On Thursday, New York prosecutors charged the Trump Organization, the Trump Payroll Corporation, and Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg with 15 felony counts in connection with an alleged tax scheme stretching back to 2005. Meanwhile, New York prosecutors have dropped looting and rioting charges against hundreds of rioters who wreaked havoc on the city last summer.
Former President Donald Trump responded with a one-sentence statement on Thursday: “Do people see the Radical Left prosecutors, and what they are trying to do to 75M+++ Voters and Patriots, for what it is?”
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. charged Weisselberg and the Trump Organization with a “scheme to defraud in the first degree,” regarding tax evasion spanning from March 31, 2005, to June 30, 2021. Vance alleged that defendants “engaged in a scheme constituting a systemic ongoing course of conduct with intent to defraud” the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance, and the New York City Department of Finance.
The scheme allegedly involved compensating Weisselberg and other Trump Organization executives “off the books,” giving “substantial portions” of employee’s income “through indirect and disguised means.” Vance alleged that Weisselberg received $1.76 million in indirect compensation, evading approximately $556,385 in federal taxes, approximately $106,568 in state taxes, and approximately $238,159 in New York City taxes. He also allegedly falsely claimed and unjustly received approximately $94,902 in federal tax refunds and approximately $38,222 in state tax refunds.
The charging document lays out fifteen separate counts against Weisselberg and the Trump Organization, including charges of conspiracy, grand larceny, criminal tax fraud, falsifying business records, and more.
Weisselberg pleaded not guilty on Thursday afternoon.
The document mentions an unindicted co-conspirator, “Unindicted Co-conspirator #1,” who helped the prosecutors make their case. Speculation has run rampant regarding who this might be.
Vance did not charge former President Donald Trump with any crimes directly, but the case appears targeted at the former president.
Prosecutors claim that they have digital drives with grand jury testimony, bookkeeping records, tax records, and statements of potential witnesses, CNN reported.
Andy McCarthy, former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, noted that companies often offer “off the books” compensation for employees. He argued that if Vance had anything truly damning against the Trump Organization, the Southern District of New York would have gotten involved in the case, rather than leaving it to the Manhattan DA.
This case appears to be extremely politically motivated.
As PJ Media’s Matt Margolis reported after news of the pending charges came out on Wednesday, former Trump advisor Jason Miller mocked the criminal case, which Vance has spent years preparing.
“This is politically terrible for the Democrats,” Miller said. “They told their crazies and their supplicants in the mainstream media this was about President Trump. Instead, their Witch Hunt is persecuting an innocent 80-year-old man for maybe taking free parking!”
This is politically terrible for the Democrats. They told their crazies and their supplicants in the mainstream media this was about President Trump. Instead, their Witch Hunt is persecuting an innocent 80 year-old man for maybe taking free parking! https://t.co/F8Cis87Ca0
— Jason Miller (@JasonMillerinDC) June 30, 2021
Trump dismissed the investigation as a political hit job “in search of a crime.”
“Radical Left New York City and State Prosecutors, who have let murderers, rapists, drug dealers, and all other forms of crime skyrocket to record levels, and who have just announced that they will be releasing hundreds of people involved in violent crime back onto the streets without retribution of any kind, are rude, nasty, and totally biased in the way they are treating lawyers, representatives, and some of the wonderful long-term employees and people within the Trump Organization,” Trump said in a statement on Monday.
Source: PJ Media
