Could Donald Trump go to jail after US elections?
The magnate told those close to him that if he did not achieve re-election, he feared the possible opening of a process for irregularities in the payment of taxes, a very serious issue in the United States.
In recent days, as the re-count of the elections in the United States progressed, which this Saturday was finally won by Democrat Joe Biden, many media speculated that the defeated President Donald Trump would be tried for various crimes.
The point that generates the most tension has to do with the revelations that have been made about possible irregularities in the tax payments of the tycoon's huge companies.
As reported, for example, by The New York Times and the MediaIte portal, the ex-president told his advisers that he was "nervous" about the fact that his defeat would result in the justice of that country formulating a 'indictment'. While he was in the White House he could not have a process of this nature, for constitutional protection, but now that can obviously change.
Nervousness has begun to grow over rumors that Cyrus Vance Jr., the Manhattan district attorney, is investigating whether there were maneuvers in the Trump company to, through debt and other financial moves, pay less taxes.
Tax investigations
The extensive investigation of The New York Times newspaper generated a tsunami in the United States. According to that outlet, the former president only paid $ 750 in income taxes and paid nothing in 10 of the previous 15 years because he indicated that he had more losses than gains in those fiscal years. Given this, as expected, the tycoon criticized the information and called it "totally false" and "invented".
"They are false information, totally fabricated," he said at the time during a press conference at the White House. "I have paid a lot, and I have also paid a lot of income taxes at the state level, the state of New York collects a lot of taxes," added the former Republican president without elaborating.
It is worth mentioning that Trump, who before arriving at the White House, made a name for himself in the business world and amassed an immense fortune (3.1 billion dollars as reported by Forbes in 2019), but has repeatedly refused to make his public statement. financial history and his tax returns, thus contravening a tradition that sheltered most of his predecessors in the Presidency of the United States.
“The tax returns that Trump has long fought to keep private tell a fundamentally different story than the one he has sold to the American public. His reports to the IRS portray a businessman who receives hundreds of millions of dollars a year, but accumulates chronic losses that he aggressively uses to stop paying taxes, "says the New York Times before uncovering that, in 10 of the last 15 years, the former president has not paid any amount of income taxes. Apparently much of the money he makes is later lost in other transactions.
The former real estate mogul's tax returns are at the center of a legal battle, as Trump has always refused to publish them as the president of the United States usually does. “The New York Times has obtained tax information for more than twenty years on Mr. Trump and the hundreds of companies that make up his group, including detailed information on his first two years in office. This does not include his personal income statements for 2018 and 2019, ”says the newspaper, which promises new disclosures in the coming days.
Unlike all his predecessors since the 1970s, Trump, whose family group is not publicly traded and who has made his fortune a campaign argument, refuses to publish his tax returns and is in a legal battle to prevent are disclosed.
Could he go to jail?
Former prosecutor Nick Ackerman, who worked on the Watergate scandal that led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon, said in an interview with CNN in September that Donald Trump and his children could pay up to five years in prison if they are found guilty of tax fraud. .
The former prosecutor pointed out that the information revealed by the New York Times seems to indicate that Trump committed tax fraud by lying about his earnings, receiving deductions without justification and making money movements with the aim of not paying taxes. The Trump scandal, according to him, resembles the one Richard Nixon faced during his tenure for alleged irregularities in the payment of taxes. However, Ackerman, in an interview on La W Radio, stressed that what was pointed out against Trump is much more serious, as it shows a long history of the tycoon following this behavior.
On the other hand, in the same interview, he stated that there is currently an ongoing investigation into these irregularities, led by the prosecutor's office in New York. Also, on his Twitter account, Ackerman compared the situation of both former presidents: “I investigated the Nixon taxes. Compared to Trump, Nixon was an amateur rookie ... At least Nixon paid taxes. "
The truth is that, so far, Trump has overcome six bankruptcies, two divorces, 26 accusations of sexual harassment and more than 4,000 court cases. However, as a former president, he will now face 12 indictments, in civil and criminal proceedings, for crimes such as tax fraud, bank fraud and obstruction of justice, in addition to the indictment for an alleged attempted rape in the 1990s.
