Trump tax returns reveal questionable $300 million in deductions deserving scrutiny by prosecutors: biographer

In a column for Bloomberg, former Donald Trump biographer Tim O'Brien claimed information contained in Donald Trump's tax returns -- which will be made public in one form or another by the House Ways and Means Committee -- already have some red flags in them that should interest prosecutors.

On Tuesday the committee announced it would release the former president's tax returns, with CNN reporting, "The committee also released a report Tuesday that detailed six years’ worth of the former president’s tax returns, including his claims of massive annual losses that significantly reduced his tax burden," before adding, "The committee also released a supplemental report from the Joint Committee on Taxation that included details on Trump’s tax returns from 2015 to 2020, ahead of the planned release of the returns themselves."

According to O'Brien, who has seen some of Trump's tax documents previously, the former president wouldn't be in this position if he had not run for office in 2016 which, in turn, invited the scrutiny he avoided for years as a New York real estate developer.

With that in mind, he wrote, "What a fine mess he has gotten himself into. There are certainly more surprises to come, but a pair of summaries of the House Ways and Means Committee’s analysis of Trump’s personal and business tax records from 2015 through 2020 contained interesting revelations that will trouble the former president and certainly draw the attention of prosecutors."

Of particular concern, he explained, is Trump's use of deductions that will likely be put under the microscope by investigators in the Department of Justice and by officials in the state of New York where his Trump Organization was just convicted on 17 counts of tax fraud in a Manhattan courtroom.

According to O'Brien, "The records question the validity of about $300 million in tax deductions claimed by a skein of Trump holding companies for such write-offs as charitable giving, operating losses and business expenses. Both reports speculate that about $51,000 was given to his three eldest children as gifts, but may have been disguised as loans to avoid tax payments."

Adding, "... one of the reports shows that a mandatory audit of Trump’s returns only occurred in one of the six tax years that should have been scrutinized," the Trump biographer continued, "What is new is the extent to which Trump and his cohorts may have run roughshod over institutional checks and balances designed to prevent presidents from grifting while in office — and to also help ensure that financial conflicts of interest don’t collide with sound public-policymaking."

"As more information about his finances surfaces in coming days, it will be a reminder of the extent to which the former president played a shell game with his wealth and business interests while in power — and what he might try to get away with again if he occupies the Oval Office in the future," O'Brien concluded.

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