Trump Insiders Could Offer 'Holy Grail' of Long-Hidden Finances
(Bloomberg) -- Michael Cohen’s guilty plea is opening a door to a long-closed world -- the business of Donald Trump.
Many have tried, unsuccessfully, to get a look. Trump rebuffed calls during the election to release his federal tax returns. Public advocacy groups have sought those returns and failed. Even his ex-wives, and by one account his bankers, haven’t been able to get a full view of Trump’s finances.
But now that Cohen has told prosecutors that Trump directed him to pay women for their silence and was repaid by the Trump family business, U.S. and New York authorities are taking a closer look.
“Because there are tax implications to all these transactions, it even opens up Trump’s tax returns to state and federal prosecutors: The Holy Grail,” said Frank Agostino, an attorney in Hackensack, New Jersey, who formerly prosecuted U.S. tax cases.
Since Cohen spoke earlier this week, it has emerged that federal authorities have granted immunity to two key witnesses. Allen Weisselberg, the longtime chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, is cooperating, the Wall Street Journal reported. So is David Pecker, whose American Media Inc. made “catch and kill” deals that helped keep illicit affairs out of public view, as Vanity Fair first reported. Also circling are New York authorities, whose actions would be beyond the president’s power to issue federal pardons.
Tax charges never sound sexy. Trump and his team spend more time on Twitter and TV batting back other allegations thrown their way, like a Russian conspiracy and obstruction of justice. But tax law has been a fundamental tool for authorities since the days of mobster Al Capone. This week, tax crimes helped sink Cohen (five of eight counts) and Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort (six of eight).
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