One week ago, the Trump Organization and Trump Org CFO Allen Weisselberg were indicted on a laundry list of criminal charges. Some of the charges on the indictment: conspiracy, grand larceny, tax fraud and falsifying records. Weisselberg has been with Trump Org for decades and he knows all of the Trump family’s financial schemes, frauds and criminalities, because he was the one signing off on so much of it. It seems clear that Weisselberg’s indictment is just the beginning. Perhaps there’s the hope or expectation that Weisselberg will turn on the Trumps, or perhaps the investigation into Weisselberg will just be the first loose thread to begin to untangle this mess. In any case, people think Ivanka Trump is next:
Appearing on MSNBC on Monday, former federal prosecutor Cynthia Alksne told host Alicia Menendez that last week’s charges were merely “an opening salvo,” and that the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has sent a message that (1) Weisselberg should really, really consider flipping and cooperating against the Trumps, and (2) Cyrus Vance Jr. is just getting started.
“Prosecutors went to an amazing amount of effort to show Weisselberg ‘we have everything we need,’ and they’re really not only pressuring him to flip, but the amount of detail in this indictment tells me that they’re trying to tell other people you have got to flip, because ‘we have everything; we have the double books. We know what you told your tax accountants was a lie. We know that we’re gonna be able to prove these cases,’” Alksne told Menendez. “So I think…first it’s Weisselberg and [then] there are a lot of other people mentioned, ‘individual number one’ or ‘person X signed’ or ‘person Y signed.’ Those people who are mentioned in the indictment, I would expect they’re next and then it builds.”
Asked how she would proceed if she were prosecuting the case and “had access to the years of hidden records kept by the Trump Organization,” Alksne said, “I would focus [the investigation] on the kids. Apparently they’ve had some testimony by the comptroller; in the state of New York that means they’ve essentially given him immunity. So I would focus on the kids. My guess is [COO Matthew] Calamari is kind of easy picking and that there are similar ways to give money for the kids. We’ve heard a lot of this reporting about Ivanka Trump getting consulting fees, ‘consulting fees’ for things that she may or may not have done. That looks to me like the next place, but we’ll just have to see.”
Also predicting that Princess Purses could be in legal trouble was Trump biographer Michael D’Antonio, who told CNN’s Jim Acosta on Sunday, “The other person who I think is in peril is Ivanka Trump. One of the things that Allen Weisselberg is in trouble for is [allegedly] taking money as a contractor and then claiming self-employed status so that he can get some of the retirement benefits that the tax code allows for self-employed people. Well, we know that Ivanka Trump got quite significant sums paid to her as non-employee compensation. That freed the Trump Organization from paying part of her taxes, and it put her in a status that I think the IRS would have lots of questions about. So these folks don’t know how to play the game straight. I think everything they do is crooked.”
My eyes crossed a few different times reading all of this, but I think I got the gist of it. Tax codes, financial self-dealing, fake “consulting” fees, non-taxable income, a giant mess. While I would absolutely love to see Don Jr. and Eric – both of whom are as involved as Ivanka with Trump Org – get charged with crimes, let’s be real: Donald Trump doesn’t give a sh-t about his sons. But seeing Ivanka get charged? Bigly will have an absolute sh-t fit if and when his favorite child gets indicted. I cannot wait.
Oh, and all of this stuff? This is just the Manhattan DA’s investigation, in conjunction with the New York state investigation. Ivanka also perjured herself in the DC investigation into the 2017 inauguration grift. That’s a completely separate investigation. LOL.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid and Ivanka’s social.
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