'A lot of dirt there': Trump biographer says new tax decision could reveal troubling foreign financial ties
On CNN Wednesday, Trump biographer Tim O'Brien broke down the legal and political implications of the new federal court order handing over portions of former President Donald Trump's taxes to Congress through his accounting firm, particularly those pertaining to the profits of his Washington, D.C. hotel.
"Tim, what is the next step here?" asked anchor Anderson Cooper. "I mean in terms of — based on what you know about the former president, your dealings with him, how much do you think this matters to him? And if it does, is it because there's something there to hide, or just nobody likes to have their returns looked out in public?"
"It matters deeply, because his tax returns would not only indicate how robust his business is, but how much money he had coming from overseas and who possibly his partners were from overseas," said O'Brien. "To what extent did his interactions with Vladimir Putin or other dictators — how much were informed by his desire to pad his own wallet? I think this disclosure gets to that and he knows it. There's relationships he's had in the past he's concerned about. Donald Trump consorted with members of organized crime in New York City and the real estate market."
O'Brien got to see Trump's taxes during the discovery process of a defamation lawsuit that Trump filed against him for his book "TrumpNation: The Art of Being the Donald."
And while the terms of the settlement he reached with Trump state that he cannot talk about the contents of Trump's taxes, he did say there would be a lot for investigators to scrutinize.
"There's a lot of dirt there he doesn't want to expose, doesn't want to be exposed," continued O'Brien. "And I think if he wasn't concerned about these things, he would have freely given those documents up."
Watch below:
Leave a Comment
Related Post