Busted: the illegal money trail from Donald Trump’s Las Vegas hotel to his campaign
When Donald Trump’s tax returns leaked two weeks ago, they were damning in their own right – but they felt like just the first of many shoes to drop when it came to Trump’s finances. Sure enough, now some of the specifics of Trump’s financial house of cards are starting to surface, and the whole thing is looking uglier by the minute.
When Donald Trump was broke during his 2016 campaign and Deutsche Bank cut him off, he suddenly received a $21 million one-off payment from his Las Vegas hotel, according to a New York Times expose today. During that same time period Trump donated $10 million to his campaign, which was also broke. This is a big deal, because if the money that came from the hotel is the same money that he gave to his campaign, that’s an illegal campaign contribution, and he committed a felony.
It’s not at all surprising to learn that Donald Trump committed a financial felony. We all know he’s committed hundreds or thousands of financial felonies over the years. But whereas some forms of financial fraud are tricky to prove, campaign finance fraud is generally cut and dry. This $21 million from the hotel is precisely the kind of crime that Trump will be tried and convicted for, once he’s out of office. And even if Trump manages to pardon himself on the federal crimes, the state level criminal charges are also waiting for him.
