David Cay Johnston details what prosecutors will do when they get the president's tax returns

[turbinetree]

Published 2 hours ago
on November 4, 2019

By Matthew Chapman

On Monday, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals rejected President Donald Trump’s claim that he was immune from all criminal investigation as president, allowing New York State prosecutors to obtain several years’ worth of his tax returns.

On CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360,” Pulitzer Prize-winning Trump biographer David Cay Johnston walked through what the prosecutors will likely do with the information they obtain.

“David, if this decision stands, you say that President Trump could have a serious problem once a Manhattan grand jury gets the tax documents,” said Cooper. “What do you believe that they could show?”

“Well, Donald lost two income tax fraud trials,” said Johnston. “And in one of those trials, the tax return introduced in the case was shown to his long-time now-retired tax preparer, Jack Mitnick, who testified that that was his signature on the document, but he did not prepare that tax return. Donald has a long history of filing inconsistent documents with different government agencies. [Manhattan DA] Cy Vance’s grand jury has access to the New York State Tax Authority records. And I suspect they’re going to compare them to the Mazars records to see if Trump altered the tax returns he filed, which would be fraud, in all likelihood.”

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/11/david-cay-johnston-details-what-prosecutors-will-do-when-they-get-the-presidents-tax-returns/

[regnaD kciN]

1. "IF this decision stands..."

With the current SCOTUS, I’d echo Elvis Costello and rate that chance as “Less Than Zero.”

[crazytown]

6. RGB is the Justice assigned to the 2nd District appeals

[rsdsharp]

11. Fine.

She'll decide whether or not to grant a stay pending a decision by the full court on a petition for cert.

Please, for the love of God, stop implying that Ginsburg is the final say on an appeal from the Second CIRCUIT (the District Court is below the Court of Appeals). She's not. If Trump seeks cert, all nine members of the Supreme Court will consider it. It takes 4 votes of the justices to grant cert (take the appeal). If it's granted, all nine members of the Supreme Court will vote on the ultimate decision.

[emmaverybo]

2. Al Capone all over again.

[Brother Buzz]

7. Including the untreated syphilis

Asking for a friend.

[dem4decades]

8. That would explain alot.

[yonder]

4. "...if Trump altered the tax returns he filed..."

If?

I think we can count on it, Mr. Johnston.

[moondust]

5. Doesn't he have a history

of over-valuing his properties when it serves his interest and under-valuing them for tax purposes? He's a known fraud.

[NewJeffCT]

12. why yes he does have that history

different valuations depending on the audience

[NCLefty]

9. Make it so!

[Cicada]

10. He may have deducted hush money as legal fees

Paying Stormy Daniels to keep quiet is not related to business so it should not be deducted as a business deduction. Trump may have reimbursed Michael Cohen for payments to Stormy but deducted the reimbursement as a legal fee business deduction. Normally the taxpayer would be required to pay more tax plus penalties and interest. Leona Helmsley was convicted of criminal tax fraud for deducting personal expenses, such as home renovations, crossword magazine subscriptions, thereby improperly reducing her tax liability by one million dollars. It was something like reducing her annual tax from 58 million dollars to 57 million. But for a mere wrongful deduction of $$150,000 or so criminal prosecution would be unusual. The brother of a friend of mine was convicted of a crime for deducting as business cost $300,000 spent renovating a barn but he also cheated the buyer of his business who busted him to the IRS as revenge. The IRS May have taken his overall creepiness into account in deciding to charge him with criminal tax fraud for a mere $300,000 lie. I don’t know what magnitude of lying motivates criminal charges. But I doubt $150,000 normally does.

[Maraya1969]

13. He has already lost 2 tax fraud trials? What was his

Punishment? Has he ever paid for any of the wrongs he had done?

I thought most people go to jail for tax fraud