(Per the A.P., the contractor’s suit was ultimately dismissed after both the contractor and Whitaker failed to show up to a court hearing. A lawyer who represented Whitaker’s company didn’t respond to the outlet’s request for comment.)

Unpaid contractors? Defaulting on loans? Screw attorney general, this guy’s got running-mate 2020 written all over him!

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Wells Fargo takes an interesting approach to shareholder lawsuit

Which is, basically: we can’t be held accountable for the things we say because we’re quite obviously full of s--t. Per the *L.A. Times:*

Wells Fargo, which is struggling to rebuild its reputation for integrity after a string of scandals involving consumer rip-offs, is testing the limits of the “puffery” defense. In a legal filing last week aimed at getting a shareholder lawsuit dismissed, the company asserted that statements that the bank was working to “restore trust” among its customers and “trying to be more transparent” about its scandals—statements made by its chief executive, Tim Sloan—were, well, just puffery.

The filing says these were generic statements “on which no reasonable investor could rely.” Therefore, even though the bank’s stock price fell sharply when evidence emerged that they were false, investors don’t have grounds to sue for their losses.

In recent years, Wells Fargo has made a name for itself as the premiere firm to turn to if you’re looking to get ripped off, with a never-ending stream of scandals ranging from its little fake-accounts debacle to enrolling hundreds of thousands of customers in auto-insurance they didn’t need, which in some cases resulted in people’s cars being repossessed. So, shareholders probably should have assumed that Sloan was lying through his caps when he claimed the bank was all about setting things straight, but it’s nice to see Wells Fargo confirm it so definitively!

E.U. sends Trump a friendly warning

If the president is crazy enough to impose auto tariffs—which U.S. groups have said “would be a self-inflicted economic disaster for American consumers, dealers, and dealership employees”—the bloc will have no choice but to hit back. “These tariffs would be damaging, not only for the European economy but for the U.S. economy,” European Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom warned Wednesday in Washington after meeting with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer.