Im chris hayes. The case against the Trump Organization has chief financial Officer Allen Weisselberg has charges and indictment and allegations. Obviously, its not the Sum Total of what prosecutors know, and we havent read the defense. But if the allegations in the indictment are true in the context they are presented it sure seems like a pretty Black And White picture of Tax Fraud. Not some incidental bookkeeping ever but a plan that was systematically engineered over the years to create an alternate hidden means of composition that evaded taxes. Historically, the Smoking Gun of Tax Fraud, any fraud, is the two sets of books, right . Anytime a business or has different financial records youve likely found fraud, right . Because why would you need to . Its telling one set of people like Tax Collectors lies about your finances while you are keeping another accurate set of records hidden and in order to keep those lies straight you need to sell some books and that is exactly what prosec
Else they had access to. well interesting louis allen weisselberg didn t get a raise for a number of years which says a lot about donald trump and he doesn t take good care of the cfo. but keeping two sets of books as you said is the classic indication of a fraud. and i ve said from the very beginning that this is a garden-variety tax fraud case. and you ll notice there s no denying what s going on. i do think the most interesting thing that s been said so far is what donald said at his rally saturday night. does anybody know with the law is here? donald trump claims to be the greatest experts on taxes in the history of the world. it s also the case, i have to say, that everyone knows. everyone knows. if you re compensated by your employer that you have to report an income, this is a very obvious and basic thing. and obviously allen weisselberg knew that. and obviously the trump people knew that. obviously everyone in the
That is exactly what prosecutors alleged that they had evidence of here. just one example of many. prosecutors say, quote, the payment of tuition expenses for weisselberg s family members constituted employee compensation and taxable income on weisselberg and was treated as part of weisselberg s annual compensation in internal record with the corporation. however, an indirect tuition payment was not included on weisselberg s top two or otherwise reported a federal state or local tax authorities. no income tax held in connection to a tuition payment. so the trump board will have allen weisselberg and they said one thing and the tuition payments and the weisselberg and the company and the tax authority something else. these charges against the trump organization cfo of course were announced last week. and since then donald trump s been out doing the thing that are benefiting from throughout
I m chris hayes. the case against the trump organization has chief financial officer allen weisselberg has charges and indictment and allegations. obviously, it s not the sum total of what prosecutors know, and we haven t read the defense. but if the allegations in the indictment are true in the context they are presented it sure seems like a pretty black and white picture of tax fraud. not some incidental bookkeeping ever but a plan that was systematically engineered over the years to create an alternate hidden means of composition that evaded taxes. historically, the smoking gun of tax fraud, any fraud, is the two sets of books, right? anytime a business or has different financial records you ve likely found fraud, right? because why would you need to? it s telling one set of people like tax collectors lies about your finances while you are keeping another accurate set of records hidden and in order to keep those lies straight you need to sell some books and