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Trump Family Business Convicted on All Counts

By Jeralyn, Section Crime in the News
Posted on Tue Dec 06, 2022 at 07:01:48 PM EST
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The Trump Organization was convicted by a New York jury on all 17 counts of fraud (tax fraud and a scheme to defraud), conspiracy and falsifying business records.

Shorter version: The jury didn't believe Alan Weisselberg acted only for his own enrichment. They believed that he also acted to benefit the Trump Organization.

Remember Michael Cohen? I heard him on the car radio last week on MSNBC and he said what the Trump Org. and Weisselberg were doing is called "Grossing Up". He thought it was a theory that might appeal to the jury. In essence, by paying bonuses to Weisselberg and sons in real property, like apartments in Trump-owned buildings, instead of increasing their salaries on which the company would have to pay payroll taxes, the Trump Organization saved big on taxes. (Same for paying for private school tuition for the Weisselberg grandkids and for new expensive cars every year)[More...]

Prosecutors put the amount of the fraud at $1.6 million. Cohen made it sound like not only did Trump know, but that he probably authorized Weisselberg and sons to be paid extra on top of the bonus amount to compensate for the increased taxes they would have to pay. He said it was cheaper for the company to pay the Weisselbergs bonsuses, plus the amount of taxes the Weisselbergs would owe on the bonuses, than to raise their salaries and have the company be liable for the payroll taxes.

Not surprisingly, Trump reacted by calling it a witch hunt and criticizing Weisselberg, who many think lied his as* off so as not to incriminate Trump.

Cohen insists Donald knew all about it, just like he says Trump knew all about how the Stormy Daniels money was paid. I don't know whether Cohen is correct, but I remember watching Weisselberg's former daughter-in-law on the news when she said she turned all her books and records over to the grand jury, and she had a similar story. (Of course, she had just finished a bitter divorce, so again, who knows?)

Also not surprisingly, Trump Org's lawyers promised an appeal. While prosecutors may not be happy that Weisselberg didn't deliver the Trump clan, I think they will be satisfied enough with the conviction of the company that Weisselberg will get the 7 months he bargained for (or maybe less). And Weisselberg's sons are home free.

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    Trump Family Business Convicted on All Counts | 12 comments (12 topical)
    I find (5.00 / 1) (#3)
    by BGinCA on Tue Dec 06, 2022 at 11:04:34 PM EST
    it hard to understand the effort put forth to recover $1.6m.

    Same here (none / 0) (#4)
    by Jeralyn on Tue Dec 06, 2022 at 11:06:43 PM EST
    I assumed (or maybe it was just wishful thinking) it would be more like $100 million.

    Parent
    Isn't the civil suit (none / 0) (#5)
    by CaptHowdy on Wed Dec 07, 2022 at 06:12:54 AM EST
    From Attorney General Letitia James the one thats for the money?

    Parent
    That and GA (none / 0) (#1)
    by CaptHowdy on Tue Dec 06, 2022 at 08:21:44 PM EST
    probably a bad day for Donald.

    FWIW
    the site has been unreachable for me all day.  

    Thank you, it was unreachable for everyone (none / 0) (#2)
    by Jeralyn on Tue Dec 06, 2022 at 10:39:37 PM EST
    all day until dinnertime. I was working and Peter G let me know and I let Colin (our webmaster know and Colin fixed it. Apparently "there was a bit of a DDos attack intermittently over the past week. The systems handled it appropriately but it still generated horrendously large logs which eventually dragged things down."

    Colin just cleaned them up and he says all the offending IPs were blocked automatically.

    Parent

    In her book, Mary Trump described living with her (none / 0) (#6)
    by oculus on Wed Dec 07, 2022 at 07:49:52 PM EST
    a Trump company-owned apartment.

    I would not be surprised (none / 0) (#7)
    by CaptHowdy on Thu Dec 08, 2022 at 08:07:10 AM EST
    if as the many criminal and civil cases close in Trump develops some vaguely defined health problem.  

    Or possibly real health problems.  He is getting on in years.

    But health problems real or imagined seem like a good way to get a little sympathy and slack.  Which he will need soon.

    IMO.

    Maybe his (5.00 / 3) (#8)
    by Zorba on Fri Dec 09, 2022 at 06:14:13 PM EST
    Bone spurs will act up, to the point that they are BONE SPURS!!!

    Parent
    I was wondering about this (none / 0) (#9)
    by CaptHowdy on Sat Dec 10, 2022 at 07:03:47 PM EST
    Seemed like the judge was suggesting they look harder

    New court ruling has opened the door for the DOJ to get another Trump search warrant: legal expert

    There is probable cause to believe (5.00 / 1) (#10)
    by Peter G on Sun Dec 11, 2022 at 08:30:42 PM EST
    that Tr*mp remains in possession of misappropriated documents. But the Fourth Amendment requires that no warrant be issued except upon probable cause to believe -- inter alia -- that the thing to be searched for will be found, at the time of the search, in the place for which the search warrant is sought. Does DoJ have an informant or other information to tell them specifically where the remaining dox will probably be found? (This is not to say that many a warrant has not been issued and executed for a suspect's home or office despite a lack of good reason to think that evidence will actually be found in one or the other of those places. But it shouldn't be.)
      I should perhaps mention also that when there is probable cause to believe that contraband or evidence will be found in a specified home, the warrant ordinarily empowers the executing agents to search anywhere and everywhere in that house where that particular thing might be found. In the case of a document, that means in, under or behind basically anything (drawer, furniture, container, whatever) in any part of the house.

    Parent
    Think this will make any difference (none / 0) (#11)
    by CaptHowdy on Tue Dec 13, 2022 at 03:42:29 PM EST

    House Panel Asks Archives to Search Trump Storage Unit
    December 13, 2022 at 2:08 pm EST By Taegan Goddard 62 Comments

    "The House Oversight Committee sent a letter to the National Archives on Tuesday requesting a review to determine whether former president Donald Trump has retained any additional presidential records at his storage facility in Florida," the Washington Post reports.

    Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) says the storage facility and other properties "may contain presidential records that were not the focus of the search and therefore have not been turned over to the federal government."



    Parent
    Not compared with the criminal court (none / 0) (#12)
    by Peter G on Tue Dec 13, 2022 at 07:38:40 PM EST
    proceedings out of which the grand jury subpoena and search warrants arise, no. Oversight committee is small potatoes by comparison.

    Parent
    Trump Family Business Convicted on All Counts | 12 comments (12 topical)