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Tax Scheme In Weisselberg Indictment Echoes NYT Reporting On Ivanka Trump Payouts - YouTube
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the scheme to have trump's company
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pay for personal stuff for trump
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organization executives
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as described in the indictment as a
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scheme so not only do those executives
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not have to pay for those things out of
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pocket
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they would thereby dodge taxes on that
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both from the company side and the
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employee side right
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the indictment says that that scheme
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was not limited to alan weisselberg and
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his family members
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who are compensated in that way they
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describe
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other people who work for the trump
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organization who benefited from this
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allegedly illegal tax evasion scheme
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similarly the indictment says there were
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other trump organization
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executives who worked for the company
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but they were regularly paid in ways
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that were designed to
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disguise their payment from tax
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authorities they were regularly paid in
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ways to make it look like they weren't
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getting compensated
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as trump organization employees they
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were getting paid as
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consultants or something it has
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important tax consequences both for the
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company
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and for the executive getting paid that
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way that's all spelled out in the
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indictment it's spelled out in the
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indictment as a
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further part of the scheme to defraud
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no other executives behind besides alan
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weisselberg is described as the
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beneficiaries of that fraud but it is
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explicitly spelled out
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that he wasn't the only one who
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benefited from that kind of a scheme
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i will also tell you that is exactly the
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kind of scheme
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described by new york times reporters in
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september
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in their pulitzer prize-winning expose
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of trump's financial adventures
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they specifically described a scheme
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like that a scheme like the one outlined
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in today's indictment
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as it related to ivanka trump the
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president's daughter
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the times described in detail financial
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records they discovered that showed
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ivanka trump being paid
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both as an employee of the trump
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organization and as
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a consultant to the trump organization
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in a way that seemed
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custom designed to try to evade taxes
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both for the company
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and for her that is the executive scheme
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described at the end of the indictment
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prosecutors say that weisselberg
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benefited from such a scheme
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and that other executives did too they
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are not named in this indictment
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but that is the ivanka scheme described
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last fall
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in the new york times
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and like i said apparently there's more
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to come from this investigation
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we've got much more on that in a second
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one of the things that caught my eye
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is your reporting from last fall
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about a scheme that you'd
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uncovered basically by comparing
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different financial documents
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um which showed that the president's
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daughter ivanka trump was paid as a
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consultant
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in a way that seemed designed to avoid
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paying taxes on some of her
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income a way that would have been
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advantageous both to her and also to the
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trump organization
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i wondered if you saw any reflections of
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that scheme that you described
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particularly in those later parts of the
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indictment where they described ongoing
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schemes involving multiple executives
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around the way their their compensation
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was was described to authorities
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you know it sure did feel of a piece to
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me what we saw
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um when we were doing our work with the
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payments um
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some of which um went to ivanka trump
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you know you're seeing money that's
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coming out and being allocated
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um you know alan weiselberg had some of
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that through through a certain payment
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and with ivanka trump what we saw and
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others are involved
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as well there was 26 million dollars
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that we
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found in consulting fees that were being
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paid from entities that donald trump
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controls
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outward we couldn't see who they were
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who they were going to
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but we saw them going out and it was
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like wow when we saw it we were like
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where were these going
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and then what we found as we went along
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was we were comparing the taxes
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to other documents we had public
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documents and other documents
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we saw some of it actually went to a
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company that is controlled by um
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ivanka trump as an officer up and then
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paid out to ivanka trump
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and why that was a red flag is because
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she's got
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she's an officer of the trump
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organization and has
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she's paid more than two million dollars
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and she's also getting consulting fees
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and that's sort of something that right
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away should be you know the irs would be
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looking at it and saying hey they're
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only supposed to
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these sort of payments should be
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ordinary and necessary
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and the you have to question why
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somebody who's making two million
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dollars at the trump organization
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is also getting consulting fees so
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you're sort of like what's going on
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and what you know we in our reporting
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suspected and we reported about was that
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this was an attempt by donald trump
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to reduce his taxable income and to
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transfer money to his kids
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that may also have had the effect of
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reducing
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um or of him avoiding the gift tax to
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them so it's a way to transfer wealth
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potentially from one generation to
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another
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we didn't have access to other people's
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um
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tax information to see if potentially
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eric trump was getting some of these
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payments
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if donald trump jr was getting some of
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these payments but they are also a
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member
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uh and are part of that company that was
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getting the money that went to ivanka
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and and briefly to that point the kinds
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of documents that would show that if
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that's the case
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is your understanding uh from what we
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can see publicly about this court case
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that those are the kinds of documents
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that the prosecutors have
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i think i can't imagine that they don't
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have them by now and the uh
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the new york attorney general had gone
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after the information from the company
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that received those payments called ttt
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um you know for trump trump trump
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so um they've got those records
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and i don't know how much further
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they've gotten if they've gotten um
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tax returns of other members of the
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trump family but that's a real just
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follow the money case we were like wow
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when we saw it and we you know started
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to work through it we dead ended in the
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tax returns
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but then because ivanka trump had gone
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to the administration she had financial
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filings
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and we were able to uh to match them up
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i gotta i know i have
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worked with two uh two great reporters
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on it russ putner and mike mcintyre and
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it was a great
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great effort um took us a long time to
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put all that together but
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it's there and it's one of the things
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that the manhattan va is looking at
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i mean one of the i think the important
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threads to pull from that pulitzer
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prize-winning reporting at the new york
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times based on trump
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uh financial records um is that
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among others it appears that ivanka
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trump benefited from the type
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of scheme that's described at the end of
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the indictment today
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that trump executives were compensated
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in ways that were deliberately designed
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to help them evade taxes and to help the
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business evade taxes on their behalf
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alan weisselberg is being charged
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for benefiting from that scheme the
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indictment says
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other executives also benefited from
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that scheme and now we've got solid
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reporting that the investigation
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continues
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that raises the prospect that further
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charges could be brought against
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his children yeah it does
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and i again i think they should be quite
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uh
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anxious right now donald on the other
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hand
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will expect the same kind and level of
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loyalty from them
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as he expects from alan um you know as
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far as donald's concerned
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they have what they have because of him
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and they should be willing
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to take whatever hit they're going to
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take
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um he doesn't understand i guess how
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these things work
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prosecutors won't stop at my cousins
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they will be going
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for the bigger fish which would be
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donald who's been running this
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organization
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for over 30 years now so
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i think he would be surprised to learn
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that i don't believe
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my cousins would exert that kind of
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exercise that kind of loyalty towards
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him because
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his relationship with them and their
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relationship with him is entirely
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transactional
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so um unconditional i should say
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so they're not going to risk anything
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for him just as he wouldn't risk
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anything for them
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so it could get really really
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interesting as these things unfold
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because there are so many more documents
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that
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new york prosecutors have at their
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disposal
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so you have more confidence that alan
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weisselberg would
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wouldn't cooperate than you do that the
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president's
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former president's children wouldn't
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cooperate
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yeah i think um as far as i understand
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it and you know i'm not a lawyer but
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uh it seems that as as serious as these
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charges are they may
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not end up with uh jail time
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or any significant amount of jail time
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and
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the downside of
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um cooperating with prosecutors for
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allen weisselberg might be larger than
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the downside of going to jail
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uh if it's for a short enough period of
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time so
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again it's going to be very interesting
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to see just
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um the case that can be made and
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the sentencing if it comes to that
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because i think that will factor in for
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sure but
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i'm much less sanguine about
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my cousin's loyalty to their father
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