Attorney Scott Pilutik wrestles with the news of the day, from a lawyerly perspective…
[In regards to this story: Never-Before-Seen Trump Tax Documents Show Major Inconsistencies]
This seems big-ish. ProPublica evidently obtained either the tax returns or tax summaries for Trump’s NY businesses over the past 8 or so years and you probably won’t be surprised to learn he’s committing fraud, even into his presidency.
His building-related businesses keep two accountings — one for the lender and one for the tax authorities. In the lender book he inflates his figures and in the tax book he deflates his figures. Across the board, year after year.
There’s no legitimate, non-fraudulent reason to consistently misrepresent your figures as x in one place and y in the other, especially when those discrepant misrepresentations so happen to benefit you each time and in the same way.
Many people have come up with some elaborate rationales for why Trump hasn’t just released his tax returns, but the obvious answer has always been that it’s because they’ll show how he routinely commits crimes.
And call Michael Cohen a liar, but this reporting backs what he told Congress before going to prison.
