He's trying to hang on for another four years of immunity, which is why he's screaming he really won and the election was stolen from him. He knows damn well some people are taking a closer look at the Trump Organization and it's possible involvement in money laundering. 'Trump “owns the asset, lends the money, owes the money, is owed the money,” Davidson explained. “The overall picture is crystal clear: Every year, Trump lends millions to himself, spends all that money on something, and claims the asset is worth all the money he spent.”. But Trump couldn’t possibly have spent all the outlays he claims on his properties, Davidson said. “We have the planning docs. We know how much he spent — it’s far less than what he claims. The money truly disappears. It goes from one pocket to another pocket and then the pocket is opened to reveal nothing is there.”
Losses At Trump's Scottish Golf Courses Top An Astonishing $75 Million
I wonder what troubles him more about losing: His upcoming legal issues or his profoundly brittle ego?
The legal issues....
What legal issues?
Here is just some....
The president already is the subject of investigations by New York officials, and he may be implicated by federal authorities as well. As a private citizen, he would no longer enjoy de facto immunity.
www.npr.org
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. has an active criminal investigation into Trump and his businesses. The exact contours of the probe are not clear, but court papers suggest he's investigating possible insurance or financial fraud.
"That looks like it's the most likely place where he could have some criminal liability around taxes, for example," Wehle said.
The case has been tied up for months as Trump fights a grand jury subpoena that Vance issued to the president's personal accounting firm. Vance's office is seeking eight years of Trump's tax returns and financial records.
The president fought the subpoena all the way to the Supreme Court last summer and lost, although the high court left the door open for him to raise other legal challenges.
Trump did so, arguing that the subpoena was overly broad and politically motivated. Vance rejected those claims, and lower courts agreed with the district attorney's office. Trump's attorneys are now asking the Supreme Court to block the subpoena.
Wehle said the patience Vance's team has shown in litigating its subpoena case suggests the probe isn't simply political — a Democratic city official in New York playing to the crowd there.
"It's hard to imagine that Cyrus Vance would have put this kind of effort into investigating Donald Trump while he was president if he was just going to drop that investigation and anything that could come out of that when he is a private citizen like anyone else," Wehle said.
The Vance case is not the only legal trouble brewing in New York.
The state attorney general, Letitia James, is conducting a civil investigation into the Trump businesses. James is looking into whether the Trump Organization improperly inflated the value of its assets for loan or insurance purposes, and then deflated the value for tax purposes.
The president's son, Eric Trump, reportedly was deposed under oath last month as part of the probe.
While James' investigation is a civil one, it could cross over to the criminal side depending on what investigators uncover.
According to Perry, the former New York prosecutor, both of the probes could be relatively straightforward because they are likely based heavily on documents.
"If you're looking at several assets, for example, and different values are attributed to them, one in a tax return and another in a bank loan document, that might be relatively simple," she said. "They do seem to be very paper based."
Cohen alleged in congressional testimony that Trump's businesses engaged in such practices.
But there are significant challenges in criminal tax cases, Perry said, because returns for a sprawling business can be complicated, and prosecutors have to prove that people involved willfully broke the law.
"To prove that the taxpayer here, Mr. Trump himself, has committed intentional, willful tax fraud can be difficult, and it doesn't necessarily fly off the pages of the tax returns," Perry said. "A cooperating witness is always very helpful for that."
It isn't clear whether Cohen or other sometime aides of Trump might be in a position to appear in a criminal case and testify as to the boss's actions or ...
And Trump's legal jeopardy does not end there.
He also faces defamation lawsuits filed by two women who say he sexually assaulted them — allegations he denies. While Trump doesn't face criminal liability in those suits, he does face potential damage to his reputation and financial repercussions.
In all, it adds up to a legally perilous — and potentially expensive — post-presidency.
"It's a potential avalanche," Wehle said. "But this is, again, a man that is very used to using the legal system to his advantage."