Bob Jordan

@bobjordanapp

Millstone Township resident J. Michael Diehl says he was stiffed out of $30,000 after selling eight pianos in 1989 to an Atlantic City casino controlled by Donald Trump.

He’s getting some payback now.

Diehl, the retired owner of Freehold Music Center, is featured telling his story about his sour business encounter with Trump in a new Hillary Clinton video attack ad — released as Trump nears delivery of his acceptance speech for the Republican presidential nomination.

Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee, on Tuesday tweeted a link to the 3 minute, 10 second video along with the message, “A small business owner sold Donald Trump pianos for his Atlantic City casino. Trump stiffed him for the payment.’’

Diehl also told his story in an Asbury Park Press story published two weeks ago.

Diehl told The Press that he sold the pianos to the Trump Taj Mahal for $100,000. Trump, he said, “wanted everything perfect."

But Diehl said he waited for months to get paid. Eventually the Taj Mahal offered him three options for payment: take 70 cents on the dollar, wait until the casino was profitable or force it into bankruptcy and get pennies on the dollar.

“I had no other choice but to swallow the bitter pill,” Diehl, 88, told The Press. He took a $70,000 payment, losing 30 percent on the deal.

Trump’s Atlantic City dealings have become one of the key themes in Clinton’s campaign attacks.

Earlier this month, Clinton held a rally outside the former Trump Plaza casino and tore into what she called Trump’s "shameful" business record in the city.

The Trump campaign has yet to respond to the Clinton ad. It has previously rejected criticism of its business dealings in Atlantic City.

“Seven years ago, I left Atlantic City before it totally cratered,” Trump said in the first GOP debate in August. “And I made a lot of money in Atlantic City. And I’m very proud of it.”

Bob Jordan bjordan@gannettnj.com