John,

The slow drip, drip, drip of revelations from the New York Times bombshell reporting continues beyond Trump’s apparent tax dodging schemes.

The latest focuses on more than $21 million in “highly unusual payments” made to Trump throughout the 2016 election―when Trump was supposedly “self-funding” his campaign.[1] These revelations, which the New York Times calls “legally problematic,” suggest illegal campaign contributions and subsequent, equally illegal tax write-offs. Trump claimed tens of millions of dollars in business expenses that may have actually been impermissibly large campaign contributions.

Join Americans for Tax Fairness and call on both the Internal Revenue Service and Federal Election Commission to investigate Trump’s tax returns and his personal campaign contributions.

Just seven weeks before the 2016 election, Donald Trump and his Las Vegas business partner Phil Ruffin―who personally donated more than $2.5 million to Trump’s campaign and his scandal-ridden Trump Foundation―borrowed $30 million from City National Bank in Los Angeles. According to the New York Times, Mr. Ruffin “personally [guaranteed] nearly the entire amount.”

At least some of that money may have then been funneled through a Trump-controlled shell corporation, and then paid out directly to Trump in cash payments to bail out his cash-strapped campaign.

In the final weeks of the 2016 election, Trump made a “surprising” $10 million contribution to his campaign. So, the question is, where did that money come from? Was it from the Ruffin-backed loan? If so, that would be an illegal campaign contribution, well in excess of contribution limits. And, if that money was then written off as a business expense in Trump’s tax returns, that would also be illegal.

Sign the petition and demand the IRS and FEC immediately investigate Donald Trump’s tax returns and personal campaign contributions.

These shady financial dealings should come as no surprise. Throughout 2016, Trump flouted election laws, using his tax-exempt foundation to host election events while allowing his then-campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, to illegally control the Trump Foundation’s assets.[2]

These revelations also explain, once again, why Trump has been hiding his tax returns from the American people and how his apparent brazen abuse of tax laws also extend to federal election law.

Thank you for taking action today to hold Donald Trump accountable to the American people.

Frank Clemente
Executive Director
Americans for Tax Fairness

[1] "Trump engineered a sudden windfall in 2016 as campaign funds dwindled," October 9, 2020, New York Times

[2] "'Repeated and willful self-dealing': 5 details from the New York attorney general lawsuit against the Trump Foundation," June 14, 2018, Vox