Trump's Tax Returns and Money Laundering

[El_Kabong]

@HurricaneDitka

The word you chose was “reporting”. If what O’Donnell did qualifies in your mind, that goes a long ways towards explaining the mess we’re in as a country. The 4th Estate went off the rails sometime back in 2016 and has never recovered.

O’Donnell made it very clear that the statement about Russian co-signers to Trump loans was from a single source and that (IIRC) neither the source nor O’Donnell had seen any documents to that effect. Me, I would have tried to resist the desire to get out a scoop and held off until I had confirmation from multiple sources or a copy of the relevant documentation, but O’Donnell has left his ass hanging out on this and it’s his ass (not to mention MSNBC’s) that will be smacked if the story turns out to be false. Which would be a political win for you and your ilk, so I’m not entirely sure what you’re complaining about here.

[scr4]

@Wrenching_Spanners

For example, let’s look at tax fraud. I’m under the impression that the IRS is pretty good at identifying tax fraud. If Trump has filed a fraudulent tax return, then why is there going to be some sudden relevant evidence that the IRS has missed?

Isn’t it possible that, if Trump lied in his tax returns and the IRS didn’t notice, but if it’s made public, someone else may see it and know it to be a lie? E.g. if someone had business dealings with Trump, and Trump failed to report it to the IRS.

[bizzwire]

@BobLibDem

Of course they would. There is nothing he could do to make the Republicans disavow him because they are scared shitless of his base.

When they learn that he’s not a billionaire and is in hock to the Russian mob, he’ll lose some of his luster with the “temporarily distressed millionaires” who voted for him

[bobot]

@El_Kabong

O’Donnell made it very clear that the statement about Russian co-signers to Trump loans was from a single source and that (IIRC) neither the source nor O’Donnell had seen any documents to that effect. …

He should have just Faux newsed it and said that “people were saying”. You can say anything you want if you preface it that way. It’s called a Republican blanket. (It’s also called Faux newsing.)

[Aspenglow]

O’Donnell just issued an apology and a retraction. Doing the right thing to right the wrong thing.

For now.

[Moriarty]

HurricaneDitka, you’ll be happy to know that Lawrence O’Donnell has withdrawn his speculation about Russian co-signers in response to a letter from the White House threatening litigation. I’ll also try to do better next time.

Which hardly exonerates Trump against the charge that he was obtaining loans from Deutsche Bank that we’re being funded by Russian oligarchs. I mean, Trump was only getting money from Deutsche. And Deutsche was laundering Russian money.

[HurricaneDitka]

Aspenglow and Moriarty,

Classy posts, both of you.

[OttoDaFe]

@Aspenglow

O’Donnell just issued an apology and a retraction. Doing the right thing to right the wrong thing.

For now.

Perhaps I misheard, but my impression was that while O’Donnell did issue an apology (for violating journalistic ethics and NBC/MSNBC policy), he did not exactly retract the story in the sense of saying it was false. At the moment it remains, to borrow a Scottish legal term, “not proven.”

[HurricaneDitka]

@OttoDaFe

Perhaps I misheard, but my impression was that while O’Donnell did issue an apology (for violating journalistic ethics and NBC/MSNBC policy), he did not exactly retract the story in the sense of saying it was false. At the moment it remains, to borrow a Scottish legal term, “not proven.”

His statement was:

“This afternoon, attorneys for the president sent us a letter asserting the story is false. They also demanded a retraction. Tonight, we are retracting the story,” O’Donnell continued. “We don’t know whether the information is inaccurate. The fact is we do know it wasn’t ready for broadcast and for that I apologize.”

[guizot]

What he did–that kind of innuendo–is something Trump and Fox do constantly on a daily basis. It is shamelessly the bread-and-butter of their rhetoric. At least he had enough principles to retract it, which is something Trump and his brain handlers at Fox pretty much never do.

[HurricaneDitka]

I’m not sure the incident in which he violated MSNBC’s journalistic ethics is the right time to be lauding him for his “principles”. He sounds to me like a man trying to save his job:

“Last night on this show, I discussed information that wasn’t ready for reporting,” O’Donnell said. “I repeated statements a single source told me about the president’s finances and loan documents with Deutsche Bank saying ‘if true’-- as I discussed the information-- was simply not good enough. I did not go through the rigorous verification and standards process here at MSNBC before repeating what I heard from my source. Had it gone through that process, I would not have been permitted to report it. I should not have said it on-air or post it on Twitter. I was wrong to do so.”

[elucidator]

Well of course he’s trying to save his job, he follows Rachel “Mad Dog” Maddow, with the cheerleader’s enthusiasm, girlish giggle and steel-trap mind! I frequently watch the opening of his show, mostly because the remote is out of reach.

Suppose the SDMB was a channel, and you had to post every night right after Sean Hannity and Tucker Tucker Bug Fucker! And Bone was dropping by every other day, leaving brochures for retirement villages on your desk!

[E-DUB]

Think this might have been an attempted “Rathering”? The fact that there is no allegation against trump that would shock me, up to and including his alleged presence on the grassy knoll, doesn’t make them all true.