Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Trump connections with Chinese Government EXPOSED in Taxes

Starting point is 00:00:00 This is Michael Popok, Legal AF reporting on breaking news concerning the tax returns of Donald Trump that have now been disclosed to the American people in a transparent fashion. Buried within there is the establishment of the close ties between Donald Trump and China, and the Chinese government and his payment of hundreds of thousands of dollars in Chinese taxes. At the same time, he and Melania paid $750 worth of taxes to the US government. You heard it here. $220,000 or so in taxes paid to China. At the same time, that Melania and Donald, the patriots that they are, paid $750 in total federal taxes to Washington. The links between Donald Trump and China have been well reported, including by the New

Starting point is 00:00:49 York Times and other outlets in 2020. What we learned from the revelation of those tax returns now confirmed in the tax returns from yesterday is that Donald Trump, through his entities, including the hotel development arm, the Trump International Hotel Licensing arm of his empire, tried to build residential towers and office towers with the approval of the Chinese government, which has to happen in that communist country, and likely pay off that go along without including giving high ranking Chinese officials Apartments and pen house apartments that reduced or no or no value But he was trying to do that business through these arms throughout

Starting point is 00:01:36 2015 In 2016 before he became officially candidate Trump In and striking these licensing deals are attempting to with the Chinese government. He also attempted to curry favor with the Chinese government, with the premiere of China by selling at a reduced value, a penile apartment in the states that he owned to somebody who was highly connected with and an affiliate of the Chinese government, Zhao Yan Chen bought an apartment for a pet house apartment for about $16 million, resulting in a $15 million profit that went back to Donald Trump when he withdrew $15 million from the capital account of the hotel organization. So you have the sale by Donald Trump to curry favor with the Chinese government of a below

Starting point is 00:02:29 market penthouse price to a highly ranked Chinese official, which then also put $15 million directly in Donald Trump's pocket as reflected through his tax returns. During that same period in trying to develop business in China and paying $200,000 or so in taxes in China, he was, as candidate Trump, attacking Joe Biden and the Democrats for being soft on China. If anybody was soft and or corrupted by China, and unbended need of China during this irrelevant time period, it was one Donald J. Trump. Not Biden, Biden doesn't have Chinese bank accounts.

Starting point is 00:03:13 Biden didn't have business dealings in China. At the same time, he was trying to set Chinese policy or campaign on a platform related to being tough on China. How are you going to be tough on China when you're selling pan house apartments to their highest elite in order to carry favor with the government in order to reward yourself with licensing deals in China that require you to open up bank accounts in China approved by the Chinese government and pay $200,000 in taxes to China. Who served the one that's corrupted by the Chinese government?

Starting point is 00:03:50 I would suggest that the tax returns, now revealing the existence of these Chinese bank accounts listed as foreign assets as they have to, should have been revealed to the American people while he was Canada Trump in order to allow everyone to evaluate whether his foreign policy was somehow in the back pocket and bought and paid for by the Chinese government. It's a it is a reasonable assumption. It is a reasonable set of questions to ask and have answered on the campaign trail, but none of that came out on the campaign trail because the first anybody ever heard of his tax returns and what they revealed because

Starting point is 00:04:28 he refused to turn them over was when Donald Trump's tax returns were obtained through sources, including his niece Mary Trump by the New York Times in 2020. But we now have the direct evidence in the tax returns released yesterday of the disclosure of the existence of the Chinese flow of money, follow the money, the bank accounts, the taxes paid, and the like signed in a joint return by Melania Trump and Donald Trump. Prepared, let's talk about aspect number two that's come out of the revelations of the tax returns from last night in this morning. Who prepared the tax returns for Donald Trump? Some of these go a thousand pages long. It wasn't

Starting point is 00:05:12 Donald Trump. It was measures, measures LLP out of Long Island, what was then an unknown, now discredited CPA-ordering firm that has had to in the last year in response to the New York Attorney General's investigation, civil fraud investigation against Donald Trump, which is now pending against him. They had to throw up their hands and say, don't come after us, the Tisha James, New York Attorney General. We're going to completely renounce all of our work for the last 12 years for the Trump organization, and we're going

Starting point is 00:05:45 to call it unreliable. So his CPA upon which the internal revenue service, while he was president, which was corrupted and co-opted by his Treasury Secretary, Steve Manuchin, who then in addition to that did not do their audit function that was required to protect the American people, to ensure that our president was not bought and paid for or his foreign policy by foreign leaders, all of that that was going on, the IRS was relying on measures. Mazers doesn't even rely on measures. Having come out in public, renouncing all of their work, you know, being squeezed

Starting point is 00:06:27 by the New York Attorney General because if they still wanted to stay in business, they had to do that. I have never in my 32 years of practice seen a CPA and auditing firm run away from a client as quickly as measures yet they are on the bottom of every tax return as having been the entity that prepared the tax return on behalf of Trump and Melania. So we can just, from the very beginning, take measures at their word that nothing in the tax returns can be trusted or is reliable because it was prepared by them in reliance on financial information that was distorted and unreliable and withheld by their client, Donald Trump and all of his and the

Starting point is 00:07:12 Trump organization. So all roads lead back to Donald Trump, but they all go through measures and they're renouncing of their work to certify any of his financial information at all to the American public. Why do we require the transparency of the holder of the highest job in the land? Because we need to know whether he has such close relationships with foreign entities that he's been turned in a way to use an intelligence community phrase. Has he been turned? Is he no longer doing the bidding and upholding his constitutional obligations to protect our country, to defend the country against all enemies foreign and domestic?

Starting point is 00:07:59 Has that been abticated because of his close business ties to these countries and his willingness to try to make money both before he was president and while he was president. Some of the best years for his income producing was while he was the president of the United States. I thought his job, as listed on its tax return, was president. And hers, Melania, was first lady. How did he make so much money into the millions of dollars as the president of the United States, while the president of the United States? Because foreign entities in China, in India, in Russia, were lining up to do business with Donald Trump through his family, through Don Jr. Eric Ivanka, who were running the family store,

Starting point is 00:08:49 while dad was off playing president in Washington, DC. But we need to know these things, because if the president is not making decisions in the best interest of the country, but only in his best financial interests, that is something that may well be an impeachable offense. Certainly, dishonor brought to the office and failing related to his obligation to uphold the Constitution, but could also be that he or his foreign policy has been bought and

Starting point is 00:09:17 paid for by foreign entities, something that and foreign power, something that the founding fathers were very concerned about, about the country getting off the ground and the beginning that their executive, the imperial president, would somehow fall under the sway of much stronger, richer, more established, more mature countries in Europe and in other places. And that fear of the founding fathers carries forward all the way through to today. It's why we have the checks and balance system. It's why the House means a House Ways and Means Committee is responsible for oversight over departments like Treasury, like the internal

Starting point is 00:09:58 revenue service, like the president and his tax returns and financial dealings. Because if there's no oversight in the checks and balance system, if there's a broken link between all of these checks and balances, then we don't have a constitutional republic at all. We just have an imperial president who runs a muck in his out of control as we saw Donald Trump attempt to do as he tested the checks and balance system and put them under a pressure test. The release of the tax returns by the President of the United States, which is now as part of a House bill that was passed, a requirement, the auditing of the President and

Starting point is 00:10:35 Vice President every year there in office. The release of the tax returns is new legislation that has come out of the House Ways and Means Committee and the joint Committee on taxation in the waning days of their office. It's a bill that's now going to go to the Senate controlled, the Democratic controlled Senate for approval. You know the Republicans are going to fight it tooth and nail. They're going to try to kill the bill that's been passed in the House when they take over on Jan 3 and then we're going to see the struggle. But that was the reason the tax returns were released because the audit function never happened

Starting point is 00:11:09 because Donald Trump always hated the IRS. So he's fought with the IRS, and as soon as he got into a position of power, he and his cronies fought to tear down the IRS, hollow it out, and defang it so they couldn't go after him or all the people in the business community that ran his cabinet. That's what happened. So all of this hand-wringing and boogie man under the bed by the Republicans who claim this is the beginning of the end and in payback and in retribution, no average taxpayers' tax returns are safe from disclosure through the House.

Starting point is 00:11:43 That's a bunch of malarkey. That has nothing to do with the checks and balances them at the House. That's a bunch of malarkey. That has nothing to do with the checks and balance system at the House Oversight Committee, the House Ways and Means Committee and performing oversight was performing. They don't care about the average citizen. They care about the branches of our government for which they provide a check and a balance. And if a president does the extraordinary thing, first time in modern history, of not releasing his tax returns, then the new rule is the Houseways and Means Committee will review and release those tax returns that should have been done anyway. So all the hand-ringing about this is extraordinary

Starting point is 00:12:23 precedent setting. Be careful what you asked for pay back as a you know what all this other stuff that the Republicans and Donald Trump are saying this morning about the release of the tax returns. None of it is true. And none of it's going to come true. The only new rule that's been established is if you're a president, you're going to have your taxes audited and you're going to have the returns released to the public. And if you have nothing to hide, which you shouldn't, if you're now occupying the presidency, then this should go really, really smoothly and easily, just as it has for all the years

Starting point is 00:12:57 at Joe Biden unfailingly released his tax returns, or Barack Obama, or Jimmy Carter, or Bill Clinton, or anyone. And then people can do the analysis that they need to make so they can make the decisions. And the intelligence community can make decisions about whether a foreign power has corrupted and undermined our president. Do we have what would used to be referred to as a Manchurian candidate? Literally, do we have a mentoring candidate in the form of Donald Trump?

Starting point is 00:13:27 Because the Chinese government has gotten so in bed with him in business that he pulls his punches when it comes to foreign policy. This is something the intelligence community will evaluate for also for future presidents, as they perform their function of making our country safe. So what have we learned so far? We've learned that there is a direct link between Donald Trump and China in his business dealings in bank accounts

Starting point is 00:13:52 that he opened with the approval of the Chinese government in paying $200,000 or more in Chinese taxes. At the time, he and Melania paid $750 worth of taxes to the US government and his trying to develop buildings residential and office tower in different provinces in China and to curry favor with the Chinese government selling at below market a penthouse in the United States to a Chinese operative and then benefiting from that sale by Donald Trump taking $15 million out of the capital account related to that transaction and putting it directly into his own pocket. I mean, that is, that is where we are in day one of analysis on the release of the tax returns.

Starting point is 00:14:39 This is Michael Popak, legal AF reporting. Popoq Legal AF reporting.

Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Trump connections with Chinese Government EXPOSED in Taxes

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.