Trump's Unexplained $50 Million Loan. Is It Tax Fraud?
The Mother Jones Podcast
Mother Jones
4.5 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 2 October 2019
⏱️ 22 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
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Summary
Donald Trump’s massive debts—he owes hundreds of millions of dollars—are the subject of continuous congressional and journalistic scrutiny. But for years, one Trump loan has been particularly mystifying: a debt of more than $50 million that Trump claims he owes to one of his own companies. According to tax and financial experts, the loan, which Trump has never fully explained, might be part of a controversial tax avoidance scheme known as debt parking. Yet a Mother Jones investigation has uncovered information that raises questions about the very existence of this loan, presenting the possibility that this debt was concocted as a ploy to evade income taxes—a move that could constitute tax fraud. On today's show, host Jamilah King interviews Mother Jones investigative reporter Russ Choma about his dogged Trumpworld financial reporting, and the fresh questions it raises about Trump's debt.
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| 0:00.0 | This is the Mother Jones Podcast. I'm Jamila King in New York. |
| 0:04.0 | On today's show, |
| 0:12.0 | on today's show, Week 2 of impeachment, Palusa, and the story is moving really fast. |
| 0:19.2 | I know. |
| 0:20.2 | But it's important, while all of this is going down, not to lose sight of where all these |
| 0:25.8 | outrageous Trump scandals trace back to. Corruption. It's basically like the source code of this administration, isn't it? |
| 0:34.0 | Trump has hauled corruption from the shadows into the limelight, |
| 0:39.0 | where it struts its stuff shamelessly. |
| 0:42.0 | So today, getting to the bottom of a great Trump world |
| 0:46.8 | financial mystery. Trump's ghost loan. Stick around. loan. Is it evidence of tax fraud? Mother Jones has spent months looking into it. |
| 1:06.0 | And now our special investigation has uncovered new details about this puzzling deal. Here's what we know. |
| 1:17.0 | Donald Trump is saddled with an enormous amount of debt. |
| 1:21.0 | He owes hundreds of millions of dollars. Well, |
| 1:24.3 | Deutschabag was one of the only major financial institutions that would do |
| 1:27.3 | business with President Trump. And during his testimony, Michael Cohen said |
| 1:31.4 | that the president would often inflate his financial resources or lie about his net worth in an effort to get loans from Deutsche Bank or when he was working with him. |
| 1:40.0 | Golf Resorts, skyscrapers, all carry high mortgages for President-elect Donald Trump. |
| 1:46.4 | Former White House ethics attorney, Richard Painter. |
| 1:49.2 | I am concerned about a president who's indebted to anyone, particularly a foreign bank. |
| 1:54.0 | I understand the tax laws better than almost anyone, which is why I am one who can |
| 2:00.8 | truly fix them. I understand that. He also has a track record of pushing the envelope |
| 2:04.9 | when it comes to paying or not paying his taxes. |
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