Bombshell: Trump suddenly poised to face NEW charges

you're watching the legal breakdown so

Glenn we've got breaking news from The

New York Times and prua that Donald

Trump May owe the government an

additional $100 million after double

dipping on some tax breaks can you

explain what happened here yeah let me

try to take our viewers uh through this

it's kind of dense and anytime tax law

gets involved it it can pretty quickly

become confusing but here are the basics

so in the early 2000s Donald Trump

decided he was going to build a glass

encased 92 story skyscraper in Chicago

took out lots and lots and lots of loans

from Deutsche Bank and elsewhere and

ultimately after he built the building

he realized he couldn't sell the space

and he couldn't meet his financial

obligations he couldn't even service his

debt so under a provision of the IRS tax

code he had the building declared

worthless he is one heck of a

businessman declared worthless for tax

purposes and he took a

$651 million loss on his taxes in 2008

but he wasn't done there Brian two years

later in 2010 what he did according to

the New York Times and the propublica

reporting is he then shifted ownership

of the building from one of his

Partnerships to another of his

Partnerships the New York Times

reporting equates that with basically

moving your coin coins from one of your

pockets to the other pocket and then he

declared another loss this time $168

million and he got himself a nice tax

refund as a result of $73 million now

this was all discovered it looks like in

part by some of the evidence that came

out in his New York fraud trial there

was also a 2022 Congressional report

discussing some of this and whole bunch

of investigative journalists put it all

together and they're now reporting out

that it looks like he may have violated

tax laws to the tune of about $100

million plus penalties plus fees plus

interest and I am no tax expert but in

the New York Times article they said

they consulted with six tax experts um

one is on record in the article a

gentleman named Walter swety apologies

of if I'm mispronouncing the good

professor's last name and this this law

professor is an expert on the law of

Partnerships and Taxation and here is

his assessment this is a quote he said

of Donald Trump quote I think he ripped

off the tax system close quote and I I

will leave it with Professor s dy's

estimation of what Donald Trump appears

to have done here yeah it seems like a

safe bet even if you even if you don't

dig into the details of Donald Trump

it's a safe bet to just say that Donald

Trump has probably ripped off the tax

system Glenn can the government still go

after any of these funds is there a

statute of limitations issue here what

what what could happen next yeah that's

a great question and I don't want to

pretend to know more than I do about the

tax laws and the tax regulations but

what I will say is even if there are

statute of limitations issues those

generally apply to criminal prosecutions

not to the government collecting money

it is owed courtesy of tax fraud so uh

all of this and it also depends on

whether this was an ongoing course of

criminal conduct you know one of the

things that I I think we we don't always

recall when we're talking about a

statute of limitations which is just a

fancy term for how long after the

commission of the crime can somebody be

prosecuted in the federal law lots of

crimes have a fiveyear statute of

limitations I will say as a former

career prosecutor Brian I was never

fonded of statutes of limitations

because think about it somebody commits

an egregious crime and as long as they

can keep it hidden for five years and a

day they're home free that always felt a

little suspect to me but the thing is if

you're in an ongoing conspiracy

including potentially to cover up your

tax fraud and hide it from the IRS from

the federal government that can often

extend the statute of limitations

because the statute doesn't begin to run

until until the very last Act of the

crime has been completed so it's an open

question we don't know enough to say

whether there will or will not be

statute of limitations problems

attendant to this possible tax fraud and

is this a a federal or a state crime and

and who would bring him to court based

on that question so here's the thing

anytime somebody commits tax fraud you

are committing crimes in violation of

the federal law and in violation of the

state law unless of course you defraud

the federal government out of your taxes

but for the same transaction or for the

same calendar year you correctly report

and pay all your state court your your

your state taxes doesn't make any sense

which is why you know I've had a beef

with the federal government for a very

long time over you know what seems to be

its neglect of holding Donald Trump

accountable for financial crimes and

most most directly the tax implications

of those financial crimes because I am

quite sure all of the evidence that came

out during Donald Trump's New York fraud

trial that implicated New York state tax

violations also violated federal tax

laws now why the federal government has

never decided to really go after Donald

Trump for alleged violations of federal

tax laws now that's a stone cold mystery

to me and to that point then you know

obviously Donald Trump is a con man and

a criminal and a fraud fraud we know

that but double dipping on $100 million

worth of tax breaks strikes me as a

pretty big red flag for the government

like how how does the IRS miss this and

is this not also deserving of major

condemnation on the government's side

yeah I I don't I I have a hard time

believing Brian that the IRS missed this

here we are some 15 years down the road

from these potential you know tax viol

ations and Donald Trump has not been

held accountable now there is some

indication in the reporting that the IRS

has been looking into this for years but

that sort of begs the question why

haven't they taken action um what I will

say is that our federal government does

not do a very good job going after what

I call the ruling class criminals you

know the millionaires the billionaires

the American oligarchs whether in big

oil or big Tech or the

military-industrial complex big Pharma

big entertainment big internet you know

any of it we don't do a particularly

good job and when I say we I was a

federal prosecutor for decades now I

focused more on violent crime and Rico

organizations than I did on White Collar

fraud cases but you know we seem to

forever be willing to deal with these

legal transgressions when we find them

by having these you know well moneyed

potential defendants pay fines pay back

taxes pay penalties and pay interest but

never seeing one minute of criminal

accountability for what they did and you

know what that encourages Brian it

encourages these people to do it all

over again and simply work into their

operating budgets the fines and

penalties back taxes and interest they

know they're going to have to pay so for

them it feels like it is forever a

business decision because they seem to

be very rarely held accountable as sort

of a criminal law matter right at this

point they basically say like let's just

go for it worst case scenario we get a

slap on the wrist that is just paying

what we would have had to pay anyway but

more likely we won't have to pay

anything I mean Donald Trump got away

with a hundred million and double

dipping on taxes and waited the

government waited what 15 years for the

for the New York Times and prua to do a

story on it before we even see any

action

you know if I had my way um and you put

me in charge I I never wanted to be a

dictator for a day like some others but

what I would do is turn the criminal

justice system on its head you know we

do a very good job at going after

somebody who snatches a purse or sells a

rock of crack particularly when they are

you know folks without any power or

influence or connections or wealth often

they are you know our minority brothers

and sisters boy we go at them like Gang

Busters but we lay off the ruling class

criminals I for one would turn the

criminal justice system on its head why

because if you sell a rocker crack or

you snatch a purse don't get me wrong

those are not victimless crimes and we

need to pay attention to the experience

of the victims in each and every crime

but when you talk about the ruling class

criminals the billionaires who are

committing crime they will do damage to

large swats of the American popul

as far as I'm concerned that's where we

should be focusing our law enforcement

efforts on the people doing the most

harm on the people creating the most

victims in our country I would turn our

priorities on their heads and I would

start to actually equally apply the law

to everybody then again I don't think

I'm ever going to be dictator for a day

uh Glenn let's finish off with this

practically speaking I think you know

based on what what you've said based on

what we can all see it's highly likely

that the federal government will decide

to go after Donald Trump for this $100

million in uh in double dipping on on

tax breaks but if the if the state of

New York went went after him where would

we most likely see a lawsuit emanating

from would that be Leticia James would

it be Alvin

Bragg you know I feel like Leticia James

has done her part she has stepped up she

brought a massive fraud lawsuit not a

prosecution but a lawsuit to try to

recover some of the money that you know

Trump and Company buil the New York

taxpayers out of and she won an enormous

judgment against Donald Trump about half

a billion dollars of course Donald Trump

is also laboring under an 83 million

judgment that was won against him by EEG

Carol so here he may end up what owing

another hundred million in back taxes to

the federal government maybe they can

take it out of his prison pay after he

gets convicted

after he gets convicted in one or more

at a rate of like at a rate of what like

$2 a day yeah they'll get about 10 cents

a day um but but to answer your question

you know I feel like enough with the

civil suits being brought against Donald

Trump not that I would sort of dismiss

anybody who has a winning cause of

action against Donald Trump but you know

at this point it's all about deterring

this kind of conduct and the the way to

most directly deter not only Donald

Trump but others who would choose to

follow in his footsteps is to prosecute

them for their crimes so you know if

there are cases to be brought based on

this latest Revelation I sure hope the

evidence supports bringing criminal

prosecutions against him not just trying

to claw back some of the money that he

never should have received in the first

place right the whole point should be

that there has to be some deterrent here

so that he and people like him don't

just keep thinking that this is okay

because that's the message that they're

getting right now not just on the tax

stuff but basically on everything I mean

there's a reason that Donald Trump is so

quick to try to engag in the same

activities um election un undermining

activities that he engaged in in 2020

that's because we have been so slow to

prosecute the guy the fact that we can't

deliver Swift accountability all it does

is serve to embolden the very criminals

who committed these crimes in the first

place um with that said we'll continue

to keep an eye on this it is you know a

pretty sad commentary on the state of

Criminal Justice in this country that it

takes the New York Times and propublica

to to um to unveil what's happening here

before the the federal or state

governments will actually do something

to to to make up for it but again we'll

keep an eye on it and hopefully we do

see some movement so that again to to

the exact point I was making uh we don't

continue to embolden these criminals uh

like Donald Trump with that said uh I'm

Brian teller Cohen and I'm Glennon

kersner you're watching the legal

breakdown

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