Last weekend, some of Donald Trump’s tax documents surfaced in a New York Times writer’s mailbox. The paper published away and revealed two things: (1) Trump suffered a 1995 loss of close to $1 billion; (2) This would have allowed him to skip out on federal taxes for nearly two decades. In the aftermath, Trump (who previously said he’d be “smart” for not paying taxes) called himself “brilliant” for managing to maneuver so well within the tax code, which he claims he knows better than anyone.
Trump’s ex-accountant feels differently. Jack Mitnick, who previously spoke with The Times and confirmed the released documents’ authenticity, did the talk show tour on Wednesday to set the record straight. Mitnick did Trump’s taxes until 1996, and he was the one to finagle that sweet tax deal after Trump’s staggering loss. He negates the Trump-created myth: “I did all the tax preparation. He never saw the product until it was presented to him for signature.” Mitnick spoke out in response to Trump praising himself after his surrogates went a little nutso in their enthusiasm to defend him. Rudy Giuliani even labelled Trump as a “genius,” which is quite a stretch.
In this CNN interview, Mitnick emphasizes that Trump had “zero” involvement in preparing or otherwise assisting with his taxes. None.
