Trump is a lying liar who evades taxes and defrauds the US

Indeed.

I haven't read this article yet, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say it's probably not as bad as the initial excited commentary is saying, and Trump is probably not going to have serious repercussions. Why do I say that? Because billionaires use loopholes all the time, and I'm suspecting his dad did similarly. A Fortune article on this seems rather ho-hum and states the IRS signed off on relevant documents. Also it seems the onus is on Fred or other family members, not Donald. I bet this will end with a whimper just like the Russia collusion accusations. But we will see!

Sorry I'm commenting without having read the article in question - I admit these lectures I'm supposed to give are stressing me out. I will read it tonight. And with this, I'm off to work.

fortune.com/2018/10/03/nyt-trump-tax-fraud-investigation/

Here's Trump's lawyer's statement:

Cass - I'm not judging it yet -- I haven't read the article. I'm just predicting how this will play out.

Some to start with --





I'll keep posting them as I find them, when I have time.

I can see concluding "I don't think he'll be impeached for this." (And I disagree with you, by the way, that that was the thrust of this piece.)

But saying "yeah, even if it's true, so what? Who cares?"

I can't even bring myself to argue, if that's your position. That's a gulf I don't think can be crossed, and I won't waste my time and energy trying.

I encourage everyone to read the piece and the follow-up articles that will be coming out and decide for themselves if they're cool with it.

The criminal statute of limitations has passed for long ago fraud, yes.  But (1) to those who still don't think the guy is a crook and a lying liar who lies, and do believe he's a financial genius and a self-made man, this should be some evidence. (2) given that it shows a long standing pattern of fraudulent behavior, I would think it should provide reason enough to demand his tax returns for the last couple of years. I'm confident there's fraud, money-laundering, dubious dealings with oligarches, etc. That's why he won't release them.

Should, that is, were we still in a sane and functioning republic where our leaders were accountable and held to the standards a normal person would be.


  

1) This stuff is about potential tax fraud that is decades old. Why drill down into it now? Why not during campaign season, when so much of the media was clamoring for Trump to release his tax returns? The idea that isn't about creating grounds for impeachment is laughable. Because otherwise, what would the goal be?

2) I never said anything like "even if it's true," because it strikes me as likely grounded in truth at the very least, insofar as I have little doubt that the Trump family--like most other wealthy families of this sort--did and does whatever it can to minimize taxes paid on a yearly basis, especially estate taxes.

3) And in that regard, Trump has--I am sure--been audited by the IRS plenty of times. And I'm sure his father was, as well. In my view, the IRS is one of the most effective bureaucracies in the country. And why shouldn't it be? The cards are securely stacked in its favor, when it comes to going after monies that it thinks someone owes. From what I'm seeing here, there were plenty of red flags to trigger audits or at least cursory reviews. Are we to assume the IRS looked the other way for all of these, even as it vigorously went after other offenders?

4) Some of this is old hat, regardless. Here are WSJ pieces from 2016 detailing that Trump received substantially more from his father than he so often likes to claim:
www.wsj.com/articles/trumps-father-helped-gop-candidate-with-numerous-loans-1474656573
www.wsj.com/articles/trump-and-his-debts-a-narrow-escape-1451868915

People are acting like this is all so shocking and all so new, And that's laughable, imo. Every American needs to follow this story? Please. More Americans need to follow the trade deals being hammered out with Mexico and Canada, to see if what Trump is doing is right and good for the country. And what is happening in the South China Sea.

And I'll note something else here: most Anericans--imo, based on what I've seen and heard--cheat on their taxes, year in and year out. Maybe it's "just a little bit," more often than not, but it's still cheating. They rationalize this in all sorts of different ways, from telling themselves "everyone does it," to believing that they're paying more than their fair share, to imagining that the system is set up to allow that little bit of cheating (they're a lot like shoplifters in this regard). Of course, the wealthier one is, the bigger that "little bit" becomes, as a matter of course. And with complicated returns, people turn to tax professionals, many of whom make all of this worse (not you, Christine!) because they attract and keep clients by promising big savings. Going back decades with the tax returns of a guy who is now dead, I don't think we can fairly say where he did or didn't purposefully circumvent tax laws to the point of fraud. There were many fingers in this pie, I am sure. And again, the IRS had a chance to question this stuff--and maybe it did--but that time is past, I think.