Five city employees and a former Trump Organization employee say the president's company used middlemen to pay New York City tax assessors to lower building assessments and pay less taxes in the 1980s and 1990s. That's according to new reporting from Trump, Inc., a podcast from WNYC Studios and ProPublica.
"We know that Trump was at least aware of some of the meetings that was being held with these 'tax consultants' or middlemen - the go-betweens with the tax assessors," said Katherine Sullivan, who reported the story alongside ProPublica's Heather Vogell and WNYC's Andrea Bernstein. "But we don't know exactly what he knew about what they were doing to lower his tax bill. One former city employee did tell me that when he was accepting money for a bribe and he complained about how much money he was being given, the middleman responded, 'You know, Donald thinks you should be doing this for free.'"
The Trump Organization’s chief legal officer, Alan Garten, denied that Trump Organization's principals or employees paid bribes. He wrote in his statement. “This was corroborated by multiple investigations which found no evidence of any wrongdoing by the company or any of its principals. ... If anything, the Trump Organization was a victim of the scandal.”
Overall, the decades-long bribery scheme included hundreds of properties and cost New York City more than $160 million in lost revenue. Eighteen assessors were indicted; most of them served time in prison and many are still paying restitution.
You can listen to the full story on the latest episode of Trump, Inc., or read it at ProPublica. Subscribe to Trump, Inc. here or wherever you listen to podcasts.