On Wednesday, the New York Times reported that upon Chris Christie’s 2010 election to governor of New Jersey, Donald Trump was forgiven $25 million of tax debt he owed to the state. When Christie was sworn into office, Trump owed the state almost $30 million in back taxes from casino ventures and had been in court over it for six years. According to the Times, the New Jersey government “had doggedly pursued the matter through two of the casinos’ bankruptcy cases and even accused the company led by Mr. Trump of filing false reports with state casino regulators about the amount of taxes it had paid.”
But when Christie — a longtime friend of Trump’s — moved into the governor’s mansion, everything changed. Suddenly, the state was willing to entertain settlement offers that greatly favored the tax-evading casino owner. In December 2011, Trump cleared his debts with a payment of only $5 million, a sixth of what was owed. Though the deal is shrouded in mystery, Trump has bragged about his ability to cut deals to avoid tax burdens before. The Republican presidential nominee said on Fox News last year that only “a stupid person, a really stupid person, is paying a lot of taxes.”
The Times discovered the tax dispute in a deep dive into thousands of documents filed in the bankruptcies of Trump’s casinos. According to the newspaper, Trump failed to pay taxes on his casinos’ business between 2002 and 2006, during which time the Republican presidential nominee “reaped millions of dollars in fees and bonuses from the company, even as it underperformed [compared to] competitors, lost money every year and saw its stock collapse.”
Trump and Christie have been friends since 2002, when Christie was serving as the United States attorney for New Jersey. Trump attended Christie’s inauguration in 2010. After endorsing Donald Trump for president this February, Christie said, “Donald and I, along with Melania and Mary Pat, have been friends for over a decade. He has been a good and loyal friend.”
(Via New York Times)