A New Yorker reporter who covers the president's many financial scandals revealed Monday how deep the "criminal enterprise" ran by Fred Trump went — and why Donald Trump could soon be in huge trouble.
Although the New York Times's report analyzing decades and hundreds of thousands of documents of Trump family dealings uncovered massive tax fraud, "the story's not over," writer Adam Davidson told MSNBC's Chris Hayes.
"It's not that they found onetime there was massive fraud," Davidson continued. "What they found is at the coreof the Trump Organization wasdecades and decades ofunimaginably blatant fraud,creating false companies topretend to buy hundreds of, millions and millions of dollarsworth of equipment. "
Rather than being a mere case of a rich family evading taxes, the Times' "shocking" report showed how "blatant" the Trump patriarch's grift was, the writer noted.
"It also shows that Donald Trumphimself added virtually no valueto the company," Davidson added, referencing the many occasions in which the president's father worked around the 55 percent large gift tax to bail him out.
The ineptitude and historical criminality, the New Yorker reporter noted, is just the beginning of the story.
"[Trump's] businesses in New Newk, NewJersey, Florida, California,Virginia — these are states thateither likely will have or could well have Democratic attorneysgeneral who have every right toseek both criminalinvestigations for tax fraud aswell as to start reclaimingmoney," Davidson said. "The Trump family might owe as much as $400million just in New York statetax, forget about federal taxes,Virginia taxes, Florida taxes."
"What the New York Timesfound is unbelievabledocumentary evidence through2004 of ongoing schemes fordecades," he noted.The exact same people continuedto run the Trump Organization.We have no evidence that theychange their strategy."
Though the Times acquired the mountain of data that led to the bombshell investigative article, its reporters "don't have subpoena power" — but prosecutors do, Davidson observed.
"Thecourts are very clear that while thestatute of limitations forcriminal tax fraud is generallysix years, it's six years fromthe last effort to conceal," he added.
"I think a prosecutorwould have a fairly easy timesaying, no no, this is anongoing criminal enterprise," Davidson concluded.
Watch below via MSNBC: