Presidential Tax Returns Revisited.

Economics Podcast Trumpismo

Back in 2016 I lamented that we didn’t have Trump’s taxes.

…and I predicted at that time that we would never see his tax returns if we waited for him to release them. I was right. I was right on many counts. This is not proof that I can read minds or predict the future. It is, however, a vindication of my assertion three years ago that I knew who Donald Trump was. That he was dirty and that he was never going to reveal that dirt willingly.

This week we learned that his businesses keep at least two sets of books. One set of books that they show to the government, and one set of books that they show to the banks. There is probably a third set of books out there somewhere that contains real numbers, but that set of books they don’t show to anybody. This isn’t rocket science, this is how you do business as a con artist.

TRUMP, INC. – Never-Before-Seen Trump Tax Documents Show Major Inconsistencies – Oct. 16, 2019

A dozen real estate professionals told ProPublica they saw no clear explanation for multiple inconsistencies in the documents. The discrepancies are “versions of fraud,” said Nancy Wallace, a professor of finance and real estate at the Haas School of Business at the University of California-Berkeley. “This kind of stuff is not OK.”

New York City’s property tax forms state that the person signing them “affirms the truth of the statements made” and that “false filings are subject to all applicable civil and criminal penalties.”

The punishments for lying to tax officials, or to lenders, can be significant, ranging from fines to criminal fraud charges. Two former Trump associates, Michael Cohen and Paul Manafort, are serving prison time for offenses that include falsifying tax and bank records, some of them related to real estate.

TRUMP, INC.

His tax returns will soon be a matter of public record, as they should be, given that his arguments for keeping them private are being laughed out of courtrooms across the country.

NYT – Trump Taxes: President Ordered to Turn Over Returns to Manhattan D.A.

Not to mention the lawful request made by the House of Representatives that has been illegally stymied by the White House.

NYT – House Files Lawsuit Seeking Disclosure of Trump Tax Returns

These issues will both be represented in points in the articles of impeachment that will be recommended against Donald J. Trump. Who else he takes down with him has yet to be determined.

Postscript

The story of Trump’s thievery, Trump’s criminality, continues to evolve. There will be a trial and we will finally have a tally of Donald Trump’s theft before he became President of the United States.

NYT – Supreme Court Denies Trump’s Final Bid to Block Release of Tax Returns

Getting his taxes now, dispensing justice on 40 year old crimes now, is too little too late. Revealing his fraud in 2015 would have kept him out of office and we could have avoided having a dangerous criminal in power in the United States for four years, killing half a million Americans while he stole billions from the treasury. I’d like to see him punished, but I would much rather have avoided his presidency in the first place.

What he stole while President is the number that I’m interested in. Will we ever have that number, other than the number of COVID dead that can directly be laid at the feet of his incompetence? I’m beginning to doubt we will ever get a proper accounting.

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