- Jury selection begins Monday in the Trump Organization tax evasion trial.
- Trump could be banned from doing business with the federal government if his company is found guilty.
- The ban could end his “exorbitant” billing of Secret Service agents who protect him at his resort.
Donald Trump’s real estate and golf resort empire goes on trial in Manhattan on Monday, beginning a lawsuit in a low-level corporate fraud case with high financial stakes, including potential fines and tax penalties of millions of dollars It was
But there is another threatened cost, one that government spending watchdogs have been asking for for years.
If convicted, the government could ban the Trump Organization from doing business as a federal contractor. This includes Trump’s lucrative — critics say outrageous — unplugging the bills of his agents, the Secret Service, who stay on his property while protecting the former president and his family. .
Mr. Trump is hardly an ideal government contractor under the current circumstances, regulators say. He has repeatedly been plagued with fraud allegations and has been given a federal rule requiring “impeccable standards of conduct.”
These regulations also recommend the “disqualification” or blacklisting of companies convicted of business-related crimes such as “counterfeiting, bribery, falsification or destruction of records, making false statements”. I’m here. [and] tax evasion. ”
A conviction in this payroll tax fraud trial will only lead to more calls blacklisting Trump, said Stephen L. Schooner, who teaches government procurement law at George Washington University Law School. .
Schooner said the federal government continued to do business with Trump despite two impeachments, an inaugural scandal, questions about his Trump International Hotel in DC, and the forced dissolution of Trump University and the Trump Foundation by the same New York attorney. I’ve complained jarringly over the years because The general’s office now claims he pocketed his $250 million in financial fraud.
Add to that the recent news that the Trump Organization charged the Secret Service more than $1.4 million to stay on Trump’s property during the former president’s tenure.
The Secret Service also paid Trump $1,185 per night for a room at his DC hotel and signed a $179,000 contract to rent golf carts at his golf resort in Bedminster, New Jersey.
“The rules that apply to the typical government contractor did not apply to the Trump Organization. Frankly, it is the most depressing and pernicious aspect of this pathetic story,” Schooner said. rice field.
“It’s both heartbreaking and mind-boggling,” he said of the government’s apparent reluctance to put taxpayer dollars in President Trump’s pockets. rice field.
his and her mercedes
A juror, who will be selected in a courtroom in downtown Manhattan starting Monday, said the Trump Organization would sway tax officials by paying executives a portion of their compensation off the books in the form of tax-exempt perks like free apartments and cars. We will determine if you have deceived us.
Allen Weisselberg, Trump’s former CFO, will be the lead prosecution witness against the company after pleading guilty to tax evasion schemes in August.
Weisselberg pocketed $1.7 million in tax-free benefits over 15 years, including luxury Mercedes-Benz cars for him and his wife, free use of a Trump-branded apartment on the Hudson River, and private school tuition for grandchildren. I put it in
At the Trump Organization’s headquarters in Trump Tower on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue, the car, apartment and tuition were considered part of Weisselberg’s $940,000 annual salary, prosecutors allege.
The Trump Organization has been accused of deliberately and repeatedly filing inaccurate tax forms to avoid payroll taxes on additional compensation, saving the company and its executives money.
As part of his plea, Weisselberg, who remains on the company’s payroll as an advisor, must repay $2 million and serve five months in prison.
The Trump Organization could face fines of up to $1.6 million in addition to harsh tax penalties if convicted in three tax evasion cases it was charged with and six others. Reuters calculated.
Their attorneys counter that the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, which has been run by Democrats for decades, is pursuing Penny Ante’s fringe benefit lawsuit over political bias against Trump. From the pull up in the trial.
Examples of “Disqualification”
The recent revelations of Secret Service charges and the trial that began in Manhattan have raised hopes for those seeking to terminate Trump’s government contracts.
“The Trump Organization has essentially gouged out the federal government and the federal taxpayer,” said Noah Bookbinder, president of civic responsibility and ethics in Washington.
“If convicted, it’s hard to imagine how the federal government would not ban them at that point,” he told an insider.
Procurement law professors Bookbinder and Schooner wrote a formal letter in October 2021 asking the government to cut ties with Trump’s company and its senior executives.
It was addressed to government agencies that did business with Trump, including the Federal Office of General Service, which oversees the contract, and the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Secret Service.
“Our position has not changed,” said Sean Maltin, a senior policy analyst at the Government Oversight Project, another ethics and accountability oversight group that signed the letter.
“If the organization were to convict on either of the charges, disqualification would be a foregone conclusion,” he told Insider.
Representatives for the Trump Organization and the GSA did not respond to insider requests for comment.
A Secret Service spokesman did not speculate about possible disqualification of the Trump Organization, only saying the agency would respond directly to a congressional inquiry into Trump’s charges.
Secret service is a tough target
Watchdog admits that Trump’s Secret Service billing is a difficult target.
Under federal takeover regulations, a government agency may blacklist a company because “there are compelling reasons to continue doing business with the agency and its contractors.” You can continue to use it.
For the Secret Service, that means an effective way to protect Trump and his family is not to stay at one of the resorts he currently lives in. His summer favorite is Bedminster, New Jersey. It’s the Trump National Golf Club.
“Agencies can easily say they need a contractor,” Schooner explained.
Trump allowed the Secret Service to “stay on our property for free,” as Eric Trump once promised, or voluntarily protected the Secret Service, as Richard Nixon did. Abandoned to – Trump’s Secret Service spigot could be left open. , Watchdog admits.
Still, blacklisting Trump would prevent future self-dealing in other types of contracts.
POGO’s Moultin said the Secret Service “may be able to make some claims that they are in a unique situation” because of the need to get close to the former president.
“But I still remember when Trump was pitching a G-7 meeting on one of his properties.
In 2019, Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney announced that the United States would host the 2020 G-7 summit at the Trump National Doral Golf Resort in Miami, but critics called the then-president selfish. This idea was quickly abandoned after denouncing trading and other ethical violations.
That same year, then-Vice President Mike Pence stayed at a Trump hotel 180 miles from his official duties during a trip to Ireland, and Air Force crews stayed at Trump’s luxury golf resort in Scotland. Had fun.
“If there is a future Trump administration, or a future Republican administration, the idea of hosting an official event on his property could come up.
“That’s where I think the ban still works.”
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