Just as you might have predicted, Lara Trump got a friendly platform to lie about the criminal charges just filed against her husband’s business and CFO Allen Weisselberg.
The New York Times explains the charges:
The indictment accused the Trump Organization and Mr. Weisselberg of engaging in a 15-year scheme starting in 2005 to help executives evade taxes by compensating them with perks and bonuses that were kept off the books. The company also dodged some taxes it would have owed, the indictment said.
The indictment called Mr. Weisselberg one of the largest beneficiaries of the scheme, and said that he received about $1.76 million in indirect and hidden compensation, allowing him to evade hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes at every level of government. It said that he had improperly received a total of $133,000 in federal and state tax refunds as well.
Mr. Weisselberg is also accused of receiving free rent, cars for both him and his wife, and private school tuition for relatives. The company helped Mr. Weisselberg falsely claim he lived outside New York City, easing his tax burden, the indictment said.
And it said that Mr. Weisselberg and other executives were paid bonuses through Trump properties including the Mar-a-Lago Club, and that income was then reported as if they were contractors rather than regular employees. That allowed Mr. Weisselberg to make contributions to a type of tax-deferred pension plan that is available for self-employed people, the indictment said, enabling him to earn hundreds of thousands of dollars that he should not have.
Furthermore, the Times notes, “the investigation is continuing, and it now appears to be focused squarely on Mr. Trump as well as other company executives. Prosecutors and a team of outside forensic auditors and experts are continuing to comb through millions of pages of Mr. Trump’s personal and corporate tax returns, as well as the underlying records and documents.”
The reference to “other company executives” almost surely includes Lara’s husband, Eric Trump, as well as siblings Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump.
But on Fox, personal responsibility is always for others, especially Blacks, and not for the ever-victimized Republicans. Subbing for Sean Hannity, host Dan Bongino introduced the subject:
BONGINO: The witch hunt against President Trump unfortunately continues. Prosecutors now are targeting the Trump Organization. This as Hunter Biden and his father Joe continue to get a free pass and largely ignored and get away with whatever they want.
Like her colleague #LyingKayleighMcEnany, Lara Trump is a habitual liar, too. Instead of claiming innocence, Trump lied and deflected – with some help from Bongino:
BONGINO: So, Lara, we went through this litany of problems, a lot of it being magnified in New York City, a city you’re very familiar with, the place is in total chaos. And we have a prosecutor there, Cy Vance, who in his list of things he's concerned about, you think it would be crime, you know, terrorism, the struggling economy, people fleeing New York like Snake Plissken from the `80s movie.
But, no, no, they want to go after the CFO of the Trump Organization for free parking or something like that. Priorities, you know?
TRUMP: Yeah, it is so outrageous to see this. You're exactly right. People that are committing real crimes are just being let go, nothing is being done about it.
Let me be very clear with people, what we saw happen to Allen Weisselberg today was absolutely disgraceful. Had this happened to anyone else, we are talking about five years of an investigation by Cy Vance, the district attorney. We are talking about three and a half million pages of documents because they’re so desperate, Dan, to find anything on Donald Trump because they want to disqualify him from running for president in 2024.
The best they could come up with was a corporate car for the CFO of the Trump Organization. Yet, they paraded him into criminal court in handcuffs in front of these horrible people in the media. It was a disgusting display.
Yet, you're right. They’re letting real criminals go.
And, by the way, what about Hunter Biden? We know this guy absolutely broke the law numerous times. Nothing is done about that. They go out of their way to try to disqualify Donald Trump, it is disgusting, and the message it sends to every single American is, if this can happen to Donald Trump, think about what they could do to you. Disgraceful.
BONGINO: Yeah, yeah Hunter Biden is in protected class. You know, he's a Democrat.
The other guest, Mike Huckabee, didn’t care about tax fraud, either. He “quipped” a suggested strategy for the Trump family: “Any time you're investigated, simply say, I identify as Hunter Biden, because if you can do that, you will never be investigated. Nobody will ever lay a finger on you. Nobody will care what you do."
It's worth noting: Lara Trump never denied the charges.
You can watch these three prove they don’t care about criminality below, from the July 1, 2021 Hannity.
In the case of the Trump Organization, there have been real felonies committed, and quite serious ones. Angry Right Wingers’ attempts to gaslight with discussion of Hunter Biden misses the part where Hunter Biden did not commit any crimes. And angry Right Wingers in the same breath will condemn Hunter Biden for taking this or that Board position while sticking up for the Trump kids with no sense of irony.
Regarding vaccinations, I’m waiting to hear the CDC change their classification of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines from “Emergency Authorization” to “General Use”. When we get to a GU designation, employers, public facilities and private businesses should be able to mandate that employees, customers and visitors get their vaccinations. Also, there is a pod of reluctant people who are just waiting for the GU designation to get them off the fence. Once that happens, we should see a fresh wave of people getting the shots and that should get us to Herd Immunity. (I also expect the fall flu shots to include a booster for COVID variants, although Pfizer and Moderna appear to be effective against them already). Once we get to that point, the only people left unvaccinated will be a number of Pence White House supporters, who will be effectively voting themselves off the island without significantly impacting anyone else.
I’m told by family and friends that the unvaccinated are starting to complain about being considered pariahs. Good! A flea in their ear is what’s needed and society as a whole stands to gain.
Pity that some of them will have to wind up in the hospital or the cemetery before deciding to believe the specialists instead of their plumber or electrician.
