'The price you pay for being honest': Donald Trump blames the IRS following new suspicions of tax fraud

Former President Donald Trump released a new video on Thursday in which he attempted to downplay an exclusive Daily Beast report that a massive tax deduction that he received on one of his vacant properties may have been obtained fraudulently.

Trump is currently facing a $250 million civil fraud lawsuit in New York, which is just one of the many legal predicaments that are shadowing his run for the presidency in 2024. But what The Daily Beast uncovered about his Seven Springs estate could further deepen his woes.

The Daily Beast's Jose Pagliery revealed:

According to Trump's latest financial disclosures, the tax deduction Trump got from reserving the property for conservation—which investigators say reduced his tax bill by more than $3.5 million—still far outweighs the paltry income it keeps bringing him every year. And the whole situation may play right into the hands of the New York attorney general who is going after Trump for inflating his company's portfolio and using the tax code to bail out failed investments.

READ MORE: Trump’s unused mansion falls under investigation for possible tax fraud

Pagliery's exposé apparently struck a nerve in the seventy-four-year-old Florida resident, who denied any wrongdoing and declared himself a victim of an unspecified nefarious plot by the Internal Revenue Service.

Trump also alleged without evidence that President Joe Biden and his family have been "taking advantage of government" and then suggested that he is facing persecution for "being honest."

Trump said:

I had a done deal before running for president. They broke it. They treated me worse than they treated the Tea Party or the evangelicals. I could have easily made a very good deal with the IRS during my four years as president, but I thought it would be inappropriate to do so. Maybe a conflict of interest. I didn't want that. Besides, I already had a deal from before my presidency, a deal which they chose not to. So now I'm demanding the original deal without late changes and the rules and regulations. So that deal would be harder to make. Most people would say that after watching the Biden family take advantage of government, I should have made a deal during my term. To me, it was a conflict. I thought it was inappropriate, so I didn't do so. But this is the price you pay for being honest in the USA of today.

Watch below or at this link.

READ MORE: How a 'wire fraud' investigation could create even more problems for Trump: legal analyst

Pagliery's full report continues here.