1/ The FBI is expected to wrap up its investigation into sexual assault allegations against Brett Kavanaugh today. Ford has not been interviewed by the FBI. Her attorneys have demanded that the FBI interview her and other witnesses to the alleged incidents. Agents completed a first batch of interviews of four individuals closest to the alleged events, including Mark Judge, and are now interviewing Tim Gaudette, a Georgetown Preparatory School classmate of Kavanaugh who lived in the home of the July 1, 1982, party. Another friend from Kavanaugh's high school days, Chris Garrett, has also completed an FBI interview. Mitch McConnell plans to vote later this week and has vowed that "only senators will be allowed to look at" the FBI's final report. (Politico / Washington Post)
Interesting backstory on the NYT article about the Trump family’s alleged tax evasion.
President Donald Trump’s older sister, Judge Maryanne Trump Barry, has kept a very low profile since he ran for office. But it appears as though she inadvertently had a central role in The New York Times blockbuster report on her brother’s alleged tax schemes.
According to the Times, one of their key findings was a financial disclosure form from Barry’s Senate confirmation proceedings in 1999 to be a federal appellate judge. This financial form was not redacted, and Times reporter Susanne Craig, one of the three reporters who broke the story, noticed an oddity in the filing – a $1 million contribution from a Trump family-owned company called All County Building Supply & Maintenance.
Craig, along with reporters David Barstow and Russ Buettner, began to investigate the company. People familiar with family patriarch Fred Trump told them that All County was a “middleman entity created by President Trump and his siblings essentially to move cash from Fred Trump’s companies to his children,” the Times said.
After the company purchased items for Trump buildings such as cleaning supplies, the Times notes that a secretary would bill these “items to Fred Trump’s buildings with a 20% to 50% markup,” and the siblings would “pocket the difference.” The siblings received millions in untaxed gifts from their father, skirting a 55% tax on gifts over a certain value that would have cut the total significantly, the Times reported.
Too bad that the statute of limitations on these crimes has lapsed, but the government can still level civil fines and try to collect the unpaid taxes – I’ve read that that process may be a real uphill battle – nonetheless I hope the government tries – and, BTW, where was the IRS when they should have been catching these crimes in the first place?
Interesting backgrounder on how the NYT team did find the damning materials.
Yes, T’s sister Judge Barry has been very quiet all this time.
Another interesting wrinkle…
One of the writers, NYT Susanne Craig was on Rachel Maddow’s last night and I thought I heard her describe also a favorite nephew of Fred’s also had a trove of documents in his basement.
I will try to find the link…
Maddow and Susan Craig - go to 4:31 talks about discovering a ‘trove of documents’ from a relative who died this year. (It may have been his cousin John Walter - the one where the plumbing receipts went to)
Interview - Maddow and Susanne Craig/NYT on what T’s liability could be…
Obit for cousin - John Walter (Fred trump’s favorite nephew)
