TPM - Marshall - "The Trump Tax Return/Russia Letter Is Full of Holes"

[NRaleighLiberal]

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/the-trump-tax-returnrussia-letter-is-full-of-holes

By JOSH MARSHALL Published MAY 12, 2017 5:50 PM

President Trump’s personal tax lawyers have now provided a letter, released by the White House today, which in essence says President Trump has no financial ties with Russia. There have been reports in recent days that the President’s tax lawyers were preparing such a letter, in part for Sen. Lindsey Graham. The letter is dated March 8, more than two months ago. How that comports with its release today and what we’d been led to believe about its recent preparation, I have no idea. But I wanted to share a few thoughts on what the letter does or doesn’t mean.

First, for the sake of discussion, I am going to assume that the facts asserted in the letter by Sheri A. Dillon and William F. Nelson are at least narrowly accurate. These are the same lawyers that put together the President’s ethics plan and withdrawal from active management of his businesses. So I’m not sure they have a huge amount of credibility. But if we just assume they’re lying, there’s no point in reading the fine print. Also, I am not a lawyer. So I’ll wait for lawyers and particularly tax lawyers to offer their analysis of the fine print. But there is some factual information I think I can offer based on my own reporting – and a careful review of the reporting of other journalists – about this letter and whether it really covers all the bases we’d like to see covered.

In short, I’d say not close. Here’s the text of the letter. After the letter, I look at where the holes are.



First, some minor points.

1: The upshot of the second paragraph is that since Trump runs all his operations as a private company, with the various entities working as pass-throughs, his personal taxes serve as an effective proxy for what his businesses are doing. That isn’t quite as tight as they’re suggesting.

2: The lawyers say they’re basing their analysis on the last 10 years of income taxes. That should cover a lot of ground. But why just 10 years? That leaves quite a number of years unaccounted for.

snip - a long read - but as always with Josh Marshall, worthwhile.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. The lack of a lot of Russian transactions in these tax returns

doesn't mean they didn't occur, as Marshall points out. He mentions shell corporations and other businesses that Trump does not control but that he or his businesses receive income from, and that income could very well have come from Russian individuals or entities. Furthermore, I wouldn't be at all surprised if Trump were involved in some significant tax evasion, which might be another reason he doesn't want those returns to become public.