David Frum: Why Is Trump Hiding His Tax Returns?

[babylonsister]

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/05/whats-hiding-trumps-tax-returns/588862/


Why Is Trump Hiding His Tax Returns?
As the president fights to postpone the inevitable, he risks convincing voters that they do not need a subpoena to read his guilt.
6:00 AM ET
David Frum

snip//

But here’s a reason to wonder whether the calendar serves Trump quite as well as most analysts assume. What is Trump hiding in those returns? Your guess is as good as anyone’s. The secret could be mild: He’s not as wealthy as he likes to boast. The secret could be embarrassing, but not illegal: He personally hugely benefited from special favors in the recent tax cut. The secret could raise national-security concerns. Or the secret could even point to a lifelong career of financial fraud.

The longer the fight over the returns continues—especially if Trump loses in the lower courts but appeals and appeals again—the more likely it is that Americans will assume the worst.

snip//

Polls will not bend Trump on an issue as seemingly existential to him as keeping his tax returns concealed. But the issue of the tax returns may bend Trump’s polls.

Over the next weeks, Trump will be fighting multiple financial-disclosure fights. He has intervened to stop Deutsche Bank from complying with a congressional subpoena of his bank records. He threatens to fight to prevent Special Counsel Robert Mueller from testifying about Trump’s Russia connections. He’s already lost the first round of the emoluments-clause lawsuit filed by the state of Maryland and the District of Columbia.

As Trump fights to conceal his financial records, loses, appeals, and loses again, it becomes progressively more plausible to Republicans that those records conceal damaging revelations about serious wrongdoing. Trump is ultimately fighting to prove he’s not a crook. He can postpone delivering the records that would prove the matter one way or another. But as he fights to postpone the inevitable, he risks convincing voters that they do not need a subpoena to read his guilt.

[NewJeffCT]

1. I think it's that he's far less wealthier than he claims to be

Back in 2012, a book was published by a financial expert that calculated Donny's wealth to be $150 million to $250 million. Trump sued the author and it was thrown out of court.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TrumpNation

Several years back, Trump was the roastee at a celebrity roast and the comedians were supposedly told they could bring up ANY topic except Trump's wealth. His inappropriate relationship with Ivanka was okay, but not his wealth.

Finding out he's less wealthy than LeBron James or Kobe Bryant would kill his public image of being a successful multi-billionaire.

[babylonsister]

2. I agree that's part of it.

His many connections to Russia might also give him pause.

[BigmanPigman]

3. I still don't understand why Mueller didn't look into his finances and

his taxes. Schiff said that he knew Mueller wasn't investigating this when everyone else was positive that Mueller was.

[GoCubsGo]

4. They're being investigated by others.

Mueller passed off a lot of the investigation to other branches, such as the SDNY and the State of New York. There are still 14 other offshoot investigations continuing from the Mueller investigation, if I am not mistaken. NY AG, Barbara Underwood, is going after him, too. She's the one Trump really needs to fear.

[BigmanPigman]

5. Underwood/SDNY is going after him like gang busters.

[NewJeffCT]

6. Underwood was FANTASTIC

but, was only interim AG after the Schneidermann scandal

Leticia James is the new AG there.

[BigmanPigman]

10. I just googled her name and got her photo.

She is the person who I have seen on Rachel Maddow and I was very impressed.

[GoCubsGo]

18. She is currently the Solicitor General, if I'm not mistaken.

So, Deranged Donald likely has both of them going after him. Good.

[NewJeffCT]

20. Since 2007

Except for her stint as Acting AG and then AG of NY

[Poiuyt]

7. The secret of why Donald Trump won't release his taxes

https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/07/politics/donald-trump-tax-returns-steve-mnuchin-richard-neal/index.html

1) Trump's not as rich as he says

2) He has Russia ties

3) He didn't pay many (or any) taxes

4) He donates no (or very little) money to charity

Trump decided that whatever was in his returns would be far worse for him if it got out than the negative press he would take for not releasing them. And he's not backing away from that decision. Not for anything.

[wiggs]

9. dems should not go after his returns just to show he's not as rich as he says or because

he may have cheated on taxes. That sounds political.

the real reason is to expose the money laundering (or hiding evidence of money laundering), payments and business arrangements with foreign powers that suggest foreign policy bias, illegal behavior that put him at risk for compromise, financial arrangements with foreign powers that should have been part of normal vetting processes, emolument conflicts.

These are very serious and should be front and center in talking about his taxes.

[SWBTATTReg]

11. I think you nailed it. He probably has loads of undeclared cash from dubious sources, not...

declared as income when it should have been.

[wiggs]

8. In light of who he is, we and the media should assume there's a lot of wrongdoing. There should be

no benefit of the doubt. He has earned none.

This is not a political battle. We assume/know he is a vile, corrupt, dishonest man and need all requested documents, including tax returns, to prove otherwise. The risk to national security and our place in the world order depends on it.

He has given us no reason to proceed otherwise.

[FakeNoose]

12. According to Michael Cohen's testimony

... Chump has routinely overstated his income to banks on loan applications, and routinely understated his income to the IRS to reduce taxes. It has been going on for at least 30 years, maybe longer.

DeutscheBank is releasing its documents showing Chump's income for certain years and the IRS is going to be very interested in comparing that with the info they were given for the same years. Chump will end up owing the IRS (and probably NYS too) mega-millions in back taxes plus penalties, we can be sure of that. Whether it becomes a criminal issue as well (because of fraud etc.) would be anybody's guess. None of this has anything to do with money laundering or doing business with foreign governments either.

Add THAT onto all the other reasons why he's scared shitless right now. The American voters need to know.

[wiggs]

16. Yes we need to know. But I believe when the gop admits wrongdoing (cohen talking

about cheating on taxes, lying, and racism) it's because there's a lot worse to be discovered. Cohen is still covering for Trump. Cohen knows a lot more about foreign entanglements than he has said.

Let's get Trump on all illegal activities once we have the returns, but let's frame acquisition of the returns as a national security issue.

[dumbcat]

15. Not to defend tRump at all, but ...

We assume/know he is a vile, corrupt, dishonest man and need all requested documents, including tax returns, to prove otherwise.

From that statement, I take it that you don't go for that whole "innocent until proven guilty" thingy?

[wiggs]

17. public discourse is not a court of law, where that phrase applies...

...you think he's not vile, corrupt, or dishonest?

None of those are criminal charges and this isn't a jury.

[struggle4progress]

13. "Putin says I can tell you there's no evidence of Russia bribes in my tax returns!"

[Caliman73]

14. Some Americans will assume the worst.

Trump's base, which is smaller, but not insignificant, will always assume that the evil government is out to get Trump and I would wager that even if it is revealed that Trump was getting direct paybacks from Russia, they would find a way to make it a conspiracy lead by Hillary Clinton and President Obama to destroy Trump. They are just stupid that way.

The sadder thing is that most people won't care and and are not paying attention. They don't live on political information like Frum and some of us on DU do. They are busy watching their shows or sports teams in the playoffs or at the beginnings of their seasons. The problem with not instilling a sense of needing to know what is going on in the world and at home in terms of government in the classroom. People are definitely concerned with surviving and getting through the day, but there seems to be a very deep lapse in the idea of "civic duty".

I do think that the more this issue plays out in the press and the closer we get to election day, the more that people will pay attention. I just hope that shining a light on all the lawlessness will register with people that this guy is horrible for the country.

[pdsimdars]

19. Why aren't the Dems saying this every day? Why is he hiding them? Get that into the American mind