-There´s been a lot of news this week
on the Donald Trump legal front.
We found out stunning new details
about a memo one of his lawyers wrote
on how to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
He sued his niece over damning tax documents
he inadvertently admitted were real.
His lawyers knew days after the election their claims
of widespread fraud were B.S.,
and there are reportedly more indictments coming
in the Trump organization tax fraud case.
For more on all that, it´s time for a closer look.
♫♫
It´s been so nice not having to think
or care about what Donald Trump´s been up to
these past few months.
It´s like when you finally get a cast removed
and you get to shower without
taping a plastic bag to your arm,
which is why it´s such a bummer that he and everyone around him
keep hinting he might run again in 2024.
It´s kind of like how Mets fans
are relieved when the season´s over
so they can stop feeling miserable.
And then they remember,
"Oh, right, the Jets."
But hey, look, on the bright side.
At least the Jets can only lose once a week.
They´re Thursday this week?!
That said, even though it´s liberating
to have Trump out of the news,
it´s still important to hold him accountable for his crimes
and prevent him from doing again what he tried to do in 2020.
He´s still implicated
in multiple investigations across the country,
as CNN pointed out when they tried to list
all of his ongoing civil
and criminal matters in a recent segment.
-He is still facing a slew of different lawsuits.
We have a full screen that show
all the criminal cases and civil --
I actually do not have time to go through them all.
-Trump has so many legal problems,
CNN doesn´t even have time to go through them all -- CNN.
They´re a 24-hour news network.
All they do is the news.
It´s not like they hand it off
at 4:00 p.m. to their baking show,
"The Knead with Jake Tapper"
or their 5:00 p.m. dating show, "On the Prowl with the Wolf."
[ Laughter ]
And on top of all of that,
Trump is now suing his own niece.
-Former President Donald Trump
has filed a lawsuit in New York State Court.
This time, he´s suing his niece, Mary Trump,
and three New York Times journalist
over what he´s called the illegal disclosure
of his tax information.
-Mary Trump said this in response.
"I think he´s a loser.
It´s desperation.
The walls are closing in,
and he´s throwing anything against the wall
that he thinks will stick.
As is always the case with Donald,
he´ll try and change the subject."
-Imagine suing your own niece.
I mean, fortunately, his lawyer does have experience
suing family members since Rudy sued his cousin for divorce.
But aside from the family drama,
there´s a crucial takeaway
in this case that we should focus on,
because in filing this lawsuit, Trump was forced to admit
that all those stories about
how he had lost tons of money
and paid virtually nothing in taxes,
which he had previously
dismissed as fake news were actually true.
For example, you might remember that in 2018
the New York Times reported that Trump
engaged in all kinds of suspect tax schemes
as he hoarded the wealth handed down by his father.
Then in 2019, the Times reported
that Trump had lost over a billion dollars
in the ´80s and ´90s,
and then in 2020, The Times reported
that Trump paid $750 in federal income taxes
the year he won the presidency.
In his first year in the White House,
he paid another $750.
He had paid no income taxes at all
in 10 of the previous 15 years,
largely because he reported
losing much more money than he made.
He was in the Oval Office
as president of the United States,
and he only paid $750 in federal income taxes
to the country he was in charge.
That´s like finding out Tim Cook
has an old Motorola flip hone.
"$1,000 for an iPhone. No, thank you.
I will stick to texting in T9."
There were all kinds of shady gimmicks
documented in these stories,
some of which amounted to outright fraud
that could constitute criminal tax fraud,
as the Times put it.
Yet somehow, it´s at risk of being one
of those insane Trump stories that just goes flying by
in history classes decades from now.
Textbooks will be replaced
by little microchips they implant in your brain,
and high school sophomores will just sit there
as they download the entire Trump presidency
into their cerebral cortex --
Impeached twice. $750.
Did the Carlton dance?
Anyway, the point is, when that story came out,
Trump, as usual, claimed it was fake.
In your tax return, sir, does that sound right,
that you were paying a couple hundred dollars a year
in federal income taxes
-It´s fake news.
It´s totally fake news, made up, fake.
Totally fake news.
No, actually, I paid tax,
but -- and you´ll see that as soon as my tax returns.
It´s under audit.
They´ve been under audit for a long time.
They´re under audit.
And when they´re not, I would be proud to show you.
But that´s just fake news.
I mean, the stories that I read are so fake.
They´re so phony.
-Oh, man. Remember that whole audit thing.
I´m sure that´ll be wrapped up any day now.
The audit is taking longer
than it took to get season 3 of "Succession."
You´re making us wait until October 17th, HBO?
That´s like a month from now.
This is taking longer than it takes Kendall to say,
"Uh...Dad."
Seriously, though,
whatever happened with that audit, anyway?
I mean, I´m not an IRS auditor,
but I would assume Trump would be the dream case.
If I were there, I would open up
every manila folder they put on my desk,
like Charlie Bucket opening a Wonka bar.
I mean, just like looking, looking for Trump --
It´s the [bleep] golden ticket.
But no, we can´t go after Trump for decades of brazen tax fraud.
Some woman named Lorraine in Little Rock
wrote off a pedicure as a business expense,
so let´s rain hell down on her instead.
Lorraine feels more confident when her feet look good,
and that does make her a better travel agent.
So lay off Lorraine.
Anyway, Trump called it fake and phony,
but in his lawsuit against his niece, Mary Trump,
he was forced to admit that he was lying when he said that
and that the tax documents were actually authentic.
In the lawsuit, Trump´s lawyers write
that Mary Trump came into possession
of more than 40,000 pages
of highly sensitive, proprietary,
private and confidential documents,
including but not limited to financial documents,
accountings, tax records,
income tax returns, bank statements,
legal documents, and other related documents.
So they´re admitting the documents were real.
I feel like this should be big news, but then again,
I doubt Trump supporters are at home
poring over legal proceedings,
deciphering the veracity of his claims.
"Honey, it says here the tax documents were authentic,
which would imply, of course,
that when the president called them fake news,
he wasn´t being entirely truthful.
"It only stands to reason then
that he´s been lying about other things.
Hand me the horse medicine. I need to think.
No, no, no.
Not the pills. The paste."
So Trump´s got a mountain of legal issues,
and now we know that even by Trump´s own admission,
all those allegations of tax fraud from the Times
were based on authentic documents.
With all that said, at this point,
it´s clearly very unlikely
Trump himself will be indicted
or arrested for anything, which is insane.
His company is accused of fraud.
He´s personally accused
of all kinds of shady tax avoidance gimmicks.
Robert Mueller accused him
of 10 different instances of obstruction of justice.
He was an unindicted co-conspirator,
an indictment to cover up hush money payments to a porn star.
He incited a violent mob
to attack the Capitol and overthrow democracy,
tried to shakedown a foreign country
to interfere in the 2020 election.
His hotels raked in money from foreign governments
and lobbyists while he was president,
and he basically tried to commit election fraud
by bullying the Georgia secretary of state
to magically finding 11,000 more votes.
And yet somehow, as always,
he seems likely to escape.
-Do you think that any of these have traction still?
-Well, I think on the criminal cases,
no, I would not.
I don´t think it´s likely Donald Trump
is going to get arrested at this point.
I think there were various places
that he could and should have been charged,
from Mueller obstruction, to January 6th,
to, you know, potentially even with the Trump Organization.
But given the signs we´re seeing from prosecutors,
I don´t think it´s particularly likely,
unless something changes.
-Kind of feels like we´re in The Purge,
except Donald Trump is the only one
who´s allowed to break laws.
Like, he can just walk around and do whatever he wants,
and the feds for some reason can´t touch him.
At this point, Trump could park his car
in front of a fire hydrant and instead of towing him,
they just let the building burn down.
So being Donald Trump basically
makes you above the law.
But being close to Donald Trump does not,
which is why so many of his aides and associates
have been indicted and why his business and his various cronies
are still facing serious consequences.
If Trump´s the bull,
his friends and associates are the China shop.
Trump´s like a tornado -- no one ever catches the tornado.
But if you get too close to him, you end up like the cow
on top of RadioShack 5 miles from your farm.
For example, the former CFO of the Trump Organization,
Allen Weisselberg, has already been indicted for tax fraud,
and this week, his lawyers said in open court
that they´re expecting more indictments soon.
-Just in to CNN, this could be significant.
News from a pretrial hearing for the former Trump Organization
CFO Allen Weisselberg.
Manhattan prosecutors have charged Weisselberg
in a broad alleged tax evasion scheme.
Just moments ago, his attorneys said in court
that he has "strong reason to believe
that more indictments are coming in."
-He said that he just received today a manila envelope
that he held up in court with a bulge in it.
And he said within that,
he was told that there were three million documents.
He said that these documents were found
in a co-conspirators basement
and that they were tax documents.
Man, this Trump tax case
has more twists and turns than a Trump rally dance
and more wrinkles than
Nicki Minaj´s cousin´s friends´s --
Guys, I know we´re all
rightfully focused on other things,
but apparently, while we´re not paying attention,
they´re finding manila envelopes full of secret tax documents
in the basements
of Trump Organization co-conspirators.
Who´s the lead investigator, Nicole Kidman, in a shawl?
"I just found a passport with a different name
in my husband´s lockbox.
I don´t know what to think."
"Well, he´s cheating on you."
"I just don´t know."
Okay, but it´s that.
It´s always that.
Then of course, there are the Trump cronies
who are facing consequences for their roles
in Trump´s attempts to overthrow the results of the election.
This week, The Times also reported
that even though Trump´s lawyers
spent months claiming there was widespread fraud,
a lie many Republicans
and right wing media figures are still repeating,
they knew pretty much right away
that their claims were total bull[bleep].
-The New York Times reports on new court filings
in the defamation lawsuits against the Trump campaign
by Dominion Voting Systems,
which, according to the Times,
shows that the campaign knew
the claims made by lawyers close to Trump
that the voting machine company conspired to steal the election
were entirely baseless, entirely made up.
-New information tonight on the outrageous measures
Donald Trump went to to overturn the election results.
A memo from Trump´s campaign
two weeks after the election
indicated the campaign knew that claims
from Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani
and Sidney Powell were false,
claims that a voting machine company, Dominion,
had worked with a software company,
financier George Soros,
and Venezuela to steal the election.
The memo, saying the Trump campaign
knew those were false claims, was obtained
by the New York Times from court papers.
-That´s right. They knew it was all a lie,
and they pushed it anyway, which is good news for Dominion.
Maybe that $1.3 billion they´re suing for for isn´t enough.
If things keep going this way,
Rudy´s going to have to get a job as a building super
just to pay off his legal debts.
"Your toilet´s clogged.
Damn, I was hoping I could use it.
Here, let me get my plunger out of my briefcase.
I get one on me at all times
in case I need to go at my law office,
which is also a Starbucks."
All of this means Trump´s lawyers
knew what they were saying was a complete fabrication
when they went on TV and made claims like these.
-What we are really dealing with here
and uncovering more by the day
is the massive influence
of communist money through Venezuela,
Cuba, and likely China
in the interference with our elections
here in the United States.
The Dominion Voting Systems,
the Smartmatic technology software
and the software that goes
in other computerized voting systems here, as well,
not just Dominion,
were created in Venezuela
at the direction of Hugo Chávez
to make sure he never lost an election.
It´s been organized and conducted with the help
of Silicon Valley people,
the the big tech companies,
the social media companies, and even the media companies.
And I´m going to release the Kraken.
-At this point, the Kraken is going to release
a statement distancing himself
from Sidney Powell.
"I don´t get involved in politics.
I´m just out here to sink a few tall ships."
Although it was nice
that we briefly got to meet Sidney Powell
as another psychotic character in this whole mess.
I assume she went back to her original job
as the chicken from "Paw Patrol"
or the headmaster telling orphans
they´ll never get adopted.
"You´re too old, and nobody loves you."
Also, in retrospect, it´s maybe a tell
that they knew they were lying that Rudy is sweating profusely.
It looks like he just walked in from a rave.
Even knowing that all of these claims were lies,
Trump´s lawyers still crafted a plan
for overthrowing the election,
specifically a lawyer named John Eastman
wrote a detailed memo
laying out a path for Vice President Mike Pence
to invalidate Electoral College votes
and throw the election to Trump.
And remember, while this was happening,
Trump and his cronies were also coordinating
with a Justice Department official named Jeffrey Clark
to issue a statement claiming
there was widespread fraud in the election,
a plan for a coup that became very close to pulling off.
-Stunning new details on Donald Trump´s efforts
to overturn the 2020 election
from the new book "Peril,"
by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa.
The authors report on a two-page memo
drafted by John Eastman.
John Eastman is a conservative lawyer
who was working for Trump´s legal team.
It amounts to a blueprint for a coup.
NBC News has later obtained the memo.
It outlines how Pence
was to have disrupted the certification
of the Electoral College results
and handed the election to Trump.
Eastman predicts an immediate backlash
and lays out Plan B.
He writes this -- "Howls, of course, from the Democrats,
who now claim that 270 electoral votes are required.
So Pence says, fine.
Pursuant to the 12th Amendment,
no candidate has achieved the necessary majority.
That sends the matter to the House.
Republicans currently control
26 of the state delegations.
President Trump is re-elected there as well."
Trump tells Pence this about Eastman.
"You really need to listen to John.
He´s a respected constitutional scholar.
Hear him out. Listen. Listen to John."
-I like that this was Trump´s best attempt to sway Pence.
He´s like a husband trying to convince his wife
to let him keep gambling by inviting his bookie over.
"You got to listen to him, honey.
He knows a lot about horses."
Not only did they have a plan.
They had multiple versions of the plan.
They had a Plan B, as if when you stage a coup
and it fails, you get a second shot.
It´s democracy.
It´s not a claw machine. "Give me another 50 cent.
I almost had the bear.
I think they made the claw weak on purpose."
I mean, what was Plan C?
Have Sidney Powell strap
individual senators to their beds
and sledge hammer their legs, "Misery´ style?
"Get ready for the Kraken."
The Republican Party is still very much
enthralled to Trump and Trumpism,
with aspiring GOP candidates
pledging their loyalty to him all the time
and mimicking his brand of corrupt authoritarianism,
which is why it´s so important
to hold him accountable for his actions
and make sure he and his acolytes
can´t pull off next time what they tried to do last time,
and that´s why we need far reaching reforms
to our electoral system.
So if you´re a lawmaker concerned about the future
of our democracy, it´s time to get...
-Kraken.
-This has been "A Closer Look."
♫♫
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