I don't think that this will change any minds, either. It's not as if he was going to write "money launderer" as his occupation. I'm just stunned that after 5 years, someone finally leaked it. I thought that since we've gone this long with every journalist in the business hungry for these docs and yet getting nothing, that it just wasn't a possibility.
It's gotta be someone in the IRS, right? The NYTimes has to have been sifting through the information for at least a month or two, but maybe prosecutors have had at least some of this info longer than we thought?. This could be a way of leveraging public outcry against Trump's court system stalling on the Mazar's side of the tax returns. But, again, it is known that SDNY (Vance) has Deutsche Bank loan application records. There's no way a bank provides hundreds of millions of dollars in loans to someone telling the bank that they lose hundreds of millions of dollars each year routinely. This is a 100% chance of tax fraud. Here's some more good news: If you're taking state tax refunds, that's state-level criminal tax fraud, right? Even if it's based on a federal filing? If so, you can expect the NY AG to attempt prosecution. The argument/precedent that a sitting president cannot be indicted only applies to federal crimes. I'm also floored that this info found its way out, but this is now a full-blown cult we're talking about. /r/conservative is floating better legal defenses of Trump than the man himself, but this is unprincipled and morally reprehensible behavior. For the billionth time. I don't give a fuck if it's TeChNiCaLLy LeGaL, we should be able to agree that it's flat-out wrong to live a life of excess while giving nothing back. But we can't! Despite it being Christians endorsing blatantly anti-Christian behavior. It's time for a fuckin' family meeting, America. It's up to people like us. Our institutions and media have failed us. We have to initiate the healing at a personal level. Guitar? Not a bad place to start.The newspaper said Trump initially paid $95 million in taxes over the 18 years it studied. But he managed to recover most of that money by claiming — and receiving — a stunning $72.9 million federal tax refund. According to the Times, Trump also pocketed $21.2 million in state and local refunds, which are typically based on federal filings.
Yep, the NY AG is specifically investigating whether Trump inflated his assets for favorable bank loans and tax write-offs. It's not clear how long each entity has had access to the tax returns, but I would guess that the NYTimes story took at least six weeks to put together. Whether or not NYT waited to publish closer to the election is a good question, though. Obviously, the timeline is still a bit muddy, for now. Leaking the returns could be a last-ditch effort from SDNY. We know that Bill Barr's all up in their shit, no doubt in an effort to shield Trump from accountability.
I don't think someone in the IRS would do that knowing that they will be found out in like a minute. My guess is that it's someone, a Deep Stater at DoJ, say, who has a serious bone to pick with him. That person is probably more savvy at how investigations would proceed, and knows how to cover their tracks. There are probably so many people who have seen them at this point, however, that there could be multiple sources.