Here are all of Trump’s legal problems

Becoming president has a capped a remarkable career for Donald Trump. But it has also triggered legal scrutiny of his business and personal activities that could dog Trump for the rest of his life, and even touch his children.

The latest discoveries come from a thorough New York Times investigation of the many ways Trump’s father, Fred Trump, avoided $500 million in estate taxes and other liabilities while giving more than $1 billion to Donald and his four other children. Trump fashions himself a self-made billionaire, but the Times exposé portrays Trump as a gilded trust-funder repeatedly bailed out of failed business deals by his rich father, who founded the Trump real-estate empire in Queens, New York, in the 1940s.

Perhaps worse for Trump, the Times piece declares in the first paragraph that Trump participated in “outright fraud.” The “most overt fraud,” according to the Times, was a Trump company called All County Building Supply & Maintenance, formed in 1992 as a purchasing agent for equipment needed in the family’s many real-estate holdings. But instead of purchasing equipment, the company funneled undertaxed money from the real-estate business to All County’s owners, including Donald Trump. The Times also alleges that Trump’s father pervasively undervalued his real-estate holdings, to dodge taxes, and used other tax-avoidance strategies that were legally questionable.

President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Southaven, Miss. on Oct. 2, 2018, (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Southaven, Miss. on Oct. 2, 2018, (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

In a statement, a lawyer for President Trump said the allegations in the Times story are “100% false.” The Trump family relied on properly licensed lawyers, accountants and appraisers in its financial dealings, according to the statement, and federal and state tax authorities approved most tax payments. When those authorities asked for adjustments, the Trump family made them.

Still, Trump has denied virtually every legal claim against him, even when he settled lawsuits and paid out money. And the Times story will probably add to a raft of legal problems Trump is likely to face for years. Here are some of the most prominent:

Possible tax-evasion charges. Following publication of the Times exposé, the New York Department of Taxation and Finance said it is reviewing the allegations and “pursuing all avenues of appropriate investigation.” Crain’s New York Business estimates that Trump could be on the hook for as much as $400 million in unpaid taxes, interest and penalties. But that doesn’t mean the state will go after Trump or his company, for tax filings that go back decades, in some instances. At the federal level, by contrast, it’s hard to foresee the IRS, headed by newly confirmed Trump appointee Charles Rettig, pursuing Trump on charges raised in the Times. Prosecutors might be interested in other charges of fraud contained in the article, but for some of those there are statutes of limitation that may have expired.