🔥The Manhattan DA’s office appears to have entered the final stages of a CRIMINAL tax investigation into Trump’s long-time CFO Allen Weisselberg, who could face charges this summer.
A grand jury has been hearing evidence about Weisselberg, who is facing major scrutiny, as prosecutors are trying to flip him to get his cooperation with a broad investigation into Trump and Trump Org.
And prosecutors have Weisselberg’s personal #TaxReturns.🧐
The probe of Weisselberg focuses partly on whether he failed to pay taxes on valuable TAXABLE benefits that Trump gave him & his family: apartments, leased cars, tens of thousands of dollars in private school tuition for at least 1 of his grandchildren. nytimes.com/2021/05/13/nyr…
As part of the investigation into the TAXABLE fringe benefits Trump gave, prosecutors have sought records for Mercedes-Benz cars leased for Weisselberg, his wife and other Trump Org employees over the course of more than a DECADE.🧐
It's rare for prosecutors to build a criminal case solely for failure to pay taxes on fringe benefits. But they're also scrutinizing Trump Org for whether Trump & Trump Org manipulated property values to obtain certain loans and tax benefits, and other financial crimes.
As the decades-long CFO of Trump Org, Weisselberg plays a central role in the alleged #TaxFraud and other major financial crimes.
So the alleged personal tax crimes are just a cherry on top for prosecutors.😉
Not only is Weisselberg being investigated by DA Vance's office, but he also potentially faces a whole world of hurt from @NewYorkStateAG Tish James, who had been conducting a civil examination of some of the same alleged crimes James also has Weisselberg’s tax returns.😅
@NewYorkStateAG Prosecutors have also questioned Weisselberg’s former daughter-in-law, Jennifer, who is in a contentious custody battle with Allen's son, Barry Weisselberg. Her lawyer says she **is cooperating with prosecutors and has been interviewed SIX times**.😎
Jennifer says prosecutors asked about her kids' tuition paid by Trump Org & gifts Barry (manages Trump Wollman Rink) got from Trump, such as an apartment on Central Park South + several leased cars.
Trump also allegedly provided Allen Weisselberg with a Manhattan apartment.🧐
In addition, Michael Cohen testified to Congress that Weisselberg was involved with the ILLEGAL hush money payments to @StormyDaniels and another woman.
Cohen **is cooperating** with DA Vance’s investigation.😎
‼️William Braddock—a @GOP candidate running the seat being vacated by Rep. @CharlieCrist’s—was secretly recorded **threatening to send “a #Russian and Ukrainian hit squad”** to his Republican primary opponent, Anna Paulina Luna, to make her “disappear.”
Braddock: “I really don't want to have to end anybody's life for the good of the people of the USA…But if it needs to be done, it needs to be done. Luna is a f---ing speed bump in the road. She's a dead squirrel you run over every day when you leave the neighborhood.”😳
Braddock: “I have access to a hit squad, too, Ukrainians and Russians…don't get caught out in public supporting Luna…Luna’s gonna go down and I hope it's by herself.”
He also made claims about getting $$ from fellow Freemasons or by importing millions from Malta & Gibraltar.🧐
#SHOCKER (not): before Trump announced that Bill Barr would step down as AG, Trump began pressuring Barr’s eventual replacement to have the @TheJusticeDept take up his FALSE claims of election “fraud.”
TOTAL #corruption. ARREST AND PROSECUTE TRUMP NOW.🤬
Trump’s emails (via his assistant) to incoming AG Jeffrey Rosen show how Trump corruptly pressured Rosen to put DOJ’s power behind bogus lawsuits that had *already failed* to try to prove his false claims that extensive voter fraud had affected the election results.🤬
Time and time again, Trump flouted an established anticorruption norm that DOJ acts independently of the WH on criminal investigations or law enforcement actions.
Instead, Trump used and abused DOJ for his own gain, whether politically or to protect him and his cronies.🤬
‼️Trump’s lies that the vote was “rigged” sparked a campaign to terrorize election officials—especially @GOP in #Georgia who refuted Trump’s lies—with threats of hanging, firing squads, torture and bomb blasts.
Tricia Raffensperger—wife of @GaSecofState Brad Raffensperger—received multiple threatening texts:
“You and your family will be killed very slowly.”
“We plan for the death of you and your family every day.”
“Somebody in your family is going to have a very unfortunate incident.”
In November, the Raffenspergers went into hiding for nearly a week after intruders broke into the home of their widowed daughter-in-law. That night, Oath Keepers—a RW terrorist group that supports Trump’s bid to overturn the election—were found outside the Raffenspergers’ home.🤬
🔥The @BostonGlobe Editorial Board calls on @TheJusticeDept to prosecute Trump CRIMINALLY: Saving American democracy for the long run requires a clear condemnation of the Trump presidency. That means making clear that no one is above the law.
“After the precedent-busting, lawbreaking presidency of Donald Trump, Congress needs to pass new laws to constrain future officeholders...Presidents also need a clear message, one that will echo through history, that breaking the law in the Oval Office will actually be punished.”
“In the case of Trump, prosecutors would have plenty of potential crimes...what is most important are his actions during his time in office, especially those after the 2020 election, which culminated in fomenting a full-on, violent assault on American democracy.”
🔥The FBI took control of an encrypted communications app called '#Anom' and turned it into a honeypot for crooks, netting more than 20 million messages from over 11,800 devices used by suspected criminals.
The FBI, #Australian Federal Police & a confidential human source built #Anom so that a master key is silently attached to each message, enabling "law enforcement to decrypt & store the message as it’s transmitted.
Operation #TrojanShield captured >20 million messages since October 2019, including OVERT DISCUSSION of drug smuggling, #corruption, and other high-level organized criminal activities.
No one of the 25 richest avoided as much tax as Warren Buffett, who paid a 0.1% total tax rate.
Many paid ZERO income taxes several years:
George Soros 3 times
Jeff Bezos and Carl Icahn twice — Bezos one year even got a $4000 child tax credit
Elon Musk and Mike Bloomberg once
Megabillionaires pay their megabills—while opting for $1 salaries and hanging onto their stock—by borrowing LOTS of money to access billions without producing income, and thus, AVOIDING income tax.