In a discussion with CNN's Jim Acosta, former federal prosecutor Jennifer Rogers explained that a recent explanation by Donald Trump Jr. on Fox News doesn't exactly make sense.
In an interview with Jesse Waters, Don Jr. tried to downplay the charges against Allen Weisselberg, explaining that it isn't really all that much money he owes in taxes.
"They're saying $1.7 million over 15 years," the Trump namesake shouted. "But it's not 1.7 million. That's income. The taxable portion of that to New York State is 8 percent. That's $136,000 over 16 years. That's ten grand a year."
While most Americans can't even conceive of owing $136,000 in taxes, Rodgers explained that Jr.'s calculations are off quite a bit.
"Well, he's actually wrong on the legal basis for that," she began. "They charged this case in a really interesting way, a really ingenious way, because they charged not just the portion of the tax fraud that was New York State tax fraud, they charged the IRS tax fraud as well and the city tax fraud because they named the IRS and the city and the state all as victims here. So, you get to consider all of that amount when you're talking about the actual liability. It's a lot more than Don Jr. suggests."
Trump and his allies have also claimed that it's unusual or unprecedented to prosecute a case like this. That too, doesn't stand up.
"It's interesting, I'm not sure it's a relevant point even if it were true, but it's not true," said Rodgers. "Fringe benefits are about small things like if your job gives you a computer or a phone, you know, something small. This is actual compensation. This is a matter of them taking the compensation due to senior executives and cutting it into portions, the portions they were going to pay taxes on and the portions they were going to hand under the table and not pay taxes on. This is a real tax evasion scheme, not a fringe benefit scheme."
Watch below:
Charges against Allen Weisselberg are tax evasion -- not "fringe benefits"www.youtube.com
