dagblog - Comments for "FBI raided Manafort's home in July"

I got my law training from

PeraclesPlease — Fri, 11 Aug 2017 12:40:10 +0000

In reply to On Such as tax "laws" that

I got my law training from Clueless and Legally Blond. So far has served me well.

P.S. You are correct that LLC

artappraiser — Fri, 11 Aug 2017 08:39:34 +0000

In reply to On Such as tax "laws" that

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.

On Such as tax "laws" that

artappraiser — Fri, 11 Aug 2017 08:29:11 +0000

In reply to To be fair, the government is

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..

To be fair, the government is

PeraclesPlease — Fri, 11 Aug 2017 08:08:41 +0000

In reply to U-G-L-Y: Team Trump Shivs

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.

Report: Trump Campaign

artappraiser — Fri, 11 Aug 2017 07:57:56 +0000

In reply to U-G-L-Y: Team Trump Shivs

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

Paul Manafort squealed to authorities about the now-infamous 2016 meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and a Russian lawyer, Bloomberg reports in a piece about special counsel Robert Mueller putting the screws to the former Trump campaign manager. The revelation about the meeting, which Manafort attended, is buried in a story that emphasizes Mueller’s attempt to flip the 68-year-old Trump ally and make him an asset for the prosecution.

It’s unclear when Manafort told authorities about the meeting, which is a detail of some import. But if we assume Manafort tipped off investigators about the meeting before it became public last month, then he’s shown some openness to helping out the prosecution, which may give Mueller reason to believe he can be persuaded to fully switch sides.

That could explain why the special counsel is reportedly being so aggressive in his pursuit of Manafort’s records, sending grand jury subpoenas to banks, raiding his house, and expanding the probe to look into the business dealings of his business partner, Rick Gates, and his son-in-law.

Mueller’s investigation into Manafort was helped along by work done by former Southern District of New York U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara [....]

U-G-L-Y: Team Trump Shivs

artappraiser — Fri, 11 Aug 2017 07:50:49 +0000

In reply to FBI raided Manafort's home in July

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.’

@ DailyBeast.com, 08.10.17 9:00 PM ET

Starting to strike me that people may have setting themselves up with too high expectations for Mueller and too low for Trump. Though Trump may clearly be a stupid idiot at all the stuff he's trying to do now, he's got decades of experience at skating out of shady situations and away from past shady connections and coming back up a "billionaire" time and again.

Politico is reporting that

artappraiser — Thu, 10 Aug 2017 01:55:43 +0000

In reply to Interesting point from Shane

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

Interesting point from Shane

artappraiser — Wed, 09 Aug 2017 16:52:23 +0000

In reply to FBI raided Manafort's home in July

Interesting point from Shane Shavitsky @ Axios.com

Why it matters: It raises the possibility that Mueller is trying to build a more expansive case against Manafort — unconnected to the 2016 election and possibly tied to his foreign lobbying — in order to flip him against other top Trump team members.

because

Manafort had already provided some of the documents to Congress. "Mr. Manafort has consistently cooperated with law enforcement and other serious inquiries and did so on this occasion as well," Jason Maloni, Manafort's spokesperson, told Axios

After coming across the below

artappraiser — Wed, 09 Aug 2017 15:04:31 +0000

In reply to FBI raided Manafort's home in July

After coming across the below yesterday, I hope the Manafort search was not a case "FBI agents gone wild"

U.S. Drops Case Against N.Y. Financier After Judge Slams FBI

By Bob Van Voris @ Bloomberg.com

August 8, 2017, 5:18 PM EDT August 8, 2017, 8:43 PM EDT

Move is second high-profile prosecution halted in recent weeks

Charges were thrown out in ‘London Whale’ fraud case in July

[....] Prosecutors said in a filing on Tuesday that the case was “based in significant part” on the evidence seized in overly broad searches of Wey’s home and office. U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan ruled in June that the government’s conduct reflected “at least, grossly negligent or reckless disregard” of Wey’s constitutional rights [....]

During a January 2012 search of Wey’s Wall Street office and apartment, agents seized at least 14 terabytes of computer information and items that included family x-rays, medical prescriptions, documents tied to Wey’s divorce and even his child’s PSAT college test scores. The government kept the property for at least three years.

“This case should serve as a powerful reminder for years to come that the government must adhere to fundamental safeguards of our privacy and liberty when conducting searches,” Wey’s lawyer, David Siegal, said in a statement [....]