Coming February 6, 2024 . . .
MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE
by Michael Wolraich
Pre-order at Barnes & Noble / Amazon / Books-A-Million / Bookshop
Coming February 6, 2024 . . . MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE by Michael Wolraich Pre-order at Barnes & Noble / Amazon / Books-A-Million / Bookshop |
Comments
After coming across the below yesterday, I hope the Manafort search was not a case "FBI agents gone wild"
by artappraiser on Wed, 08/09/2017 - 11:04am
Interesting point from Shane Shavitsky @ Axios.com
because
by artappraiser on Wed, 08/09/2017 - 12:52pm
Politico is reporting that "earlier this summer" they put a lot of pressure on the son-in-law trying to get “into Manafort’s head.” :
Feds sought cooperation from Manafort's son-in-law
The former Trump campaign chairman is the focus of inquiries into his business dealings as well as Russian meddling in the 2016 election
08/09/2017 07:25 PM EDT
by artappraiser on Wed, 08/09/2017 - 9:55pm
U-G-L-Y: Team Trump Shivs Paul Manafort: There’s ‘Plenty for Mueller to Work With’
As the Russia probe widens, White House aides are pointing fingers at Trump’s former campaign chair: ‘There is no trust… There never really was any to begin with.’
by artappraiser on Fri, 08/11/2017 - 3:50am
Report: Trump Campaign Manager Paul Manafort Tipped Off the Feds to Don Jr.’s Russia Meeting
By Adam K. Raymond @ Daily Intelligencer @ NYMag.com, Aug. 10
by artappraiser on Fri, 08/11/2017 - 3:57am
To be fair, the government is frequently outlawyered when it comes to rich suspects, especially in tax cases where Republicans have continually pushed to gut oversight and make the authority murky. Such as tax "laws" that really aren't red lines, as you noted, but are more a starting point for negotiations.
There was an article yesterday about how Chris Christie got outlawyered in his plea deal with Kushner's father. What looked good on paper ended up a sweetheart deal for a con with few concessions or admissions of guilt. The recent Manhattan money laundering case was similar - largely they had the guys red-handed, but in a way that would be hard to present to a jury with available evidence, so they settled for what seems a scandalously low amount with no admission of guilt. Of course 1 party is intent on keeping it this way, for some reason, maybe both, perhaps because they'll roll over on their backs for even $10K in campaign contributions, which is chump change for guys making millions and billions.
by PeraclesPlease on Fri, 08/11/2017 - 4:08am
On Such as tax "laws" that really aren't red lines, as you noted, but are more a starting point for negotiations.
You sum this up quite succinctly here what I was trying to say on that past thread. I can't emphasize enough how much I believe this is the reality of that world, from learning much more about it the last couple years. It is what corporate tax attorneys do for a living. There are no red lines. It is mostly kept out of criminal law for very practical reasons of income all around, including income for the Treasury. It is civil law, and yes, exactly it's "a starting point for negotiations."
It's because of the complexity of our tax law. I actually see very old past arguments by Steve Forbes types about simplifying tax law in a whole different light now. Those types were not arguing trickle down as much as they were arguing anti-bureaucracy for freeing up capital and labor and energy into different pursuits than figuring accounting and taxes, on both sides of the game. Fewer tax lawyers making big bucks, fewer IRS agents torturing over years trying to get people to write as big checks as possible without crossing a line where they go to court. Sometimes the latter could even be called extortion, they don't follow exact rules either, they are just trying to maximize income for the Treasury.
All of it quite cynical. Which encourages lack of respect for the gummint.
Very like the health insurance problem, actually, much of the complexity would go vamoose with single payer, lots of bureaucratic jobs gone too..
by artappraiser on Fri, 08/11/2017 - 4:29am
P.S. You are correct that LLC land is a little bit Wild West. There are always court cases going on changing the laws on them all the time. Even top tax attorneys don't always know. It is complicated in that they include so many just average people using them. You actually have to file a formal request with the IRS to file LLC taxes as a separate return, as a separate corporate entity. Before you do that, the only way you can file for the LLC is on Schedule C of a personal 1040. The IRS must approve you filing for it as a separate entity. People with good tax lawyers and accountants would do this automatically for the first time filing, to have the corporate veil right at the start, so most people aren't aware of that.
by artappraiser on Fri, 08/11/2017 - 4:39am
I got my law training from Clueless and Legally Blond. So far has served me well.
by PeraclesPlease on Fri, 08/11/2017 - 8:40am