February 25, 2021
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2:29Now PlayingDonald Trump and his lawyers have routinely argued that the former president would be subjected to “irreparable harm” if his tax returns landed in unfriendly hands. The Supreme Court disagreed, and refused to block a subpoena that local prosecutors in New York had issued for the records.
This doesn’t mean Trump’s returns will suddenly appear online. They’re going to a grand jury, and Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., whose office issued — but had yet to enforce — the subpoena, presumably will be circumspect about who gets to see them.
Even so, a dam that Trump has spent decades fortifying around his finances and tax returns has been broken. And Vance’s investigation appears to be broad enough to pose a serious criminal threat to the former president, his three eldest children and the Trump Organization.
Vance is investigating Trump for possible tax fraud and falsification of business records, according to appellate court filings. His office is also examining whether Trump inflated the value of his properties and other assets to secure funds from lenders and investors. Vance’s investigation also involves the former president’s payment of hush money to two women who allegedly had sexual encounters with him, a possibly less-threatening inquiry that may involve campaign finance violations and falsification of business records.
Vance has been seeking eight years of tax returns covering 2011 to 2019 from Trump’s longtime accountants at Mazars USA. Last fall, the New York Times reported that Trump paid only $750 in federal income tax in 2016, the year he won the presidential election, and again in 2017, his first year in office. He managed to keep his payments so low by claiming massive business losses, maneuvers that also allowed him to pay no income tax at all in 10 of the previous 15 years.
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