Donald Trump Chooses Biglaw Firm To Fight New York Times Over Publication Of Tax Documents

Which Biglaw firm might file suit on his behalf?

Donald Trump

Donald Trump

On Saturday night, the New York Times published three pages from Donald Trump’s 1995 tax returns, specifically, the first page of a New York State resident income tax return, the first page of a New Jersey nonresident tax return, and the first page of a Connecticut nonresident tax return. Jack Mitnick, the lawyer and certified public accountant who handled Trump’s tax matters until 1996 (and for more than 30 years prior), said the documents were “legit.” Taken as a whole, those records show that Trump declared a loss of about $916 million in 1995, a tax deduction that would have allowed him to avoid paying any federal income taxes for nearly two decades.

Trump himself refused to comment on the tax records obtained and published by the Times, but his campaign released a statement, which reads in relevant part:

The only news here is that the more than 20 year-old alleged tax document was illegally obtained, a further demonstration that the New York Times, like establishment media in general, is an extension of the Clinton Campaign, the Democratic Party and their global special interests.

Mr. Trump is a highly-skilled businessman who has a fiduciary responsibility to his business, his family and his employees to pay no more tax than legally required. That being said, Mr. Trump has paid hundreds of millions of dollars in property taxes, sales and excise taxes, real estate taxes, city taxes, state taxes, employee taxes and federal taxes, along with very substantial charitable contributions.

The Times later received a letter via email from Marc E. Kasowitz, name partner at Kasowitz Benson Torres & Friedman, which stated that the publication of Trump’s tax records was illegal because Trump had not authorized their disclosure, threatening “prompt initiation of appropriate legal action.”

How did the superior legal minds at Kasowitz Benson get caught up in this mess?

It seems that attorneys from the firm have represented Trump in all manner of matters since at least 2001. Such matters have included, but are certainly not limited to, the restructuring of $1.3 billion in bondholder debt connected to his Atlantic City casinos; a defamation case filed against the author of TrumpNation: The Art of Being the Donald (affiliate link), for stating that the businessman was worth between $150 million and $250 million, not billions (a suit that Trump later lost); and the fight to keep filings from his 1990 divorce from ex-wife Ivana Trump sealed. Here’s more from the Am Law Daily:

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Kasowitz Benson has been a longtime legal adviser to Trump, advising him on numerous engagements…. …

“[Kasowitz Benson] are not good lawyers, they’re phenomenal lawyers,” Trump told The American Lawyer in a 2004 feature story about the firm, specifically singling out [David] Friedman for praise. “They’re highly talented with great insight into the future.”

Perhaps it’s thanks to the lawyers at Kasowitz Benson that Trump thinks he “knows the tax code far better than anyone who has ever run for President,” and why he believes that “he is the only one that knows how to fix it.”

Trump Taps Kasowitz Amid Times Tax Drama [Am Law Daily]
Donald Trump Tax Records Show He Could Have Avoided Taxes for Nearly Two Decades, The Times Found [New York Times]


Staci Zaretsky is an editor at Above the Law. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments. Follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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