The centerpiece of the taxpayer funded $20 million special council witch hunt by Mueller is wrapping up. Unless I’m missing something it’s about embezzlement, money laundering, and tax evasion and has absolutely nothing to do with Trump colluding with the Russians. I guess Mueller has a hunting license to go after anyone who engages in these activities using $500 an hour white shoe lawyers who voted for Hillary.
It that’s true, here are some options I can give them that will save them the trouble.
5 Prominent Democrats With Big-Time Tax Problems Who Didn’t Get Loads of Media Attention
Andrew Burton/Getty Images
The New York Times released Donald Trump’s previously undisclosed 1995 tax return on Saturday and the topic has dominated headlines and news broadcasts ever since.
The issue at hand is whether Trump did anything wrong when he reported a $916 million loss, possibly helping him avoid paying taxes for years. Media figures have suggested Trump may have not paid taxes for 18 years. However, no one has been able to prove Trump did anything illegal.
Trump is running for president and certainly deserves the scrutiny. However, over the years, plenty of Democratic figures have gotten themselves into real legal trouble with the IRS.
Here are five examples that may have slipped your mind:
1) Al Sharpton
The MSNBC host was somehow able to personally rack up an unpaid tax bill of nearly $600,000. The issue received some media coverage, but also couched with “sources” that promised Sharpton was paying off the debt. Some officials disputed that characterization.
Additionally, Sharpton’s business record is far from stellar. It became routine for his businesses to be investigated by the IRS and found to be in violation of tax rules.
The National Action Network, the most visible of Sharpton’s nonprofit groups, owed a reported $1.1 million in unpaid city, state and federal payroll taxes in 2010.
In fact, National Review in 2015 reported:
So far, every for-profit enterprise started by Al Sharpton and known to National Review Online has been shut down in at least one jurisdiction for failure to pay taxes, a review of public records in New York and Delaware reveals.
Ouch.
A former Sharpton aide, Carl Redding, previously claimed the reverend’s lavish lifestyle played a role in his financial misfortune.
“Absolute power corrupts absolutely,” Redding told National Review. “I believe that Sharpton has become so powerful it’s diluting everything about him. The African-American community doesn’t trust Sharpton anymore.”
2) Clinton Foundation
Hillary Clinton’s family foundation had to refile at least five annual tax returns after a number of significant errors were uncovered.
The independent review by Reuters found that the Clinton Foundation inaccurately reported its donations from foreign governments. More from the report:
The charities’ errors generally take the form of under-reporting or over-reporting, by millions of dollars, donations from foreign governments, or in other instances omitting to break out government donations entirely when reporting revenue, the charities confirmed to Reuters.
The errors, which have not been previously reported, appear on the form 990s that all non-profit organizations must file annually with the Internal Revenue Service to maintain their tax-exempt status. A charity must show copies of the forms to anyone who wants to see them to understand how the charity raises and spends money
The Clinton Foundation has not been formally found guilty of wrongdoing, but the curious circumstances have only added further to Clinton’s trustworthiness problem with voters in 2016.
3) Claire McCaskill
All the way back in 2011, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) admitted she failed to pay $287,000 in back taxes and agreed to sell her private plane.
McCaskill also repaid $88,000 to the Treasury Department after it was revealed the Democratic senator used $76,000 in taxpayer funds on the plane.
4) Charlie Rangel
Then-chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) claimed he completely forgot to report $75,000 in rental income from a vacation property in the Dominican Republic.
He was also found to have failed to report hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional income and assets in his financial disclosure forms from 2002 to 2006.
The congressman was censured but able to whether the storm. He is set to retire in 2017.
5) Timothy Geithner
Not even the U.S. Treasury Secretary is exempt from IRS regulations.
Then-Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner admitted he failed to pay $34,000 in self-employment taxes in 2001 through 2004. He claimed the unpaid taxes were unintentional, but said he should have known better.
Pay your taxes, people.
