edit]Trump Plaza Hotel and Casinoclosed in 2014By 1994, Trump had eliminated a large portion of his $900 million personal debt through sales of his Trump Taj Mahal and Trump Plazaassets,[210]and significantly reduced his nearly $3.5 billion in business debt. Although he lost the Trump Princess yacht and the Trump Shuttle (which he had bought in 1989), he did retain Trump Tower in New York City and control of three casinos in Atlantic City, including Trump's Castle. Trump sold his ownership of West Side Yards (now Riverside South, Manhattan) to Chinese developers including Hong Kong's New World Development, receiving a premium price in exchange for the use and display of the name "Trump" on the buildings.[211]2004[edit]Donald Trump's third corporate bankruptcy was on October 21, 2004, involving Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts, the publicly-traded holding company for his three Atlantic City casinos and some others.[212]Trump lost over half of his 56% ownership and gave bondholders stock in exchange for surrendering part of the debt. No longer CEO, Trump retained a role as chairman of the board. In May 2005[213]the company emerged from bankruptcy as Trump Entertainment Resorts Holdings.[214]In his 2007 book, Think BIG and Kick Ass in Business and Life, Trump wrote: "I figured it was the bank's problem, not mine. What the hell did I care? I actually told one bank, 'I told you you shouldn't have loaned me that money. I told you the goddamn deal was no good.'"[215]2009[edit]Trump's fourth corporate bankruptcy occurred in 2009, when Trump and his daughter Ivanka resigned from the board of Trump Entertainment Resorts; four days later the company, which owed investors $1.74 billion against its $2.06 billion of assets, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. At that time, Trump Entertainment Resorts had three properties in Atlantic City: Trump Taj Mahal, Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino (closed in 2014), and Trump Marina (formerly Trump's Castle, sold in 2011). Trump and some investors bought the company back that same year for $225 million. As part of the agreement, Trump withdrew a $100 million lawsuit he had filed against the casino's owners alleging damage to the Trump brand. Trump re-negotiated the debt, reducing by over $1 billion the repayments required to bondholders.[216][217]In 2014, Trump sued his former company to remove his name from the buildings since he no longer ran the company, having no more than a 10% stake; he lost the suit.[218]Trump Entertainment Resorts filed again for bankruptcy in 2014[219]and was purchased by billionaire philanthropist Carl Icahn in 2016, who acquired Trump Taj Mahal in the deal.[220]Campaign contributions[edit]According to a New York state report, Trump circumvented corporate and personal campaign donation limits in the 1980s – although he did not break any laws – by donating money to candidates from 18 different business subsidiaries, rather than giving primarily in his own name.[197][221]Trump told investigators he did so on the advice of his lawyers. He also said the contributions were not to curry favor with business-friendly candidates, but simply to satisfy requests from friends.[197][222]Donald J. Trump Foundation[edit]During the 2016 U.S. presidential election, media began reporting in detail on how the Donald J. Trump Foundation was funded and how Donald Trump used its funds. The Washington Post in particular reported several cases of possible mis-use, self-dealing and possible tax evasion.[18] [19] [20]Regarding the various irregularities in the Trump Foundation, former head of the Internal Revenue Service's Office of Exempt Organizations Division Marc Owens told The Washington Post: "This is so bizarre, this laundry list of issues.... It's the first time I've ever seen this, and I've been doing this for 25 years in the IRS, and 40 years total.[21]When interviewed for the Post's article, Trump spokesperson Boris Epshtein said that Trump did not knowingly violate any tax laws.[18]The office of New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman investigated the foundation "to make sure it's complying with the laws governing charities in New York."[22]Controversy over tax returns[edit]In October 2016, The New York Times published some tax documents from 1995. These documents indicate that Trump might have evaded paying taxes on as much as 916 million dollars in income at one time. Trump likely gave some of his creditors shares of his failing businesses to avoid taxes on hundreds of millions of dollars he was given in debt relief, which is illegal. Legal scholar Edward Kleinbard of the University of Southern California believes Trump forged tax documents. Trump claimed on his tax returns that he lost money, but did not recognize it in the form of canceled debts. He likely avoided paying 425 million dollars in taxes, says Steven M. Rosenthal, an attorney at the Tax Policy Center. Rosenthal claims he "borrowed other people's money and spent it in spectacular fashion." Trump might have performed a stock-for-debt swap. This would have allowed Trump to avoid paying income taxes for at least 18 years. An audit of Trump's tax returns for 2002 through 2008 was "closed administratively by agreement with the I.R.S. without assessment or payment, on a net basis, of any deficiency." Tax attorneys believe the government may have reduced what Trump was able to claim as a loss without requiring him to pay any additional taxes.[223][224]It is unknown whether the I.R.S. challenged Trump's use of the swaps because he has not released his tax returns. Trump's lawyers advised against Trump using the equity for debt swap, as they believed it to be potentially illegal.[225]Marc Kasowitz, name partner of the Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman firm, wrote a letter threatening The New York Times over publication of the 1995 documents. Kasowitz's action drew attention to the fact that the biglaw firm had done extensive legal work for Donald Trump and his businesses since at least 2001 including also bankrupt casino restructuring.[226]In early 2017, firm member and former Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman introduced Pres.-elect Trump's nominee for Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos to the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension committee.[227]Destruction of documents[edit]In June 2016, a USA Today article reported that Donald Trump and his companies have been deleting emails and other documents on a large scale,[228]including evidence in lawsuits, sometimes in defiance of court orders and under subpoena since as early as 1973.[229][230][231]In October 2016, Kurt Eichenwald published new research findings in Newsweek. The findings were first published by Paul Singer[232]on June 13, 2016[233]and gained larger attention[234][235]after a new report in Newsweek on October 31, 2016. According to Newsweek, Trump and his companies "hid or destroyed thousands of documents" involving several court cases from as early as 1973."Over the course of decades, Donald Trump's companies have systematically destroyed or hidden thousands of emails, digital records and paper documents demanded in official proceedings, often in defiance of court orders.... In each instance, Trump and entities he controlled also erected numerous hurdles that made lawsuits drag on for years, forcing courtroom opponents to spend huge sums of money in legal fees as they struggled—sometimes in vain—to obtain records."— Kurt Eichenwald, Donald Trump's Companies Destroyed Emails in Defiance of Court Orders Newsweek, October 31, 2016In 1973 Trump, his father and their company were in court for civil charges for refusing to rent apartments to African Americans. After their lawyers had delayed court requests for documents for several months, Trump, then being under subpoena, said his company had destroyed corporate records of the past six months "for saving space". In a court case beginning in 2005 against Power Plant Entertainment, LLC, an affiliate of real estate developer Cordish Cos., it was revealed that Trump's companies had deleted the data requested by court.[236]Cordish Cos. had built two American Indian[237]casinos in Florida under the Hard Rock brand and Donald Trump accused them of cheating him out of that deal. Nonetheless, Trump's lawyers had refused to instruct workers to keep all records related to the case during litigation.[229]Trump had established a procedure to delete all data from their employees' computers every year at least since 2003,[234]despite knowing at least since 2001 that he might want to file a lawsuit. Even after the lawsuit was filed, Trump Hotelsdisposed of a computer of a key witness without having made a backup of the data. A former general counsel of the Trump casino unit confirmed that all data were deleted from nearly all companies' computers annually. Trump and his lawyers claimed they were not keeping records and digital data although it was revealed that Trump had launched his own high-speed internet provider in 1998 and an IBM Domino server had been installed for emails and digital files in 1999.[229][235]

Congratulations for short-listing all three universities outside of Europe! You are guaranteed to explore different cultures!I think an important question you have to answer is, "What are your priorities and interests?" I've read in your comments on other answers, that your main goal is to learn about cultures and meeting people, while studying comes second. Good, now that you can verify if NTU could fulfil your needs.Disclosure: I've just graduated from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore; I went to INSA Lyon, France exchange studies for one semester. I stayed on campus for most part of my studies, for one of the semesters I had an American exchange student roommate, and have met and get to know quite a number of exchange student classmates.Don't let language ever stop you from considering an exchange university (so long as the courses you are taking are in a language you are somewhat comfortable, like English). I chose INSA Lyon, France when at the time I couldn't speak a single French word! (I didn't know Bonjour until some time between that decision and the start of exchange, but I learned quickly.) A new language can be a very strong motivation to explore a new culture: you have to step out of your comfort zone and see the differences even in daily life. I thoroughly enjoyed my exchange in France and learned French through countless conversations there with new friends and strangers alike.Culture-wise, Singapore is a multiracial country located in Southeast Asia, but the society is rather Westernised, with English as lingua franca; most people here are bi- or multi-lingual. Students in NTU while majority Singaporean, there are large number of full-time international students mainly from Asian countries, and through my university years I did encounter one French, one American and a few Mauritian full-time students. Exchange students come from even more diverse countries and cultures across almost all continents. I've once sat at a table of NTU students, full-time and exchange, altogether we speak close to 20 languages.While Joel Khoo's answer has pretty well summed up about the various interesting destinations around Singapore, and I fully recommend you exploring those places, I would say the part about NTU contains some half-truth.NTU is travelling time could be a concern for local students, I don't see why exchange students should be too bothered about it, especially if you get on-campus residence. From NTU to Clarke Quay, where night-life happens, is about 1 hour by bus+metro, or 30 min by uber (S$20+). Drinking in bars and clubs is too expensive anyway -- a pint of beer in pubs typically costs >S$10 and a cocktail like Long Island Tea would be >S$16, we're not even talking about entrance fee to clubs. Many exchange students to NTU would gather around Canteen 2 alfresco area at night for supermarket-bought beers, at around S$5 a can. Buy your own liquors at duty free stores at airport whenever you fly into Singapore.If your university doesn't require your letter-grade, like your aim is to just pass, NTU won't kill you. If your goal is A/A+, it'll be quite stressful, as many full-time students here are very competitive. Working with assumption of the former case, make sure you communicate clearly to your groupmates that you would not be around during recess week, but you would like to contribute your fair share during the term time. If you aren't available during certain weekend, give them a heads-up as well (not many groups want to meet on weekends, but at times when it's stressful, some may). For project modules in NTU for certain classmates, if they have some friends who are taking the same course and have the liberty to choose first, likely they would form a group from there. As an outsider, it's harder to prove your worth and mix in. While this is the case for some, but there are other students who wouldn't mind new groupmates at all. My degree is in Computer Science, I had one of my more enjoyable projects with groupmates including an exchange student from US and another from China. Last semester a Dutch classmate who was on exchange to NTU studying business went on a one-week trip with me on the week before exams. He did study for one or two nights during the trip, and probably much more once back to Singapore. As long as you studied through the contents and you have sensible answers written, it's not easy to fail. In the few weeks leading up to exam you'll see libraries or learning-hubs getting filled up by students studying through days and nights. (Instagram photo by Yuan Yiyang, 2016 • NTU Learning Hub at South Spine)For campus facilities about NTU, almost all of your needs can be fulfilled on campus. Dormitories, canteens, supermarkets, restaurants, sports field, swimming pool, gyms, bank and ATMs, now that there's even a bar (that is sadly a bit overpriced and closes around midnight). There's no cinema on campus but there is one at the 2nd nearest metro station connected by bus. Campus life for exchange students tend to gear more towards the other exchange students, simply because full-time students could be too busy trying to get a good grade, or have other commitments. It doesn't mean you won't have friendship with them. My experience in France was similar to this. There are many clubs and societies known as Co-Curriculum Activities (CCAs) in school meet up regularly based on interests, and each hall of residence also have their own hall activities like jam bands, or other sports groups. There are also events oraganized by various student groups or university to showcase cultures or festivals. (Instagram photo by Yuan Yiyang, 2014 • NTU North Spine sunset)For the two Canadian universities, I don't know too much about them, so I won't go about saying any choice would be significantly better than others. What I can say is, exchange semester is probably some of the best time of life. While you are still young, go and explore! Enjoy it & Good luck!

Cermis, 20 years later: the forgotten massacreThe pilot of the Marines at the last flight in Italy, flight too low and too fast that caused 20 deaths. The navigator who shot the video memory between the Alps and smiled: today he teaches the cadets of the Us Navy how to overcome the psychic sufferingby GIANLUCA DI FEOLower, faster. Feeling the turn that crushes you, as a spur of rock turns into a snow channel that swallows the airplane launched lower and lower, faster and faster. At a thousand kilometers per hour the maneuvers shape your body, with the anti-gravity suit tightening and then widening, transmitting a sense of euphoria. Drivers are trained to handle it, to keep a cool mind and reflexes ready during that motionless dance for the jolts of acceleration that multiplies the pressure and pulses inside your head, while the trees are an indistinct green carpet that unrolls under the fuselage. But that flight is another story. A unique opportunity: the last mission between the Alps, without the worry of having to challenge the Serbian anti-aircraft in the skies of Bosnia, without any thought; a ride of pure pleasure whizzing through the woods and the peaks, before packing up and returning to the United States.THE MULTIMEDIA SPECIAL: THE RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CABLE CAR MASSACRELockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II - Date of entry into employment 2017Main user US Air Force US Navy US Marine Corps.There are four people on board the jet, veterans and experts. They joke, laugh, film the most beautiful mountains in the world to take home a souvenir to show their families and friends: every now and then they shout "Ricolaaaa", like in the Swiss candy TV commercial. And they go further and further down and faster and faster. Suddenly a yellow dot materializes: it's the cabin of a cable car. "Fuck!" Just like that, there's a bang and all the instruments start screaming the obsessive sound of an emergency. And in that moment, the fate of 20 people is decided.Military flights are not walks. The machines cost over eighty million euros, but above all the pilots know that speed is unforgiving: if you get distracted for even a moment you can die and kill. Every take-off, even the most banal, is planned with maniacal scruples for hours. There is a cold and meticulous bureaucracy, punctuated by forms, maps, positions, weather forecasts and limits to be respected. This applies to everyone, even to the crews preparing for war in February 1998. It is also true for the American aviators at risk in Aviano, a few kilometers from Pordenone and the border of the former Yugoslavia, to force the Serbs to respect the agreements of the fragile Bosnian peace. They are carrying out difficult reconnaissance over Sarajevo, because any routine action can become a nightmare. It had happened two years earlier to Captain Scott 'O Grady, who was shot down and chased for six days by the militiamen before being rescued. And the Marines' VAMQ-2 Air Force wing has the most dangerous task of all: to be the bait to flush out radar and ground-to-air batteries, blinding them with electronic equipment and deflecting missiles. Their aircraft is the Grumman EA-6B Prowler or Predator: an old beast, which has been in service for over thirty years, with outdated mechanics but the most modern tools for electronic duels and a reputation as a boxer that always takes you back, even with riddled wings.In addition to the pilot, there were always three other people on board who were dedicated to making these hi-tech devices work. But the aircraft showed the sign of the times, requiring constant maintenance and exceptional concentration at the controls: the number of losses due to malfunctions or errors continued to increase. Also for this reason Colonel Muegge imposed to his flock to respect all the dispositions: "You fly "by the book", following the manual; zero tolerance for those who transgress " . Muegge said he could not tolerate the bravado of Top Gun. A month earlier, Captain Richard Ashby had burned his colleagues on the runway during a formation takeoff, overtaking them at full throttle and the colonel called him a cunt, putting the reprimand on record. Ashby, however, was considered one of the best officers and in a few weeks he would have been promoted to interceptor fighters.Next to 30-year-old Ashby would be navigator Joseph Schweitzer, his peer. Sitting in the back, locked in front of the radar screens with only two windows on the side, Lieutenant William Raney, 26, and a guest, Chandler Seagraves, 28-year-old captain of the department that in a few days would replace them in the surveillance of Bosnia.the cockpit wreckage.The protests of the Italian authoritiesNo one tells the crew that the Italian authorities had asked them to avoid ground level missions. There had been an Air Force circular issued on 21 April 1997 and registered as Sma/ 175. The air was crowded with fighter planes from every country, mobilized for the Balkan conflict: hundreds of jets whizzing by day and night scaring the population with the screams of reactors. There had already been 73 protests, with 13 formal complaints: "We phoned Verona airport. They asked us: "What colour were the planes? What were their codes?" They seemed to be making fun of us. " At that time, the snow promised avalanches and the roar of the engines could have caused hell at the peak of the ski season, so much so that the Monte Rocca Air Force Headquarters forbade the aircraft to descend below 600 metres. In order to prevent those overflights, even a new and ephemeral law of the Province of Trento had been promulgated, strongly desired by the Councillor for Tourism Francesco Moser: yes, he was the former cycling champion who had broken all records and knew well the charm and risks of speed.The Sma/175 circular had also been transmitted to the NATO headquarters and also to the Italian colonel who controls the traffic from Aviano. The base is American, but the sky is Italian: it's up to us to authorize the use of the airspace and establish the rules. In reality, the American flocks have continued to follow their procedures, without ever being stopped. On the other hand, the Easy-01 flight program was approved at 9:57 p.m. and 57 p.m. on February 2 by the Italian command of Martina Franca, the underground bunker at the gates of Taranto that coordinates all operations on the Peninsula: it is written that the altitude would have been half that indicated in the circular, but no one objects.On the morning of February 3, 1998, the same plane went over Bosnia with another crew. When it lands at 1.20 p.m. a fault in the gravity meter is reported: the technicians replace it and verify that every instrument of the aircraft is fully functional. Captain Ashby and his comrades are gathered for the briefing: they review the phases of the flight, note down the parameters on the charts, discuss fuel consumption and verify the possible variations. Around 2:12 p.m.the tower authorizes the ignition of the engines. the tower authorises the engines to be started. At 2.30 p.m. on the dot there is the go-ahead for takeoff. But the jet remains stationary. A car arrives in a hurry, an airman gets off and throws a bag to another soldier who passes it on to the pilot: inside there are "a couple of videocassettes". Only at that point, the canopy is closed and we start, six minutes late: a few seconds to 2.36 p.m.They immediately disappear from the radar, because the mountains obscure the sensors of the bases, even the radio communications are silent: the plane is a ghost. It is invisible on Ampezzo, then it diverts to Brunico in South Tyrol. Below are the Tre Cime di Lavaredo, the wonder of the Dolomites. New turn, towards Lombardy up to Ponte di Legno, along the Brenner valley caressing the Adamello. They touch the thousand kilometres per hour several times, exceeding the limits of 100 - 150 kilometres; above all they break the minimum altitude and descend only one hundred metres from the houses. Then Lake Garda. From Riva they head towards the Marmolada: half an hour has passed when they enter the Fiemme Valley, only 260 metres above ground. "It passed so close to the little terrace that I couldn't even see the whole wing," witnessed Barbara Demattio, a babysitter from Castel di Fiemme: "The windows shook, the baby immediately woke up and started screaming.Val di Fiemme is a paradise of centuries-old woods, proudly guarded by its community, nestled in the Trentino Dolomites. In that February, generous with snow and sunshine, the hotels were full: the traditional Italian and European tourists were joined by the new skiers from the East, who enjoyed over twenty kilometres of slopes on Alpe Cermis. They can be reached by a cable car divided into two sections. The first part is at the gates of the Trentino village of Cavalese, overtaking the valley of the Avisio torrent and arriving at Doss de Laresi: one thousand five hundred metres suspended in the void, even at a height of 180 metres. Two large yellow cabins with forty seats alternate along the way. The system had been renovated after the drama of 1976, when a breakdown and a wrong manoeuvre had unhooked one of the "gondolas" - as foreigners call them - killing 42 people: only the locals had memory of it by then.Nineteen in line at the cable carIn the early afternoon of 3 February the Alpe was emptying and nineteen people lined up to return to Cavalese by cable car. There is Ewa Strzelczyk, 37 years old, who accompanies her thirteen year old son Filip: her husband Peter had pulled a muscle and as a doctor he preferred to stay in his room avoiding other efforts. They come from Gliwice, a Polish village that first seized the economic opportunities of the end of Communism: Ewa is a musician and directs the local theatre. Sonja Weinhofer, 22 years old, also loves music and is enrolled at the conservatory: she is with Anton Voglsang, 35, both from Vienna. On the sidelines is the 20-year-old Dutchwoman Danielle Groenleer. Added to this is the "green-white" German ski club in Mohsdorf, a district of Burgstadt, a piece of Saxony that has quickly forgotten the dark times of the DDR. They are professors and municipal employees, with relatives in tow: for the fourth time they are staying at the Hotel Rio Bianco in Panchia, where they stand out because they show up for dinner wearing good clothes, as elegant as at a gala. Usually they use the slopes until closing but that day they stop earlier: they decided to rest and start again after sunset on the only illuminated facility at night. They separate: six go down on skis, seven prefer the cable car.Egon Uwe Renkewitz is with his 24-year-old daughter Marina Mandy and her boyfriend Michael Potschke, a love that blossomed during the lessons in Mannheim and the wedding scheduled for next Christmas. They are followed by Annelie and Harald Urban. The teacher Dieter Frank Blumenfeld goes with them, greeting his wife. Jürgen Wunderlich has forgotten his bottle of tea and his wife Rita chases him to give it to him. Before leaving, the woman exchanges comments about her husband's carelessness with two South Tyrolean ladies from Bressanone, who are queuing to return to the valley: "Ours too always forget everything...". Edeltraud Zanon Werth, 56, - who everyone called Traudi - and Maria Steiner Stampfl, 61, are on holiday alone for the first time: for a lifetime they had run their own shops, one of clothing and the other of videos, just sold. Now their children are grown up and could enjoy their retirement: "At last we can take a breath. They had left their husbands at home and booked a room with a view of the Dolomites at the resort in Veronza.The most cheerful group is the Belgian one, five young people from a suburb of Bruges, friends from the time of the boy scouts, always ready to sing. They come back from an excursion at 2500 metres above sea level: they are just under thirty years old and life smiles at them. Sebastiaan Van den Heede has organized a holiday for everyone with his girlfriend Rose-Marie Eyskens, who has recently left Antwerp to live with him: Sebastiaan is an engineer hired by Volvo while Rose-Marie graduated in law and is practicing as a notary public. Stefaan Vermander, also an engineer, works for Andersen Consulting while Hadewich Antonissen is a psychologist. But the histrionics is twenty-eight-year-old Stefan Bekaert known as Bekie: he has a humanistic passion for knowledge, with a degree in anthropology and a second one coming in archaeology. He speaks Latin correctly and wants to merge the two disciplines. Very blond, he spent two years in the heart of the Congo to study the thaumaturgical rites of the Sakata tribe: three months earlier he presented his doctoral thesis, so brilliant that he obtained funding from the European Union to continue his research. He plays every instrument: piano, clarinet, guitar and is learning the saxophone, a gift from his girlfriend for his doctorate. With his band he mixes jazz, blues and African melodies. He draws cartoons all the time, turning every situation into a caricature, even in the moments of that skiing holiday. "He seemed interested in everything. Seeing him on guitar was a spectacle, bent over the chair, his feet on the table, his hands running on the strings. He played as he studied, as he drew, as he played soccer: naturally and with enormous enthusiasm". At 3.11 p.m. Marcello Vanzo, the plant engineer, took them up to "his" cabin and closed the doors. He was born there 56 years earlier and, except for his military service in the Alps, he has always lived in Cavalese. That wasn't his turn: after lunch at the Baita restaurant with his colleagues, he offered to replace one of them. And here he is still at work, in his place as manoeuvreman to guide them along the kilometre and a half that separates them from the station.They start, slowly, suspended from the rope. But something happens outside. The air fills with a dark, nasty rumble; the sound amplified by the rock walls swells and roars penetrating everywhere. It's the American jet. Everyone in Cavalese looks up to the sky, but in the cabin the noise of the engine dampens that roar and makes it distant. The Marauder did not follow the flight plan: he had to stay above the valley instead he entered it. It had to stay higher than three hundred meters, instead it goes down below 150 meters. And it runs too fast, it's a thousand miles an hour. At that speed, the cable car is invisible. The cabin is a yellow dot, which suddenly materializes in Captain Ashby's eyes, "Fuck!" The sound of the reactors deforms in a distressing wail: the plane has hit the cable; the steel tries to resist, digs a groove in the wing, but it has unstoppable power. And then the cable collapses, opening three hundred meters from the station.In the cabin they feel that apocalyptic force that shakes everything. They understand. The fall into nothingness for 111 meters lasts an infinite number of seconds. They scream in terror, they hug each other. The yellow gondola crashes into the ridge, then flips over and falls down to the valley. A monstrous collision that crushes those twenty bodies, canceling them out between the plates. "I recognized my wife from a chain I gave her for Christmas," says Josef Stampfl, Maria's husband who came from Bressanone for his first holiday with a friend.Victims' relatives lay flowers at the scene of the tragedyThe route to AvianoThe plane is only wounded. In the cockpit the alarm siren sounds, the indicator shows that they are losing fuel, the pilot clings to the stick but struggles to keep control. "Let's launch," they shout from behind, ready to trigger the ejector seats. "Not yet," answers the commander. They're gaining altitude. The higher you go, the more chance you have of getting away. They stabilize the aircraft and check for damage. "We can make it, we're on course for Aviano." They tell the base to prepare for an emergency landing. They don't say anything about the gondola. Six more minutes, afraid the fuel will ignite and the tanks will explode. Then they descend onto the runway, with a trail of liquid dripping from the wing, and they stop. "Everybody out!" Captain Raney catapults down, so fast he breaks his ankle. Seagraves follows him out of the air, too. But in the front seats, nothing moves. The two of them get away, the fire trucks are on their way but Ashby and Schweitzer stay inside. They're still waiting minutes before they get off. When their feet hit the ground, the Easy-01 mission is over.The disaster is immediately known. Responsibility also: The plane has sown fragments in the valley. Now it's up to Justice. Yeah, but which one? The Italian one? The American one? Both of them? The arm wrestling starts in less than an hour. The Trento Public Prosecutor's Office wants to seize the plane but the Predator is a military secret: those instruments for electronic warfare are the most sophisticated weapon in the American arsenal, unthinkable to leave them in the hands of foreigners and civilians. The Pentagon shows no doubts. The 1951 Treaty of London, which regulates the relations of the NATO countries, is largely secret but has a well-known and consolidated cornerstone: the competence in this case is American. "You Italians too, when the Frecce Tricolori crashed into the crowd at the Ramstein show, an American base on German territory, you pretended to conduct the investigations and trials. Well, this incident is our committee's responsibility."Responsibility for the massacreTwenty deaths, however, is a drama that can upset every rule. Because there is a whole angry nation, which does not want to accept the madness of that massacre, of those lives massacred for a wargame. From the Quirinal Oscar Luigi Scalfaro punctuates words of fire: "You don't play with life". Premier Romano Prodi speaks of "full American responsibility". And in conversation with President Bill Clinton he shows determination: without justice, it will change our attitude towards the US bases. Colonel Thomas Blickensderfer, head of air operations of the Marines, then explained it under oath: "We were told that Clinton called the Italian Prime Minister. Clinton hoped to hear "these things happen", instead Prodi made him understand that there was a risk that the Americans would no longer be able to operate on Italian territory".The Raider stunt could have wiped out the White House's strategy. With the disappearance of the Soviet Union and the Middle East pacified, Clinton had made the Balkans the fulcrum of his policy of power: after having imposed peace in Bosnia, he was preparing for the final confrontation with Belgrade, which would start with the Kosovo conflict a year later. The countdown had begun that very week, with a warning from Secretary of State Madaleine Albright. Without the airports of the Peninsula, however, any action in the former Yugoslavia would have become impossible. Then there is another factor, at the moment still opaque, which perhaps pushed the president to avoid further trouble on the Italian front: exactly one week before the massacre, he had to respond to the accusations about relations with Monica Lewinsky, pronouncing the phrase "I did not have sexual relations with that woman", which then brought him a step away from impeachment.The Americans change line, bowing their heads and taking "total responsibility". Data is provided to the prosecutor's office in Trento and promised cooperation, the Pentagon announces bursts of indictments. In the light of the results, however, more than a turning point seems a tactical move. Because the knot of the question remains intact, even if postponed: the USA and only the USA will judge the guilty parties. The diplomatic openings and the leaders sprinkled with ashes partly placate Italian public opinion and encourage the disinterest of our political class. There is an "Atlantic party" led by Foreign Minister Lamberto Dini that invites "respect for alliances" and tones down the debate. Once again, the international crisis is slowly causing a divided country to emerge, with government, parliament, generals, magistrates incapable of coordinating efforts. Initiatives and declarations overlap and disturb, with no or even counterproductive effects. Like the formal request to renounce US jurisdiction, which in fact reaffirms American jurisdiction."The problem, to put it plain and simple, is that of Italian sovereignty over the territory", writes Eugenio Scalfari. The last attempt to obtain at least a shared preliminary investigation, considering as Born and not only as American the mission of the Predator, wanes when the military commander of the Atlantic Alliance, Wesley Clark, the same general who will then lead the Kosovo war, sanctions that that flight was only American. It is March 13, 1998. Since then, the Italian investigations have slowly died out, our ordinary and military judiciaries gradually laid down their legal weapons and resigned themselves to the trial in the States. All convinced that it would not have been possible to leave such a serious crime unpunished anyway. But the task of doing justice remains in the hands of the Marines, with their detectives and their court-martial.Major Michael Stahlman and William Weber, Captain Richard Ashby and Captain Jon Shelbourne before trial.The error in flight altitudeThe sins of the pilot and the navigator seem proven: they were not supposed to fly at that altitude. If their plane was invisible to ground radar, it had not escaped the screens of the large Awacs four-jet aircraft guarding H-24 on the Balkan border: their instruments recorded the low altitude jets within a 400 kilometre radius, with twenty-three specialists of different NATO nationalities witnessing the height, course and speed violations conducted in the mission of 3 February. These are the objective elements that confirm the statements made by the inhabitants of the valley and those extrapolated from the instruments of the killer plane: the picture is complete.In the folders of the US investigators, other suspects are also beginning to materialize. In the aftermath of the massacre, at the giant headquarters of the Marines' aviation headquarters in Cherry Point, North Carolina, Colonel Stephen Watters orders the pilots of his flock to make all the videos shot a year earlier during their stay in Aviano disappear. It turns out that he had personally recorded one of them himself, filming himself racing his fighter through the Alps well below the minimum altitude.The story raises a gruesome hypothesis. Was the crew of the massacre shooting a video, too? Investigators line up anomalies. There is a delay in taking off from Aviano to be delivered "a couple of videocassettes": on board the Predator, however, a camera with only one blank tape is seized. And then there is the mystery of the minutes the pilot and navigator remain in the fuselage after landing, while the other two were running away fearing the fuel explosion. Why is that? Yeah, during the mission in the Alps that killed 20 people, they were shooting a video. But they keep quiet, even with their commanders. Three of the Easy-01 men are old comrades; Captain Seagraves is not. He's from another division. He's never flown with them before. He's the weak link. Navigator Schweitzer approaches him: "Forget the tape." But Seagraves, out of remorse or fear, agrees to answer the investigators' questions in exchange for immunity: "The two in front made a video. I can't say whether they did it even at the moment of impact, from behind you couldn't see it. They replaced the tape before leaving the plane". Where did the tape go? "I advised Ashby to get rid of it."It is not known when the investigators were certain of the video-souvenir, probably within a month of the massacre: its existence was formalized only four months later with the interrogations of June 18, 1998, in which the substitution of the tape was put on paper. No mention is made of the content of the missing images. It is difficult that the Pentagon does not realize the danger of that revelation: it can be devastating, confirming the worst thoughts on the behavior of the American armed forces. "They would have made us pass as cowboy killers, who killed twenty people to film breathtaking stunts in the Dolomites," said Schweitzer, a year later. Not only that. The Treaty of London provides only one exception to US jurisdiction: when the criminal act does not fall within the military's service activity. If it had been possible to link the inattention of the crew to the use of the camera, the whole process would perhaps have remained in Italy. It is a discovery that can reverse the situation, thwarting the truce reached with Rome. But it remains hidden in the investigators' files, substantially hidden among the procedural technicalities.The Marines' investigationThe Marines' main investigation is terminated on 30 June 1998, with a request for a Court Martial for the pilot Ashby and the navigator Schweitzer, the other two being acquitted. The charges could be worth two centuries in prison: breach of duty in the conduct of the flight, manslaughter and manslaughter, damage. The reconstruction is severe, with no ifs and buts. Those twenty deaths are their fault, because they manoeuvred "aggressively", exceeding the limits of altitude and speed several times: the collision with the cable was therefore not the result of a single mistake, but of all the wicked management of the mission. On 10 July there is the indictment. Only on 30 August, however, is the indictment formulated for the misdirection, that is the obstacle to the investigations, for the removal of the tape, to be judged in a separate trial. The events are divided and thus neutralized, because the content of the video disappears from the scene of the disaster.The first trial has been held since December 7, 1998 in the large installation at Camp Lejeune, also in North Carolina, invaded for the occasion by reporters and televisions. The prosecutor is very harsh: "Captain Ashby violated the rule "written in blood" not to go below 300 meters. He ran into unjustifiable danger when he manoeuvred that aircraft at a thousand miles an hour into the Cavalese valley. 20-23 seconds after he entered the valley, he began manoeuvring his plane. At that point, he put himself in a situation from which he cannot get out, because he is proceeding at maximum speed, minimum altitude, and he is manoeuvring. At that point, there's nothing he can do. He's on a missile that's sliding in that direction, and instead of getting up, he's going even lower. The inquisitor then uses the removed videotape to describe the cynicism of the two defendants: "They know they hit a cable car. They know they cut cables. They contacted Aviano, saying that they had suffered structural damage, that they were coming back with problems. Where is the radio call saying that they had just seen a cable car, that they had hit cables, that someone had to call the emergency services in that valley? They swapped tapes because they don't want you to know what happened on that plane."For the defense instead we are faced with "a terrible accident that happened during training and nothing more". The attorney, a former Marine colonel with multiple decorations, is spreading doubt. He talks about the altimeter malfunction - feared by the pilot but denied by the investigation - showing new elements. He describes the deficiencies in the US maps where the cable car is not reported, the unclear exposure of the constraints on the heights in the briefings and finally focuses on the complex orography of the valley, all elements already rejected during the investigation. The death of twenty people is reduced: it is a fatality, the result of unforeseeable circumstances during the last eight seconds of the flight.The tear on the wing of the American planeAbsolutionIn the late evening of 3 March 1999, after seven and a half hours in the council chamber, the verdict of acquittal arrived. Clamorous and unquestionable. There are no reasons: the massacre becomes an accident, the death of twenty people turns into a pure coincidence in the aviation routine. For the family it is a shock; the Italian, German and Belgian newspapers headline "Shame". Inside the court-martial courtroom practically everyone was military: judges, jurors, experts, lawyers, prosecutors, witnesses. And outside, history had changed since the cursed day of Cermis. For four months the tension with Serbia had skyrocketed and the American army was lining up for the final blow in the Balkans. In front of the trial headquarters, handfuls of Vietnam veterans were demonstrating: "Those pilots are innocent, hands off our marines". On TV some Republican senators were protesting the White House: "Those guys did their duty. The same guys who sent them to fight now want to make them a scapegoat." An impetuous wind of war, which may have entered the courtroom, pushing the jurors in uniform not to rage on pilots who had made a mistake but claimed to have done so to prepare for that task: the condemnation could be a bad signal for the thousands of men who were preparing to risk their lives, flying low and fast on Belgrade batteries."Let's be indignant but not surprised by the absolution - comments Giorgio Bocca on the front page of Repubblica - This is the price of the empire, of economic and military dependence on a world power". At the time of the verdict, a year after the massacre, Italy was no longer perceived as a problem by the Pentagon. On the contrary, the threats to close the bases attributed to Prodi had been introduced into the debate by the defence to demonstrate "the climate of political pressure" on the investigators. For four months Prodi had been out of the game, replaced at Palazzo Chigi by Massimo D'Alema, who had shown full support for the war initiatives in NATO. His government was based on the votes of the party explicitly created by Francesco Cossiga to support the Atlantic commitment in the Balkans, a party to which the Minister of Defence Carlo Scognamiglio belonged. Faced with the controversy for absolution, Vice Premier Sergio Mattarella tried to explain to the Chambers that Italy was not a succubus of the Alliance, but an active party pushing for Europe to have more weight: "To identify in NATO an expression of American hegemony is decidedly anachronistic".The post-communist in the White HouseFor D'Alema the verdict is a doubly bitter mockery, because he swoops in while in the USA to meet Clinton, the first post-communist received at the White House. The talks of 5 March 1999 were supposed to focus on the forthcoming campaign in Kosovo, but the acquittal subverts the agenda. On his return to Italy, the Prime Minister reported to Parliament. "I appreciated the sincerity with which the President acknowledged the responsibility of his country. For my part, I set out the reasons for deep dissatisfaction. It is clear, in fact, that the absolution of the pilot can only shift the level of responsibility. I simply repeat that that sentence was a disconcerting fact for many and also for me. And not because many were looking for a scapegoat. The bewilderment arose from the fact that after that judgement there was a growing concern that the truth about the facts of Cermis could become more distant, more obscure". And he concludes by fearing the revision of the pacts with the US: "I would add that it is quite clear that if the responsibility for the tragedy were not ascertained - and this I said with absolute frankness to President Clinton - the more the need for adaptation and updating of the agreements themselves would be accentuated because their inadequacy would be evident". Words then in some way diluted by the Undersecretary of Palazzo Chigi Marco Minniti: "The revision of the Treaty of London "can" - and I say this in inverted commas - give an answer to our thirst for justice, but it must be carefully evaluated in order not to create difficulties for the Italian military engaged in NATO operations".Two weeks after the verdict, on 24 March 1999, the bombing of Kosovo and Serbia began. It had been since 1945 that Europe had not become the terrain of a total war, fought for 78 days exclusively from the sky. The focus shifted to those events. On 28 March, when Captain Schweitzer admits his guilt for the video made disappear and then burned in a fireplace, no one follows the hearing. His explanation remains in the proceedings: "They would have misunderstood the content. Italian television would have broadcast it next to the images of the bleeding bodies near the cable car...". He also agreed to immunity in exchange for the charges against Ashby. He's getting away with being disbarred by the Marines.The second trial of the pilot Ashby is being held in May 1999, while the raids on Serbia continue relentlessly and the invasion from the ground is being prepared. The captain defended himself with candor: "Everyone was shooting videos during the missions in the Dolomites, they were shown in the common room, there was nothing wrong with it. This was confirmed by the depositions of other officers: "Those videos with peaks and woods were reminiscent of the advertising of Ricola candies...". But he denies that the footage conditioned the flight and that they were using the camera during the impact with the rope, which no one can ever prove.Ashby's convictionOn May 10, 1999, Ashby was sentenced to six months in prison and expelled from the Marines. He goes straight to jail but on October 13, a month before the deadline, he is released early for good behavior. For ten years he filed applications, asking in vain to review the sentence: the last one was rejected on August 31, 2009. There is no more news of him: it seems that he remained a pilot, switching to the controls of private jets for American tycoons. The two technicians in the back seat, Raney and Seagraves, have continued their careers. Brilliant that of the second, who joined the Blue Angeles aerobatic patrol in 2012 and until last summer commanded the most important base of the Marines.Paradoxical the fate of the navigator Schweitzer, guilty of the hidden video. In 2007 he was recognized with the Ptsd Syndrome, the traumatic stress that torments veterans, spread en masse among soldiers returning from Iraq. Since then he has been teaching the cadets of the Us Navy just how to overcome this psychic suffering. In his lectures he doesn't hide the story of the substituted tape, which in 2014 he also talked about in a National Geographic documentary: "I had filmed the Alps and Lake Garda, filming Commander Ashby. Then I turned the camera towards me and smiled. If those images had ended up on CNN, they would have matched that smile with blood on the snow, I would have entered an international show and I wouldn't have been able to stand such a nightmare. That's why I destroyed the tape." Then he lists his "demons": "I kept crying like a child, wondering why I am alive and they are not". Finally he guides the Navy students along a path of positivity, full of literary quotations, until the trauma is removed.The manoeuvrer's glove and other objects on a piece of cabin precipitated at Cavalese (Trento)Cermis becomes businessSincere repentance? More like a survivor by trade. He's also turned Cermis into a business, giving paid motivational courses with Mastery Technologies. He is presented as follows: "After serving ten years as an officer, he spent the last sixteen years on an odyssey, finding a second chance at life as a survivor of a plane crash. He offers corporate events and seminars for sports teams and clubs, preparing those leaders who want a better approach to results thanks to his experience as a warrior and survivor". Among Mastery Technologies' clients: the Miami Dolphins' American football team, Walt Disney, Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, all in need of a boost in morale for their players and managers.The money for the real victims arrived in the spring of 2000, with a decree signed by D'Alema: for each person three billion 800 million lire, equal to about two million dollars. Pay Italy, then the U.S. will reimburse three quarters, as provided for in the NATO agreements. Many of the relatives have followed the trials in the USA. They were housed in a residence in the Marines base, accompanied by a military interpreter to translate the trial into their language. They welcomed the acquittal in tears. Klaus Stampfl, Maria da Bressanone's son, calls it a shameful verdict: "It was not a serious trial, certainly not as serious as it could have been in Italy. Perhaps in the wake of the protests, three of them were admitted to testify in the trial on the tape. Emma Renkewitz told the court, "I have no one left, I am left alone." In that box, she lost her husband, daughter, future son-in-law. "why did they die? Why did they hide the evidence? I suffer because these questions haunt me, and I don't know how they will ever answer me." Giorgio Vaia, the son-in-law of the man in charge, declares: "No matter how deep the evil, no matter how much you suffer, you try to accept what has happened. But you do it little by little and you need to know what really happened". Rita Wunderlich, who chased her husband to deliver tea to him at the cabin door, cuts short: "I can never have peace.The silence of the relativesSince then, perhaps feeling betrayed by governments and authorities, everyone has chosen silence and avoided reopening such a devastating wound. They reject journalists, they do not want to lend themselves to political exploitation: they are of different nationalities, but a common dignity unites them. "I have never spoken. I will continue not to. Everybody knows the story, the pain is mine alone,' says the widow of the machinist Marcello Vanzo. Stefan Bekaert's father, the young scholar from Belgium, has donated the compensation to a fund to finance the research of the students of Leuven and Kinshasa. The parents of Rose-Marie Eyskens joined Cavalese from Antwerp for every commemoration, bringing with them a photo of their 24-year-old daughter with a fussy hat and a chalice in her hand, a portrait of joy that no one will be able to give back to him. Perhaps there will also be tomorrow, when at ten o'clock there will be a small ceremony in the church of Our Lady of Sorrows and the memorial stone that recalls "the misfortunes of Cermis", that of 1976 and that of 1998, because nobody, not even there, wants to call it a massacre.Twenty years later, those people remain without justice and almost without memory: of many of the victims there is not even a photo. Their end could be classified as collateral damage, a war mistake that adds to the long list of crimes of the Balkan wars. Without knowing it, those winds have become brothers of the fallen of Sarajevo, Srebrenica, Mostar. But if for the massacres in Bosnia and Kosovo there is still a Tribunal in The Hague that still judges and punishes, the yellow cabin of Cermis has been erased from history: removed perhaps because in the inability to identify responsibility a collective responsibility manifests itself. Or perhaps because it is too scary to think that our lives could be cut short when we return from a ski trip, without anyone being able to give a convincing explanation.The truth is still hanging in the balance, like the other yellow cabin, the one where the driver Marino Costa was on February 3, 1998, blocked in the void because of the rope cut by the Predator. Alone, terrified, for over an hour hovering on the abyss, until a helicopter pulled him out: "The sound of the cable breaking I dream about it every night. I didn't go to trial in America. It would have been for nothing. What happened, and because of whoever did it, everybody knows it."The investigationThe commission listened to all the Italian political authorities involved in the affair, those responsible for the criminal and military investigations launched in Italy, the top management of the Air Force and the officers in charge of operations at NATO bases and, with a mission to Washington, also heard representatives of the US armed forces. The Commission's work was not limited to defining the responsibilities of the crew, but it was also extended to the chain of command, the US top management of the bases in Italy and the Italian officers in charge of authorising the flights.The conclusionsA series of proposals were formulated on the rules of low altitude flights, on US military activity in Italy, on the revision of the NATO rules for the jurisdiction of trials on soldiers serving abroad.The reportThe final report was adopted on 7 February 2001. The conclusions remained substantially unimplemented. Since then, there have been no changes to the NATO treaties, nor to the regulations on US bases in Italy: a question that has been raised again in the investigation into the kidnapping of Abu Omar and the killing of Nicola Calipari. The only concrete results achieved after Cermis were those of the Italo-American Tricarico - Pruher Commission, which changed the procedures of military flights.In the massacre 20 passengers died: three Italians, seven Germans, five Belgians, two Poles, two Austrians and one Dutchman.Major Michael Stahlman and William Weber, Captain Richard Ashby and Captain Jon Shelbourne before trial.the fantastic 4TOP GUNS?person who excels for uncommon conditions or qualities.I mean, they're not particularly………….NO! NO! NO!