ProPublica, an independent, nonprofit investigative journalism organization, just published a story that suggests Trump may have committed tax fraud on at least two of his properties.
Here is how they described how they obtained the documents they used in the investigation:
"ProPublica obtained the property tax documents using New York’s Freedom of Information Law. The documents were public because Trump appealed his property tax bill for the buildings every year for nine years in a row, the extent of the available records. We compared the tax records with loan records that became public when Trump’s lender, Ladder Capital, sold the debt on his properties as part of mortgage-backed securities.
ProPublica reviewed records for four properties: 40 Wall Street, the Trump International Hotel and Tower, 1290 Avenue of the Americas and Trump Tower. Discrepancies involving two of them — 40 Wall Street and the Trump International Hotel and Tower — stood out."
The discrepancies resulted in a lower value on the properties for tax purposes and a higher value on the properties for the lenders. This is exactly what Michael Cohen testified that Trump did on a regular basis - adjust the value so that it was lower for taxes and higher for lenders.
One of these tax filings was in 2017, after the inauguration. If it turns out to be fraudulent, that's another impeachable offense.
The full story is available here:
http://tinyurl.com/y4gbgo9l |
