The History of Terrorism
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US President Donald Trump
1990 Codicil
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1990 Fred Trump's declining health and his reluctance to relinquish ownership of his empire.
Fred Trump's will
US President Donald Trump
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1990 "Donald was in precarious financial straits by his own admission," she said, "and Dad was very concerned as a man who worked hard for his money and never wanted any of it to leave the family."
1990 "This doesn't pass the smell test," he told her, she recalled during her deposition. When Judge Barry read the codicil, she reached the same conclusion.
1990 As close as they were - or perhaps because they were so close - Fred Trump did not immediately confront his son.
1990 Clumsy as it was, Donald Trump's failed attempt to change his father's will brought a family reckoning about two related issues:
1990 Fred Trump took prompt action to thwart his son. He dispatched his daughter to find new estate lawyers. One of them took notes on the instructions she passed on from her father:
1990 He said he feared that it could let Donald Trump denude his empire, even using it as collateral to rescue his failing businesses. (It was, in fact, the very month of the $3.5 million casino rescue.)
1990 New Codicil
As for the work of All County - generating invoices - that fell to Mr. Walter, also on Fred Trump's payroll, along with a personal assistant Mr. Walter paid to work on his side businesses.
But more than any of the particulars, it was the entirety of the codicil and its presentation as a fait accompli that alarmed Fred Trump, the depositions show.
He confided to family members that he viewed the codicil as an attempt to go behind his back and give his son total control over his affairs.
Instead he turned to his daughter Maryanne Trump Barry, then a federal judge whom he often consulted on legal matters.
It strengthened provisions in the existing will making him the sole executor of his father's estate.
The document, known as a codicil, did many things. It protected Donald Trump's portion of the inheritance from his creditors and from his impending divorce settlement with his first wife, Ivana Trump.
These depositions, obtained by The Times, reveal something startling: Fred Trump believed that the document potentially put his life’s work at risk.
What happened next was described years later in sworn depositions by members of the Trump family during a dispute, later settled, over the inheritance Fred Trump left to Fred Jr.'s children.