Trump Organization guilty of tax fraud as Jan 6 criminal referrals expected – live

A New York City jury has convicted two subsidiaries of former president Donald Trump’s eponymous real estate and licensing company, the Trump Organization of charges stemming from what prosecutors described as a sweeping, multi-decade scheme to avoid paying payroll taxes by compensating top executives with untaxed benefits such as housing and automobiles.

Jurors rendered a guilty verdict on all of the 15 charges included in an indictment filed last year against the Trump Corporation and the Trump Payroll Corporation, as well as its long-time chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg.

Andrew Feinberg reports on this breaking story.

As the January 6 committee says it will be making criminal referrals to the Department of Justice (but has not said specifically who), the prospect of a former president being criminally charged has crept closer.

But, as Andrew Buncombe writes, we have been here before, many times.

The family of a US Capitol Police officer who received a posthumous Congressional Medal of Honor for his service during a violent riot inside the halls of Congress refused to shake hands with Republican leadership who presented the family with the award during a formal ceremony.

Alex Woodward has the story.

A recently appointed special counsel at the US Department of Justice has issued subpoenas for documents in three states that were central to former president Donald Trump’s attempt to subvert the outcome of the 2020 presidential election

Special counsel Jack Smith has subpoenaed officials in Arizona, Michigan and Wisconsin for communications with the former president, his campaign and others within his circle.

Alex Woodward has the story.

Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has commented on former President Donald Trump’s calls for the termination of the Constitution.

“Anyone seeking the presidency who thinks that the constitution should somehow be suspended or not followed seems to me would have a very hard time being sworn in as the President of the United States,” he said.

The Independent’s Eric Garcia notes that Mr McConnelll doesn’t say Mr Trump’s comments disqualify him from running for the presidency.

Jurors started deliberating Monday in the Trump Organization’s criminal tax fraud trial, weighing charges that former President Donald Trump’s company helped executives dodge personal income taxes on perks such as Manhattan apartments and luxury cars.

The deliberations follow a monthlong trial that featured testimony from seven witnesses, including longtime Trump Organization finance chief Allen Weisselberg and Senior Vice President and Controller Jeffrey McConney. An outside accountant who spent years preparing tax returns for Trump and the company also testified.

On Monday (5 December), Trump wrote on Truth Social: “Kirstie was a great person who truly loved the USA. She will be missed!!!”

As a businessman and president, Donald Trump faced a litany of lawsuits and criminal investigations yet emerged from the legal scrutiny time and again with his public and political standing largely intact.

But he’s perhaps never confronted a probe as perilous as the Mar-a-Lago investigation, an inquiry focused on the potential mishandling of top-secret documents. The sense of vulnerability has been heightened in recent weeks not only by the Justice Department‘s appointment of a special counsel with a reputation for aggressiveness but also by the removal of a Trump-requested independent arbiter in the case and by judges’ unequivocal rejection of his lawyers’ arguments.

It’s impossible to predict how much longer the investigation will last or whether the Justice Department will take the unprecedented step of indicting a former president and current candidate. But Trump is no longer shielded from prosecution the way he was as president, and some legal experts regard the Mar-a-Lago investigation as centered on more straightforward factual and legal questions than the prior probes he has dealt with.

Special counsel Jack Smith has subpoenaed local officials in Arizona, Michigan, and Wisconsin for any and all communications with former President Donald Trump, his campaign, and a long list of aides and allies, The Washington Post reports.

The three states were central to the former president’s attempt to remain in power after the 2020 election.

Requests for records arrived in Dane County, Wisconsin; Maricopa County, Arizona; and Wayne County, Michigan last week, and in Milwaukee on Monday, officials told the Post.

These are the first known subpoenas issued by Mr Smith, who last month was named as a special counsel by Attorney General Merrick Garland with purview over the January 6 Capitol attack case and the criminal investigation into Mr Trump’s possible mishandling of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate.