Stay updated with breaking news from Russ beaten. Get real-time updates on events, politics, business, and more. Visit us for reliable news and exclusive interviews.
ruling after another. appeal upon appeal. and even a trip to the knighted state supreme court. but today the american public finally has its hands on something donald trump as so doggedly sought to conceal. his tax returns. six years worth. and an unprecedented window and steube s financial picture. this public release, which, among other things, shows the don trump paid relatively little in taxes in the years before and during his presidency, is the end product of an effort undertaken by the house ways and needs committee. after securing their returns, which cover the years 2015 to 2020, that panel voted along party lengths to hand redacted versions of the returns to the public. before we get into what these thousands of pages reveal, in a way those who are who are not accountants can understand, it s worth noting how the committee got its hands on these returns in the first place. is the end result of its investigation into an irs policy that mandates audits of return ....
Going to lead to horrible things for so many people, and quote. and whether or not that s a threat of retaliation and one to be taken seriously, one thing is for sure, this is a day that donald trump hoped and merge very hard to make sure would never come to pass. it s where we begin today with some of our favorite reporters and friends. harry lippman is here from the u.s. attorney, former deputy assistant attorney general, and the host of the talking feds podcast. also joining us, russ beaten or, nor times reporter on investigations. his byline is on the new york times blockbuster reporting on the personal finances of donald trump. i think most of what we knew before today we learned from your journalism, your investigative reporting on this topic. so tell me what you learned today when these were released. thanks, nicole, for that. i think we learned that the trends we have seen in looking at 20 years of his tax returns before and the money inherited from his father, that continued ....
Himself, and i think that s why he fought so hard to hide these documents from public view. that s just a huge part of his psyche, just the idea that he is wealthy on his own and it everything he s got he built himself, and it was through his business excellence. it s just wholly untrue. these businesses are losing tremendous amounts of money. you see that here again in the old post office where in 2020 and lost another $60 million. he, over his life and ownership of that building from the documents we have, was investing eight to $9 million in new cash every year just to keep that thing afloat before he finally got to sell it. to your point, it s right, sort of the fundamental lie of donald trump s life. russ, when you look at, it other than taking away his bragging rights, is there anything that confirms the claim he made over and over ....
It s insane that s where we are. these kind of questions are lingering for more than a decade, with that kind of money on the table, while he has influence over the irs. and the irs is really not doing anything to look, in total, at his businesses, and how money flows between the two entities. harry, it is at this point only fair to say we don t know what we don t know, but from the outside it looks exactly as russ described it, that new york times could devote three people and to investigate this, it happens to be the same number of people the irs had. what is your reaction? and then i want to go through some of the things we ve been talking about, about how we now know for certain that the reputation of a successful swashbuckling businessman was always a hoax. sure. look, we don t know what we don t know, but everything we have learned has not taken us by surprise. there has been a peace with the ....
Fundamental man that he is, the brazenness, the shamelessness and the dishonesty and we did have of course because of russ and his colleagues have a good reporting already, the top line here has to be, well, two things i would say, the losses are gargantuan. we re talking about hundreds of millions of dollars year after year after year. that s true losses. his vaunted empire was simply gushing red ink and that s all it was doing. the only way, as best i can tell, he ever made any money at all, was from cashing in things that his father had given him or a couple of deals where real estate appreciated. that s it. but what you were just talking about is at least the second headline here is what the hell? he s a complicated taxpayer, fine. but not doing it at all? and then only assigning one ....