Donald Trump reported hundreds of millions of dollars in losses on his tax returns over the course of a decade, according to his accountant.
Donald Bender, a partner at Mazars USA, was the one who prepared Trump's personal tax returns.
Bender was granted immunity to testify at the company's criminal tax fraud trial in New York.
Even if there was no connection to the case at hand, the exchange amounted to a rare public discussion of Trump's taxes.
The Manhattan district attorney's office fought for three years to get copies of Trump's tax paperwork, which Susan Hoffinger showed him during the cross examination.
The Trump Organization is charged with helping top executives avoid income taxes on their compensation, which includes rent-free apartments and luxury cars. The company could be fined a lot of money if it is found guilty.
Trump won't testify or attend the trial. The finance chief testified that he came up with the scheme on his own. The company benefited from the fact that it didn't have to pay Allen Weisselberg as much.
On the day, the Supreme Court cleared the way for Congress to get six years of tax returns for Trump.
A federal appeals court heard arguments in the FBI's Mar-a-Lago documents investigation, as well as testimony from a Trump ally.
The New York Times reported in 2020 that it obtained a trove of Trump's taxes. The newspaper reported that many of the records showed huge losses and little or no taxes paid.
According to the Times, Trump paid no income taxes in 11 of the 18 years it reviewed, and only $750 in federal income taxes in the year he became president. The Times reported that in 1995 he claimed $915.7 million in losses, which he could have avoided under the law.
After a lengthy legal fight, Manhattan prosecutors finally got their hands on eight years of Trump's tax returns and related documents.
Tax returns and other financial matters for Trump, the Trump Organization and hundreds of Trump entities began in the 1980s. He prepared taxes for members of Trump's family and other company executives, including Weisselberg and Weisselberg's son, who ran an ice rink in Central Park.
Weisselberg testified that he hid company-paid extras such as Manhattan apartments and Mercedes-Benz cars from his tax return by having the company's comptroller.
Weisselberg kept him out of the loop on that arrangement, and he only found out about it last year, according to the witness.
Emails shown in court suggested that Weisselberg's pay and reductions for extras, including Trump's private school tuition, were included in attached spreadsheets.
He didn't recall seeing the emails that he got from Trump. He said that they would have had a serious discussion about continuing with the client if he had done so.
Trump is no longer a client of Mazars USA. In February, the firm said annual financial statements it prepared for him shouldn't be relied on after James' office said the statements regularly misstated the value of assets.
On his Truth Social platform last week, Trump blamed the company's troubles on the accounting firm. It is very unfair.
As scrutiny of the Trump Organization intensified after Trump's election in 2016 and as he was advised to stop the company's longstanding, tax-saving habit of paying executive bonuses as freelancer income, he put the onus on Weisselberg to fix any problems.
Weisselberg was told by the accountant to set the highest standards so the company would be clean.
That's right.
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