House Democrats prepare case to request Trump tax returns Democrats are crafting a request to send to the IRS and say they will "take all necessary steps" to obtain the president's returns.
March 1, 2019, 3:52 PM CST By Heidi Przybyla
WASHINGTON — The top tax-writing committee in the House is readying a request for years of President Donald Trump’s personal tax returns that is expected to land at the Internal Revenue Service as early as the next few weeks, according to congressional aides involved in the process. And Democrats are prepared to "take all necessary steps," including litigation, in order to obtain them.
Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., has asked the committee’s attorneys to prepare the request, according to two aides involved in the process. Neal has also contacted the chairs of several other House investigative committees, including Oversight and Government Reform, Financial Services, Intelligence and Judiciary, asking them to provide detailed arguments for why they need the president’s tax returns to conduct their probes.
"Every day the American people and Congress learn more about President Trump’s improprieties, from conflicts of interest to influence peddling, potential tax evasion and violations of the Constitution — all roads leading back to President Trump’s finances," said Ashley Etienne, spokeswoman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
"These improprieties, and the lack of transparency around them, give the House legitimate legislative, oversight and legal reasons to review the President’s tax returns. We will take all necessary steps, including litigation, if necessary, to obtain them." Etienne confirmed that the committees are working together to "ensure the House is able to present the strongest possible case."
Ways and Means is the only congressional committee with the authority to directly make the request for Trump’s returns. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, whose department has authority over the IRS, will decide whether or not to grant the request.
Neal had earlier said he might wait for the conclusion of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of the Trump campaign’s potential ties to Russia before making the request. The case to draw in multiple committee stakeholders was bolstered after Michael Cohen’s testimony before the House Oversight Committee earlier this week, the aides said. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/live-blog/live-updates-michael-cohen-testimony-congress-n976196
There are several key pieces of information Cohen, Trump’s former personal “fixer” and attorney, provided in his testimony that strengthen the case for Congress to obtain the returns, according to the aides, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
Among other things, Cohen testified that Trump, as head of the sprawling Trump Organization before his election in 2016, had at times deflated the value of his properties to lower his tax bill and called the government “stupid” for giving him a $10 million tax refund in 2008. Under questioning from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., Cohen also said Trump had provided inflated assets to an insurance company. ... https://www.nbcnews.com/card/ocasio-cortez-presses-cohen-whether-trump-committed-insurance-bank-fraud-n977356
In a break with modern tradition, Trump has steadfastly refused to disclose his returns, suggesting they are under audit. Every U.S. president dating back to Richard Nixon has voluntarily disclosed his tax returns to the public.
The U.S. tax code authorizes the Ways and Means Committee to obtain any U.S. taxpayers’ returns. Yet committee lawyers are expected to craft a request as precise as possible, aides said, in order to short circuit an all-but-certain legal challenge by the president that could draw the process out.
Specifically, the committee is likely to focus on Trump’s personal returns versus his business filings, given the complex nature of the Trump Organization. According to his latest financial disclosure, the Trump Organization includes more than 500 different limited liability companies (LLCs) and shell companies that might take years to obtain and analyze.
Trump uses LLCs to house and manage his assets, as many wealthy individuals and businesses do, particularly in real estate. Under this arrangement, business income can also "pass through" the LLC to the owner's individual tax returns.
The committee believes 10 years of his personal returns “can give a good sense of whether there is any evidence of tax fraud and numerous items of interest,” an aide said.
Importantly, the aide said the committee also believes it also has the authority to obtain any correspondence between Trump and the IRS, including whether he’s been audited and the results of the audit, that might provide additional information. Cohen, for his part, testified that he didn't actually think Trump's tax returns were under audit during the 2016 election, contrary to what Trump has long claimed.
Democrats will also use Trump’s tax returns to explore whether he sought to write off as a business expense the hush money payments Cohen said he made on behalf of the president to porn star Stormy Daniels.
At a hearing Neal called last month laying the groundwork to request the president’s taxes, tax expert Steven Rosenthal said Trump had exhibited “aggressive tax planning” prior to his 2016 election and “could have eliminated his taxes for a couple of decades” by claiming millions in business-related losses.
The Times reported in October that the president received at least $413 million in today’s dollars from his father’s real estate empire, much of it by skirting U.S. tax laws.
Why Allen Weisselberg, Trump’s Money Man, Could Face Scrutiny Next
By Sarah Maslin Nir
Feb. 28, 2019
[What you need to know to start the day: Get New York Today in your inbox.]
In testimony before Congress this week, Michael Cohen cast himself as a central figure in schemes that could threaten the presidency of Donald J. Trump.
But Mr. Cohen said he didn’t work alone, unexpectedly mentioning by name the involvement of another member of Mr. Trump’s inner circle, Allen Weisselberg, more than 20 times. The revelations are set to intensify the scrutiny on Mr. Weisselberg, Mr. Trump’s unassuming 71-year-old chief financial officer, who already is a focus for federal prosecutors in New York.
On Wednesday, Mr. Cohen specifically identified Mr. Weisselberg as helping mastermind a strategy to mask reimbursements to Mr. Cohen for his payment to Stormy Daniels, the pornographic film actress who said she had an affair with Mr. Trump.
Representative Elijah E. Cummings of Maryland, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, said after Wednesday’s hearing that he “probably will” want to call additional witnesses, including Mr. Weisselberg, to gather additional evidence about the hush-money payment.
A Democratic official said that the House Intelligence Committee anticipates calling Mr. Weisselberg to testify, as well.
Mr. Cohen said in the hearing that the payment was ordered by Mr. Trump, which violated campaign finance laws because it was intended to buy Ms. Daniels’s silence so that she could not hurt Mr. Trump’s prospects right before the election.
Mr. Cohen said he had paid Ms. Daniels with his own money, and then was repaid by the Trump Organization.
“Allen Weisselberg made the decision that it should be paid over the 12 months so that it would look like a retainer,” Mr. Cohen told lawmakers, describing how reimbursements were made monthly.
Mr. Cohen submitted to Congress a copy of a $35,000 check — labeled exhibit 5b — that he said was one of those monthly payments.
It was signed by Mr. Weisselberg and Donald Trump Jr.
Mr. Weisselberg declined to comment through his lawyers. But it is clear why lawmakers and investigators might home in on him as they examine the Trump Organization’s finances.
After Mr. Cohen pleaded guilty to campaign finance fraud and other crimes in August, federal prosecutors in Manhattan began focusing on what role the Trump Organization and its executives, including Mr. Weisselberg, played in the campaign finance scheme, according to people briefed on the matter.
As part of the investigation, Mr. Weisselberg was granted limited immunity to testify before a federal grand jury last year. But there has been no indication that he has cooperated with prosecutors.
Mr. Weisselberg, an accountant, began his career doing the books for Mr. Trump’s father in a dingy building in Brooklyn. For decades, he has represented Mr. Trump on paperwork for everything from complex real estate deals to the operations of the antique carousel in Central Park, which the Trump Organization runs.
In 2015, a lawyer representing students who alleged they were defrauded by Mr. Trump’s education venture, Trump University, questioned Mr. Weisselberg during a deposition, describing him as “Mr. Trump’s eyes and ears for his investments.”
Mr. Weisselberg replied, “Am I his eyes and ears? From an economic standpoint,” court records show. In 2016, Mr. Trump settled the case for $25 million.
Corey Lewandowski, a former Trump campaign official, wrote in a book that he co-authored, “Let Trump Be Trump” that Mr. Weisselberg “knows of every dime that leaves the building.”
Aside from Mr. Weisselberg, several other Trump associates may now be asked to testify before the House in the wake of Mr. Cohen’s hearing, including three executives at the Trump Organization: Matthew Calamari, Alan Garten and Ronald C. Lieberman.
But Mr. Cummings said the committee would have to proceed carefully to avoid interfering with the investigation by federal prosecutors in the special counsel’s office and the United States attorney’s office in Manhattan.
Still in an indication of what may come, Mr. Cummings has sent letters to two lawyers he said were involved in preparing Mr. Trump’s federal financial disclosure filing, which originally omitted payments he made to reimburse Mr. Cohen for the payment to Ms. Daniels.
The letters requested that the lawyers, Sheri A. Dillon and Stefan C. Passantino, appear for interviews with the committee in March.
Ms. Dillon is a tax lawyer who represents Mr. Trump. Mr. Passantino was a deputy White House counsel at the time focused on ethics, but has since left and now advises the Trump Organization on how to deal with House investigations.
This image provided by Mr. Cohen’s attorney, Lanny Davis, shows copies of two checks that Cohen presented to the House Committee on Oversight and Reform on Wednesday.CreditLanny Davis, via Associated Press Mr. Weisselberg has previously been questioned under oath, in a lawsuit filed last year by the New York attorney general against the Trump Foundation, Mr. Trump’s charitable organization, where he served as treasurer. In late December, the foundation was dissolved after the attorney general accused it of fraud.
The United States attorney’s office in Manhattan and the New York attorney general’s office declined to comment.
Mr. Weisselberg’s involvement in the hush money payments to women first surfaced last year, when federal prosecutors seized recordings from Mr. Cohen’s office. On one of the recordings, Mr. Cohen was heard saying, “I’ve spoken to Allen Weisselberg about how to set the whole thing up.”
For his part, Mr. Trump has expressed confidence that Mr. Weisselberg will not turn on the president.
“100 percent he didn’t,” Mr. Trump told reporters for Bloomberg when asked last year whether Mr. Weisselberg had betrayed him. “He’s a wonderful guy.”
Others are not so certain.
“I am sure Allen does not want to hurt Donald, I am sure there is an affection there,” said Barbara Res, a former executive with the Trump Organization who is a critic of the president. “But he’s in a terrible position — and Donald put him there.”
One secret to Mr. Weisselberg’s lifelong career with the Trump family is his earthy modesty, according to friends and biographers of Mr. Trump. He wears dark, unflashy suits and cultivates a salt-and-pepper mustache. He still shows up to his desk in Trump Tower every day, watching over the organization’s finances.
“He did whatever was necessary to protect the bottom line,” Mr. Trump wrote about Mr. Weisselberg in his book “Think Like a Billionaire.”
As a child in Brownsville, Brooklyn, Mr. Weisselberg played punchball until dark and rode the city bus to school for 15 cents. In “The Aurora,” the green, clothbound yearbook of the Thomas Jefferson High School class of 1965, he appears as a cowlicked teenage boy, and names his dream profession: accountant.
President Trump’s father made that dream come true: In 1973 he hired Mr. Weisselberg to do his accounting at an office in Gravesend, Brooklyn.
Mr. Weisselberg never lost his Brownsville humility, even as his employer lavished him with things like private jet rides to the pool at Mar-a-Lago and at least one advantageous real estate deal.
“He is the embodiment of an accountant,” said Gwenda Blair, who interviewed Mr. Weisselberg for her 2000 book, “The Trumps.”
Mr. Weisselberg’s lifestyle has remained modest, even as he rose to an office on the 26th floor of Trump Tower.
He lived in a ranch-style house in Wantagh, Long Island with his wife of nearly 50 years, Hilary, before selling it in 2013 for $468,000. In 2002, they spent $282,000 for a vacation property — a low-slung house that backs up to a lagoon in Boynton Beach, Fla.
Most recently, the Weisselbergs rented an apartment in a Trump-branded building on Riverside Boulevard. (In 2016, over 800 residents voted to strip the Trump name from its facade.)
Mr. Weisselberg’s loyalty has been well-compensated, and his whole family has benefited from the relationship with Mr. Trump.
One of Mr. Weisselberg’s sons, Barry, has been the property manager of Trump Wollman Rink for the past 17 years, according to his LinkedIn profile. There, he once hosted Hanukkah on Ice, dialing up his dad and putting him on speaker phone so he could hear the holiday songs. Barry Weisselberg declined to comment.
Mr. Weisselberg’s other son, Jack, works at Ladder Capital, a real estate investment trust that is one of the Trump Organization’s biggest creditors.
Jack has benefited in other ways: In 2000, his father purchased a one-bedroom apartment in the Trump Parc East building overlooking Central Park. It cost $152,500, which appears to have been purchased profoundly under market value, according to property records. He transferred the deed to his son Jack, according to property records, who flipped it for more than four times the original price in 2006.
Jack Weisselberg did not respond to email or phone messages.
Aside from an awkward cameo on the second season of Mr. Trump’s television show, “The Apprentice,” Mr. Weisselberg has until recently stayed out of the limelight, focusing on serving his boss.
In his books and in interviews, the president has described Mr. Weisselberg as his go-to man, whether it was to help pick carpet swatches for a development, or to strong-arm firms with which he contracted.
In Mr. Cohen’s testimony on Wednesday, Mr. Trump’s reliance on his C.F.O. was on display. When it came to paying back his fixer for the hush money, Mr. Cohen said the president turned to Mr. Weisselberg.
“He acknowledged to Allen that he was going to pay the $130,000,” Mr. Cohen said, “And that Allen and I should go back to his office and figure out how to do it.” Correction: March 1, 2019
An earlier version of this article misidentified the street where the Weisselbergs rented an apartment in a Trump-branded building. It is on Riverside Boulevard, not Riverside Drive.
Ben Protess and Nicholas Fandos contributed reporting. Susan C. Beachy contributed research.
Market Data 
Markets 
AI
