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High-Ranking Trump Org Employee Taking the Fall for Alleged Tax Fraud Scheme: Report

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A high-ranking employee of the Trump Organization has remained loyal to the former president during the Manhattan district attorney’s investigation of the company’s finances.

Jeffrey McConney, the company controller and chief lieutenant to former chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg, testified before a grand jury before he was indicted in June 2021, but he took the blame for any off-the-books perks in Weisselberg’s salary, according to court documents reviewed by The Daily Beast.

“I didn’t think or know they had to be reported,” McConney told the grand jury. “Until recently, I never thought [the apartment and tuition] had to be income — included as income.”

Investigators believe Weisselberg’s corporate perks — an apartment, luxury car and private school tuition for his grandchildren — were kept off the books to avoid paying taxes on them, but McConney insists they were only “a generous gesture to Mr. Trump,” and the company and Weisselberg say this testimony proves there was no criminal conspiracy.

Mr. McConney testified over and over before the grand jury that, at the time of the alleged events in question, he did not think he was doing anything wrong,” wrote Susan R. Necheles, a lawyer for the Trump Organization. “And to the extent that certain alleged fringe benefits did not get reported as taxable income, that was an error on his part. This means that Mr. McConney did not act ‘willfully,’ an essential element of a criminal tax offense.”

The longtime corporate accountant was in prime position to take down the Trump Organization, but he had taken the fall for the company before and appears willing to do it again.

McConney had previously told investigators that he “probably didn’t know” the company should not use its donor-funded charity to pay off a lawsuit settlement or donate $25,000 to then-Florida attorney general Pam Bondi, and a source said he was “less than forthcoming” in his testimony.

It’s not clear exactly what McConney told the grand jury or whether he possibly slipped up and incriminated Trump, Weisselberg or anyone else, but his cooperation allows him to avoid charges for any crimes he might have revealed in his testimony, although he could potentially be charged with perjury if he lied under oath.

Weisselberg, who is set to stand trial this summer, has been trying to get a state judge to dismiss the case, and he so far has been unwilling to cooperate in the investigation of Trump’s role in the alleged tax fraud scheme.

Prosecutors have decided not to charge his son Barry Weisselberg, who ran the all-cash Wollman ice skating rink in Central Park, for receiving untaxed corporate perks, although they haven’t explained that decision.

 

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CRIME

Giuliani Booking Photo Released

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4 weeks ago

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August 23, 2023

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Former Trump attorney and former Republican Mayor of New York City, Rudy Giuliani was booked in Fulton County, Georgia Wednesday afternoon on racketeering charges and charges related to attempts to overturn the 2020 election.

He was released on a $150,000 bond after being arraigned on 13 charges.

“Conditions include prohibitions against intimidating co-defendants or witnesses, and against communicating with co-defendants other than through their lawyers. Giuliani must check in with pretrial services every 30 days,” USA Today reports.

READ MORE: ‘Wrong on the Law, Wrong on the Facts’: Fani Willis Smacks Down Jeff Clark’s Legal Move in Scathing Response

Former Trump attorneys Jenna Ellis and Sidney Powell were also booked and their photos have been made public as well.

See all three mug shots below or at this link.

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CRIME

‘Moral Turpitude’: Bill Barr Hammers Donald Trump

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1 month ago

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August 17, 2023

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Former Trump Attorney General Bill Barr delivered one of his harshest criticisms to date of his former boss on Thursday, accusing Donald Trump of “moral turpitude.”

“You know, you don’t get immunity for two years in the run-up to an election just by saying, ‘Hey, I’m a candidate,'” Barr told Fox News’ Neil Cavuto.

“These investigations have been going on for a while, everyone knew about them even before he announced his candidacy,” Barr continued. “So if there’s a chance to get it resolved before the election, it should be because the American people should know these are crimes involved – or potential crimes – involving moral turpitude.”

Cornell Law School’s Legal Information Institute says moral turpitude is “wicked, deviant behavior constituting an immoral, unethical, or unjust departure from ordinary social standards such that it would shock a community.”

READ MORE: ‘Truly Scandalous: Jim Jordan Slammed by Former Top DOJ Official

Barr also talked about the two federal cases brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith, one for Trump’s efforts to overturn the election, and one for his refusal to return classified and other documents.

“I think the federal cases are legitimate,” Barr said. “At the end of the day, at the core of this thing he engaged in – in the case of the documents – in outrageous behavior where anyone would be prosecuted. I don’t know of any attorney general who could walk away from it.”

“He’s not being prosecuted for having the documents, he’s being prosecuted for obstruction, two egregious instances are alleged so I think that’s a very simple case.”

Barr also said for him, Trump “crossed the line” when “he used this device of impaneling imposter electors, swearing that they were the electors, but the key point there was, they were in tandem with a plan whereby the vice president would use that as a pretext for nullifying the legal and certified votes. So it was a calculated and deceitful plan to remain in office by nullifying and negating certified legal votes.”

Watch the videos below or at this link:

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CRIME

Special Counsel Wanted Trump’s Twitter Direct Messages When He Obtained a Search Warrant: Report

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1 month ago

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August 15, 2023

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Special Counsel Jack Smith obtained a search warrant for access to Donald Trump’s Twitter account in January, but was looking for non-public information from the account.

That non-public information was Trump’s direct messages, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins reports, noting there were “many.” DMs are private.

Smith, who has already obtained indictments against Donald Trump for the ex-president’s removal and refusal to return classified documents and for the ex-president’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, appears to have accessed an important resource.

“The special counsel was seeking Trump’s direct messages on Twitter, of which there were many, federal prosecutors and lawyers for Twitter revealed in newly unsealed transcripts from hearings about the search warrant,” Collins reported Tuesday evening.

RELATED: Special Counsel Obtained Search Warrant for Trump’s Twitter Account Amid Court Concerns He Could ‘Flee’ Prosecution

Former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti said, “I’m surprised that Trump had “many” direct messages. Given that he doesn’t use text and email, they could more directly reveal his intent than other evidence Jack Smith has.”

Experts have wondered why Smith would have wanted access to Trump’s Twitter account, which was suspended after the 2021 insurrection. Elon Musk, who bought Twitter in late 2022, has since reinstated Trump’s account, but the ex-president has not made any public posts on the social media site, now renamed X.

Noted technologist John Gruber last week when news broke that Smith had obtained a search warrant for Trump’s Twitter account wrote, “I’m keenly interested in what the search warrant was after. It wasn’t Trump’s tweets, which are public.”

READ MORE: Democratic Senator Slams ‘Racist’ Videos That Will Be ‘Piped Straight Into the Bloodstream’ of Florida Schoolchildren

“So the obvious conclusion: his direct messages. Trump, famously, does not use email and, until this year, apparently didn’t use text messaging either. But did he send or receive DMs on Twitter? And was he stupid enough to put anything incriminating in them?”

“We also know,” Gruber continued, “that ‘deleted’ tweets were just hidden, not actually deleted — and a bug resulted in deleted tweets resurfacing. Was that (or is it still) true for ‘deleted’ direct messages as well? I think it’s quite likely that every single DM ever sent on Twitter is still around.”

A filing had said “the court ‘found probable cause to search the Twitter account for evidence of criminal offenses,’” according to an Associated Press report last week.

Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr and a CC license

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