Donald Trump knowingly committed dozens of brazen tax frauds during the six years when he ran for office and was President, my analysis of the Congressional report on his tax returns and other documents shows. This explains why he fought all the way to the Supreme Court in a failed effort to keep his tax information secret.

One technique he used at least 26 times between 2015 and 2020 was as simple as it was flagrant. Trump filed sole proprietor reports, known as Schedule C, that showed huge business expenses despite having zero revenue. That created losses which Trump used to offset his income from work and investments, thus lowering his income taxes. Additional Schedule Cs had expenses exactly equal to revenues while only a few showed profits.

Trump knew this was unlawful because he lost two trials over his 1984 income taxes in which he did the exact same thing, a story I broke in June 2016. Both judges, in scathing opinions, ruled that Trump committed civil tax fraud.

That Trump persisted in using the same fraudulent technique in six years of recent tax returns is powerful evidence of mens rea or criminal intent. This device is not Trump’s most lucrative tax cheating technique, but it is the easiest for jurors to understand should Trump be indicted on tax charges......

This takes us back to 1984, by far Trump’s most lucrative year up to that point. Trump Tower opened at the end of 1983, and his first Atlantic City casino opened in the Spring of 1984. Rivers of greenbacks flowed into Trump’s accounts.

State and city auditors spotted a Schedule C consulting business that showed no fees or other revenue but more than $600,000 in costs. State and city auditors disallowed the losses. Trump appealed. I couldn’t find a record of the IRS taking any action.

In scathing decisions following administrative trials, judges for New York State and City ruled that Trump was not entitled to use losses from this supposed consulting business to offset his other income.

Dear Colleague,

I hope you enjoyed the Christmas and holiday season and are preparing to ring in the New Year with your friends and family. As you know, we have a lot of work ahead of us next year as we begin to get our country back on the right track.

The American people spoke on November 8th and decided it was time for a new direction. The last two years have been tough on hard-working families as they have grappled with drastic increases in the cost of living, safety concerns with violent crime skyrocketing in our communities, soaring gas and home heating prices, and a worsening crisis at our Southern border. In the 118th Congress, we will work to address these problems by passing bills that will improve the lives of all Americans.

In preparation for becoming the House Majority Leader next week, I have been meeting with our incoming committee chairs over the last month to start making plans for legislation on the House Floor so that we can hit the ground running in our first weeks in the majority.

We have made it clear that we must change the way we do business in order to improve the legislative process. We understand that developing a good process will lead to better legislative outcomes. Returning to work in person, empowering each committee, moving legislation through regular order, encouraging Member input, and allowing adequate time to read legislation will be major priorities of our incoming majority. We are excited to make those principles a reality in the House.

We do also recognize that it will take some time for our committees to organize and start moving legislation through regular order. In the meantime, we will begin bringing up meaningful, “ready-to-go” legislation in the House. These commonsense measures will address challenges facing hard-working families on issues ranging from energy, inflation, border security, life, taxpayer protection, and more. They should garner wide support and provide an indication of our bold agenda to come. I’m excited to announce the following legislation we plan to bring to the House Floor in the first two weeks of 2023:

H.R. __ - Family and Small Business Taxpayer Protection Act
• This bill rescinds tens of billions of dollars allocated to the IRS for 87,000 new IRS agents in the Inflation Reduction Act
H. Res. __ - Establishing the Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party
• This resolution establishes a bipartisan Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party
H.R. __ - Strategic Production Response Act
• This bill prohibits non-emergency drawdowns of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve without a plan to increase energy production on federal lands
H.R. __ - Protecting America’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve from China Act
• This bill prohibits the Secretary of Energy from sending petroleum products from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to China
H.R. __ - Prosecutors Need to Prosecute Act
• This bill creates transparency in our criminal justice system by letting the public know how many cases prosecutors are declining to prosecute, the number of offenses committed by career criminals, and the number of criminals released
H. Con. Res. __ - Expressing support for the Nation’s law enforcement agencies and condemning any efforts to defund or dismantle law enforcement agencies
• This resolution expresses the sincere gratitude and appreciation of Congress to the Nation’s law enforcement officers who protect and serve our communities and rejects the misguided and dangerous efforts to defund and dismantle the Nation’s law enforcement agencies
H.R. __ - Border Safety and Security Act
• This bill addresses our crisis at the southern border by empowering the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to turn away illegal migrants at the border if the Secretary of DHS does not have operational control
H.R. __ - Illegal Alien NICS Alert Act
• This bill requires the National Instant Criminal Background Check system (NICS) to notify U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and relevant local law enforcement when a firearm transferee is illegally present in the United States
H.R. __ - No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion and Abortion Insurance Full Disclosure Act
• This bill makes permanent the long-standing Hyde Amendment as well as similar provisions to prohibit federal funding for abortion and funding for any insurance plan that includes abortion on demand
H. Con. Res. __ - Expressing the sense of Congress condemning the recent attacks on pro-life facilities, groups, and churches
• This resolution expresses the sense of Congress condemning the recent attacks on pro-life facilities, groups, and churches
H.R. __ - Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act
• This bill ensures that infants born alive after an abortion receive the same protection of law and degree of care as any newborn

In addition to this “ready-to-go” legislation I expect us to consider early in the 118th Congress, committees are simultaneously beginning their oversight plans which are focused on bringing much-needed accountability to the Biden Administration.

I’m excited to see us begin making our ambitious agenda a reality and begin delivering for the American people after we elect Kevin McCarthy Speaker. I hope you continue enjoying your time with family and friends this week and look forward to getting to work in the new year.

God Bless,
Steve