Barbara Res, a former Trump Organization executive, wrote a column that should leave no doubt in anyone's mind that Trump is guilty of tax evasion and is “in the worst trouble of his life.”
As Raw Story pointed out, it’s been decades since Res worked for Trump but her allegations ring true and they line up with those of the charges against the Trump Organization and its CFO, Allen Weisselberg.
In a lengthy column for the New York Daily News, Res painted Trump's disrespect for tax laws as part of his brand: “The notion of breaking the tax laws was never considered, even 40 years ago when Trump was not quite the Trump we know today,” she wrote. “Flaunting and ultimately disobeying the tax laws was a way of life.”
“If I know the way Trump thinks, and I do, Trump never gave a serious thought about what was legal, only to whether it could be gotten away with," Res also said. “The man’s M.O. was bending and breaking the rules for maximum profit and advantage.”
She provided some examples:
The workers who did the demolition prior to the erection of Trump Tower were not paid fair wages and most of them were illegal immigrants. When this came up in court, Trump denied having any knowledge of it. In fact, he had a man on the job watching everything that happened and reporting it back to Trump, every day. Trump knew exactly what was going on. After demolition, when I came on, we worked with only legitimate union contractors.
Trump also cheated his partners. He had expensive, special work done on his apartment on Trump Tower, some of which was paid for by the project’s accounts, rather than by him personally.
I was working on projects that had partners and ones that did not. Sometimes, he charged my time against the projects with the partners. So they paid for the work I did directly for Trump.
Res believes Trump not only knew about any tax fraud Weisselberg committed but likely Trump directed it. “In my experience, as with all facets of his business, major decisions like paying someone’s rent or tuition were made by Trump and Trump alone. And with his other tax avoidance schemes, Trump had his minions to carry them out — but he was always in charge,” she wrote.
Will Weisselberg flip on Trump? Res predicts that he will, eventually. She describes him as “not a hardened player,” like Paul Manafort or Roger Stone, but “basically, an ordinary person” who has “apparently been corrupted by money and power.” Even if Trump is never charged, “his company can be destroyed,” Res said.
None of what Res knows will likely play any formal role in Trump’s current legal woes. But it does raise the question, why didn’t New York prosecutors go after the crimes that seem to have been right under their noses long ago? Just think what they might have saved the country from if they had.
