The Long Arm Of The Law Is Closing In On The Trump Crime Family

The Manhattan District Attorney already had a team of forensic auditors working on the Trump Organization’s tax documents and financial records previously turned over by Trump’s former “fixer,” Michael Cohen, and his niece Mary Trump. They already know what they are looking for in the records to be turned over by Trump’s accounting firm Mazars USA and his primary lender, Deutsche Bank. What they are looking for are the original copies of documents to present in evidence to the grand jury. It should not take these professionals long to find what they are looking for, and to make their case to the grand jury.

CNN reports, Trump’s tax returns and related records turned over to Manhattan district attorney:

Tax records that former President Donald Trump tried to keep secret for years are now in the hands of the New York district attorney.

Prosecutors obtained the records on Monday, just hours after the US Supreme Court denied Trump’s last-ditch effort to keep the records private, a spokesperson for the district attorney said.
The millions of pages of documents, sources say, contain Trump’s tax returns spanning from January 2011 to August 2019, as well as financial statements, engagement agreements, documents relating to the preparation and review of tax returns, and work papers and communications related to the tax returns.

Though the documents handed off from Trump’s long-time accounting firm Mazars won’t be released to the public because they’re subject to grand jury secrecy rules, their delivery caps off an extraordinary 17-month quest by the former President and his lawyers to block investigators from obtaining the records.

New York District Attorney Cy Vance is investigating whether Trump and the Trump Organization engaged in tax fraud, insurance fraud and other schemes to defraud, including potentially providing false information to financial institutions or banks about the value of certain buildings and assets.

With the records now in hand, Vance and his fellow prosecutors will be able to dig deeper into investigative theories, pursue interviews with key witnesses, and determine whether they believe any state laws have been violated.

We know that they did. A New York Times analysis by experts of many of the same documents the Manhattan DA is reviewing concluded, LONG-CONCEALED RECORDS SHOW TRUMP’S CHRONIC LOSSES AND YEARS OF TAX AVOIDANCE (excerpt):

The New York Times has obtained tax-return data extending over more than two decades for Mr. Trump and the hundreds of companies that make up his business organization, including detailed information from his first two years in office. It does not include his personal returns for 2018 or 2019. This article offers an overview of The Times’s findings; additional articles will be published in the coming weeks.

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Transcripts of his main federal tax form, the 1040, from 1985 to 1994, were obtained by The Times in 2019. They showed that, in many years, Mr. Trump lost more money than nearly any other individual American taxpayer. Three pages of his 1995 returns, mailed anonymously to The Times during the 2016 campaign, showed that Mr. Trump had declared losses of $915.7 million, giving him a tax deduction that could have allowed him to avoid federal income taxes for almost two decades. Five months later, the journalist David Cay Johnston obtained two pages of Mr. Trump’s returns from 2005; that year, his fortunes had rebounded to the point that he was paying taxes.

[His 2014 tax filing]  was the fourth year in a row that he had not paid a penny of federal income taxes.

Mr. Trump’s avoidance of income taxes is one of the most striking discoveries in his tax returns, especially given the vast wash of income itemized elsewhere in those filings.

* * *

So how did he escape nearly all taxes on that fortune? Even the effective tax rate paid by the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans could have caused him to pay more than $100 million.

The answer rests in a third category of Mr. Trump’s endeavors: businesses that he owns and runs himself. The collective and persistent losses he reported from them largely absolved him from paying federal income taxes on the $600 million from “The Apprentice,” branding deals and investments.

That equation is a key element of the alchemy of Mr. Trump’s finances: using the proceeds of his celebrity to purchase and prop up risky businesses, then wielding their losses to avoid taxes.

Throughout his career, Mr. Trump’s business losses have often accumulated in sums larger than could be used to reduce taxes on other income in a single year. But the tax code offers a workaround: With some restrictions, business owners can carry forward leftover losses to reduce taxes in future years.

That provision has been the background music to Mr. Trump’s life. As The Times’s previous reporting on his 1995 return showed, the nearly $1 billion in losses from his early-1990s collapse generated a tax deduction that he could use for up to 18 years going forward.

In 2016 and 2017, Donald Trump paid only $750 in income taxes.

CNN continues:

“Our office obtained the records on Monday,” said Vance spokesman Danny Frost.

The records may be critical to the investigation because they are likely to contain documents that reflect the decision-making behind valuations and tax write-offs, which may be important to determine whether there was intent to commit a crime. The investigators have wanted to review the documents before calling key witnesses before the grand jury, people familiar with the inquiry said.

In addition to the records from Mazars, Vance’s office has been seeking a slew of other documents. They subpoenaed records and interviewed employees at Deutsche Bank, one of Trump’s creditors, about loans given to him, and insurance broker Aon, according to multiple sources familiar with the investigation. Deutsche Bank has loaned Trump more than $300 million.

Prosecutors have also subpoenaed Ladder Capital, which has loaned the Trump Organization over $100 million, and the Trump Organization for records relating to fees paid to consultants, including Ivanka Trump, these people said.

The Manhattan DA is reportedly looking into Donald Trump Jr. as part of investigation into his dad’s business dealings:

Donald Trump Jr. is a new focus of the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office’s investigation into the Trump Organization, The Daily Beast reported on Tuesday.

The Daily Beast reported that the investigation had expanded and that investigators had become interested in the activities of Trump Jr. and Allen Weisselberg, the Trump Organization’s chief financial officer.

The Daily Beast didn’t specify what about Trump Jr. and Weisselberg the investigators were interested in, but District Attorney Cy Vance Jr. has been opaque about the investigation from the get-go.

Court filings have indicated that his office is looking into “extensive and protracted criminal conduct at the Trump Organization,” The Associated Press reported in November.

Donald Trump, Jr. was recently deposed by the District of Columbia District Attorney. Donald Trump Jr. deposed by DC attorney general as part of inaugural funds lawsuit.

Ivanka Trump has also been deposed by the District of Columbia District Attorney. Ivanka Trump was deposed Tuesday in DC attorney general’s inauguration lawsuit.

Eric Trump was also deposed in a civil investigation in New York. Eric Trump sat for deposition as part of investigation by New York attorney general.

The long arm of the law is finally closing in on the Trump crime family. Like mafia crime boss Al Capone, they will be done in by tax fraud, not the more heinous crimes they committed (like insurrection against the U.S. government).