A New Trump Organization Criminal Probe Sounds Like Very Bad News for Both Donald and Ivanka Trump - Vanity Fair

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Eric and Donald Trump Jr. should probably be concerned, too. 

By Bess Levin

May 19, 2021

One of the most annoying things about Donald Trump is the fact that for basically his entire life, he’s escaped any and all consequences for being what the law defines as a “scumbag piece of shit.” Whether it was allegedly stiffing hundreds of Trump Organization contractors, shadily raising tenants’ rent, or siccing a mob on the Capitol, the guy has somehow avoided repercussions, save for some basically meaningless financial settlements. But that luck may soon be running out and not just for the ex-president but for certain members of his family as well.

On Tuesday, the New York attorney general’s office said that its investigation into the Trump Organization, which was previously a civil inquiry, is now a criminal matter. Obviously, that should be deeply concerning to the Queens-born real estate developer, but even more worrisome, in terms of avoiding staying out of prison, is the news that A.G. Letitia James’s office is reportedly now working with that of Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., whose office obtained eight years of Trump’s tax returns earlier this year, a development Trump responded to like a man who knows he’s committed all manner of fraud and is about to get caught. “We have informed the Trump Organization that our investigation into the company is no longer purely civil in nature,” Fabien Levy, a spokesperson for the attorney general’s office, said in a statement on Tuesday. “We are now actively investigating the Trump Organization in a criminal capacity, along with the Manhattan D.A. We have no additional comment at this time.”

As The Washington Post notes:

The attorney general’s decision appears to have increased the legal risk that former president Donald Trump faces in New York, where the parallel investigations run by James and Vance had already delved more deeply into Trump’s byzantine finances than any law enforcement authorities ever had. Previously, the danger posed by James’s investigation seemed to be merely financial—the kind of lawsuit Trump had faced from New York attorneys general before over his Trump University and his charity. Those cost him money but didn’t threaten his liberty. Now, however, James could also seek criminal penalties.

Trump and his representatives have repeatedly denied wrongdoing, saying the investigations are baseless and politically motivated.

According to the Post, James’s office informed the Trump Organization’s attorneys of the shift in April, and suggested that “criminality could apply to actions by current and former company executives and employees if the investigation finds wrongdoing.” Eric and Donald Trump Jr. are of course longtime executives of the family business, so obviously they could find themselves in very serious trouble. But it may be Ivanka Trump who has the most to worry about.

Last November, shortly after her father lost the 2020 election, The New York Times reported that both James‘s and Vance Jr.’s offices had expanded their probes of the then president and his businesses to include suspicious tax write-offs on millions of dollars in consulting fees, some of which, according to a Times investigation, appeared to have been paid to Ivanka. That investigation—which revealed Trump paid little to no income tax in the last two decades—showed that the “very rich” real estate developer had managed to reduce his taxable income by deducting approximately $26 million in fees to “consultants” as business expenses between 2010 and 2018. While the consultants’ identities were not listed on tax records, some of the fees definitely looked like they’d been paid to his favorite child. As the Times wrote:

On a 2017 disclosure [Ivanka Trump] filed when joining the White House as a presidential adviser, she reported receiving payments from a consulting company she co-owned, totaling $747,622, that exactly matched consulting fees claimed as tax deductions by the Trump Organization for hotel projects in Hawaii and Vancouver, British Columbia.

The subpoenas were focused on fees paid to the firm on her disclosures, TTT Consulting LLC, and represented just a portion of the $26 million, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. The name of the firm appears to be a reference to Ms. Trump and other members of her family. Ms. Trump was an executive officer of the Trump companies that made the payments, meaning she appears to have been treated as a consultant while also working for the company. While companies can deduct professional fees, the Internal Revenue Service requires that consulting arrangements be market-based and reasonable, as well as “ordinary and necessary” to running a business.

The examination of fees apparently paid to his older daughter is likely to arouse even more vitriol from the outgoing president. And it raises questions about whether the payments were a tax-deductible way for him to compensate his children, or avoid gift taxes he might incur from transferring wealth to them, something Mr. Trump’s father had done through legally questionable schemes uncovered by the Times in 2018.

Responding to the news on Twitter at the time, Trump’s eldest daughter fumed: “This is harassment pure and simple. This ‘inquiry’ by NYC democrats is 100% motivated by politics, publicity and rage. They know very well that there’s nothing here and that there was no tax benefit whatsoever. These politicians are simply ruthless…. This fishing expedition is very clearly part of a continued political vendetta.”

Ivanka does not appear to have personally commented on the news of the new criminal probe, though presumably, she’s not thrilled. In a 909-word statement posted to Trump’s blog (“From the Desk of Donald J. Trump”), the former president offered his characteristically unhinged thoughts on the matter, claiming, without a hint of irony, that James ran for office pledging to take out her “enemies” (something Trump would never do!); that the criminal investigation into him is “is something that happens in failed third world countries”; and that “the District Attorney and Attorney General are possessed, at an unprecedented level, with destroying the political fortunes of President Donald J. Trump and the almost 75 million people who voted for him, by far the highest number ever received by a sitting President.”

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Katie Porter administers another whiteboard enema, Big Pharma edition

Texas governor signs an insane abortion bill into law

Not only does the law, slated to go into effect in September, ban abortion at six weeks—a time when some women don’t even know they’re pregnant—it provides no exceptions in the case of rape or incest. Also, it allows literally anyone to sue an abortion provider in the state, a move that pro-life trolls will no doubt be all over. Per The Guardian:

…it allows any private citizen the extraordinary authority to sue an abortion provider—they do not need to be connected to the patient or even reside in the same state, opening up the floodgates to harassing and frivolous civil lawsuits that could shut down clinics statewide.

In fact, any individual can sue anyone who “aids or abets” abortion care or someone who “intends” to help an abortion patient, a breathtakingly wide range of possible people and groups. While those who sue can collect a minimum of $10,000 if they are successful, those unjustly sued cannot recover legal fees. The anti-abortion law’s private enforcement provision is the first of its kind in the country.

“This law is so broadly written it could target not just abortion clinics and staff but anyone that volunteers or donates to an abortion fund or activist organization like ours,” Aimee Arrambide, executive director of reproductive rights advocacy group Avow Texas, told The Guardian. “Domestic violence and rape crisis counselors who offer guidance, family members who lend money to abortion patients, a friend who gives a ride to an appointment, or even someone that provides an address to a clinic could also face lawsuits.”

In response to (extremely legitimate) concerns that a rapist could sue his victim’s abortion provider, the Republican-dominated legislature passed an amendment that prohibits rapists and those who commit incest from filing suits. Which monstrous lawmakers presumably believe women should be grateful for? But as Democratic lawmakers pointed out, that exemption only applies to people actually convicted of rape, and 91% of women in Texas do not report rape to the police, with the small number of those who do almost never seeing their attacker convicted. “This bill empowers rapists and abusers, and lawyers and trolls who want to abuse and clog up our courts,” Democratic representative Donna Howard said in a speech before the bill’s final passage. “And this forced pregnancy act will drive women back into the [pre-Roe] shadows out of fear of harassment through lawsuits that anyone in this country can file.”

You’ll never believe it but Trump doesn‘t support an investigation into the insurrection he caused

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