'Bombshell' report raises questions about new possible Trump tax evasion: experts
According to a report from the Daily Beast's Roger Sollenberger, a "bombshell" footnote in documents filed by the special monitor appointed by the court in the $370 million Donald Trump financial fraud trial is raising questions about a $50 million Trump loan that may or may not exist.
That has ethics and tax experts suggesting the former president has been engaging in tax fraud.
According to the report, former federal judge Barbara Jones included a "major revelation" in the footnotes in her report on the current financial status of the Trump Organization, telling the court, "When I inquired about this loan, I was informed that there are no loan agreements that memorialize the loan, but that it was a loan that was believed to be between Donald J. Trump, individually, and Chicago Unit Acquisition for $48 million.”
She then added, "However, in recent discussions with the Trump Organization, it indicated that it has determined that this loan never existed—and thus that it would be removed from any upcoming forms submitted to the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) and would also be removed from subsequent versions of [corporate financial statements].”
As Sollenberger wrote for the Beast, "If true, that would essentially be an admission from the Trump Organization that all the financial disclosures Trump has filed with the federal government listed an entirely fictional debt worth tens of millions of dollars, which Trump claimed he personally owed to one of his own companies."
Alan Garten, chief legal counsel for the Trump Organization, pushed back at the assertion, saying in an interview, "That’s one of many inaccuracies contained in the monitor’s letter, which we will be addressing with the court," before admitting, "Yes, the loan existed."
Jordan Libowitz, of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics (CREW) claimed the conflicting information suggests something is not right.
“When you fill out your personal financial disclosures, you attest under penalty of the law that the information is true. Trump had to know that his Chicago business never gave him a loan of more than $50 million, as he claimed, repeatedly,” he told Sollenberger before adding, "While the reasons behind claiming this fake loan are still unknown, at the very least he misled the government for years about his finances. It appears that Trump knowingly and intentionally broke the law. The only question is how many laws.”
D.C. tax lawyer Martin Lobel also claimed there appears to be some law-breaking based on the new filing, stating, "It would appear, assuming Judge Jones’ letter is accurate, that this amounts to tax evasion."
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