This story first appeared at ProPublica and WNYC. ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox.
Skip ahead to May 13.
After a six-week delay caused by the pandemic, the U.S. Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision denied will heard arguments in the epic battle by congressional committees and New York prosecutors the ability to pry loose eight years of President Donald Trump’s tax returns.
Whatever it may do with respect to the congressional subpoenas, I am fairly sure that the Court will uphold the criminal subpoena. But the documents will be produced to a grand jury, and therefore be concealed from public disclosure unless and until (1) an indictment is returned and (2) the documents are introduced into evidence in a trial. This will be at least a year (or more) from now, and certainly well after the election.
And lawyers and accountants wonder why their reputations are so dismal. I realize everyone is entitled to legal representation and to pay the lowest rate of taxes necessary. But it still leaves a really bad taste in the mouth to read this kind of stuff and know that it’s just par for the course for these people and their enablers.
Great reporting on a dishonorable cabal of thieves.
“after one of its New York partners stabbed his wife to death in the shower of their suburban home. (He pleaded guilty to manslaughter.)”
I think this illustrates the value of being rich. This guy pulls a Norman Bates and gets off for a crime that was intended for an accidental death? He didn’t intend to kill her, just scare her a little?
Trump’s favorite people.
When it rains it pours.
A whistleblower said in a complaint that a volunteer coronavirus force recruited by Jared Kushner was “falling short” and had “little to show” for their work.
Pretending to be vastly wealthy: isn’t that how Jeffrey Epstein got his start?
“You get the privilege of saying you’re Donald Trump’s accountants, having Donald Trump as president so you have to pay the price.’”
But this article raises the question: How have we allowed our Federal and State governments to design a system of taxation that benefits the wealthy and enables their acquisitiveness at the expense of society, while strictly enforcing its rules on the middle class? Once again, Trump is a symptom.
Well the only proper and courteous thing to do with this looming over Trump’s head is to make sure he has the freetime to actively defend himself at this trial. Thus Trump will be too busy, so don’t re-elect.
It always comes back to incompetence.
The concept of ‘money’ is hard-wired into us, as is language and a propensity for religion. It’s one of many defects of the species. If it were otherwise, we would have larger subgroups that didn’t give money a priority in their societies.
At the time Mitnick left the firm, partners feared his departure might cost them the Trump business, which Zachary estimates represented about a third of the firm’s total billings.
But rather less of the firm’s actual revenue.
“It always comes back to incompetence”
And oh so quickly.
Replace ‘richer’ with ‘solvent’ and you’re there.
It’s hard to be optimistic about what the Supreme Court will rule, given its dominance by right wing pollitical operatives. But the minority opinion will make for good reading, particularly for future law students.
Warned that his work for Trump was sure to face an audit, Zachary said he took special care to trace every asset, expense and receipt. When he finally finished, he was mystified. Zachary couldn’t find evidence that Trump, in fact, possessed any cash beyond a recent payment in a casino deal.
“I went to Jack Mitnick, and I said, ‘Look, I must be missing something: There’s nothing here!’… I thought for sure I screwed up. I thought for sure I missed something big.”
Zachary recalled Mitnick’s reply. “He just laughed and went: ‘Well, you just figured it out!’”
The emperor has no cash.
This article makes things sound way worse than we even thought. A criminal employing a bunch of other criminals.
And any time there’s a two-page disclaimer that should really be the front page story rather than the numbers reported.
(Also, I guess this answers the question about what kind of firm picked up the clients my mother fired when she was a CPA.)
Look at that pic. He wears very thick diapers.