De Blasio: Trump 'Would Never Have Been President' If Some NYers Had Done Their Jobs

Donald Trump and Mayor Ed Koch pointing at a rendering of the New York Hyatt Hotel, which received a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/18/nyregion/donald-trump-tax-breaks-real-estate.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">40-year tax break</a> costing the city $360 million

New York tax authorities are looking to recover millions of dollars allegedly swiped from city and state coffers by Donald Trump, following a bombshell report exposing the president as a serial fraudster who orchestrated and benefitted from a series of elaborate schemes intended to minimize the amount of taxes he paid on his trust fund.

In a lengthy investigation published on Tuesday, the New York Times reported that Trump, who's long postured as a self-made millionaire, received at least $413 million from his father's (habitually racist) real estate empire. The vast inheritance was made larger by a "sham corporation" set up by Trump and his siblings, the Times found, which helped the family avoid hundreds of millions of dollars in owed taxes. The children, who should've owed at least $550 million in taxes, managed to pay just $55.2 million on the familial gifts, thanks to the corporation and other instances of "outright fraud."

One of their favorite tactics, according to the Times, involved fudging the actual value of Fred Trump's properties by taking advantage of "friendly" appraisals and blindspots in the IRS's auditing system. (In one instance, the family claimed that some 6,988 apartments were worth just $41.4 million; soon after, a bank put that same valuation at $900 million). The family was also known to jack up rents in stabilized apartments by falsely claiming that major capital improvements had been made—a maneuver that tenant advocates say remains all too common throughout the city.

In response to that and other takeaways from the wide-ranging report, de Blasio announced the city's intention "to recoup any money that Donald Trump owes the people of New York City, period." The state's tax authorities also opened their own investigation, and the (likely) future Attorney General of New York, Letitia James, called for additional inquiries from any agency with jurisdiction.

Asked on Wednesday what the city should've done differently, the mayor acknowledged that Trump's long history of tax avoidance was in many ways an "indictment of the culture of New York City and New York State going back decades."

"There was a good old boy network that obviously Donald Trump played like a fiddle and evaded the kind of regulation and investigation and prosecution he should have received many times over," de Blasio told reporters. He then went on to suggest that Trump had likely bribed his way out of IRS scrutiny.

"I think the bigger history will come out about at some point about how he finagled and paid his way to being somehow able to escape the kind of scrutiny and prosecution he deserved," the mayor said. "Honestly if a lot of people in New York State had done their jobs he would never have been president of the United States."

While there's no statute of limitations to apply civil fines, tax experts say that it's probably too late to criminally prosecute the president for his role in the family's racket. But while we're on the subject, New York's tax authorities might consider looking into the ultra-rich tax-dodgers and shady rent gougers who haven't yet made their way to the White House.