Tag: taxes

President Trump Files $10 Billion Lawsuit Against IRS for Leaking His Tax Returns

President Trump, Eric Trump, Don Jr., and the Trump Org filed a lawsuit against the IRS for leaking their tax returns.

They are seeking $10 billion in damages.

In September 2023, federal prosecutors charged a former IRS contractor who worked for the agency from 2018 to 2020 with unlawfully obtaining and disseminating the tax details of a high-ranking public official and numerous affluent Americans to media outlets.

According to court documents and an official press release from the Department of Justice, Charles Littlejohn, 38, of Washington, D.C., stole tax return information associated with a high-ranking government official, referred to as Public Official A  – now known as Donald Trump. He then disclosed this information to a news organization identified as News Organization 1 – now known as The New York Times.

Littlejohn reportedly stole IRS information on thousands of wealthy people. The stolen information was then disseminated to two news outlets (New York Times and ProPublica).

“In July and August 2020, Littlejohn separately stole tax return information for thousands of the nation’s wealthiest individuals. Littlejohn was again able to evade IRS detection. In November 2020, Littlejohn disclosed this tax return information to News Organization 2, which published over 50 articles using the stolen data. Littlejohn then obstructed the forthcoming investigation into his conduct by deleting and destroying evidence of his disclosures,” the DOJ previously said.

Littlejohn was only sentenced to five years in prison. Political leaders said he should have been sentenced to 60 years.

“The IRS wrongly allowed a rogue, politically-motivated employee to leak private and confidential information about President Trump, his family, and the Trump Organization to the New York Times, ProPublica and other left-wing news outlets, which was then illegally released to millions of people,” a spokesperson for Trump’s legal team told CNBC.

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Mamdani’s NYC Socialist Experiment Ended Before It Began

Margaret Thatcher once characterized socialism by saying, “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.” The experience of Zohran Mamdani’s quixotic attempt to transform New York City into a socialist paradise, an oxymoron, demonstrates that Thatcher’s observation requires an addition: you also need the permission of the people paying for it.

In layman’s terms, like a child asking his mother for ice cream money, Mamdani asked Governor Hochul for permission, and she said “no.”

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s campaign promises face structural barriers that make implementation impossible. Under New York State Constitution Article XVI, NYC mayors cannot raise taxes independently. Only the state legislature can authorize local tax increases, requiring approval from both chambers and Governor Kathy Hochul.

During a PIX11 interview in early January 2026, Hochul stated that increasing taxes on wealthy New Yorkers is “completely off the table.” She pointed out that 1.5% of New Yorkers pay one-third of the state’s entire budget. She refuses to risk driving them out with higher taxes.

Mamdani proposed a 2-percentage-point increase on NYC income tax for those earning over $1 million, raising the rate from 3.9% to 5.9%, plus increasing corporate tax rates from 7.25% to 11.5%. His campaign estimated this would generate $4 billion annually. Without this revenue, his agenda collapses.

Hochul’s January 2026 $260 billion state budget includes no income tax increases and extends the 7.25% corporate tax rate for three more years, rejecting Mamdani’s proposed increase. While State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins have expressed openness to tax increases, Hochul faces her own 2026 re-election campaign and a primary challenge from Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado.

Even if both legislative chambers pass tax increases, Hochul can veto the legislation. With her own election approaching, it is unlikely that she would take a radical decision that would alienate her wealthy donor base. Overriding a gubernatorial veto requires a two-thirds supermajority in both chambers, which Mamdani’s allies cannot achieve.

NYC Comptroller Mark Levine announced in mid-January 2026 that the city faces a $2.2 billion deficit for fiscal year 2026 and a $10.4 billion deficit for fiscal year 2027, totaling a cumulative gap of $12.6 billion. Levine blamed chronic underbudgeting by the Adams administration for rental assistance, overtime, shelter costs, public assistance, DOE due process cases, and MTA contributions, totaling $3.8 billion in unbudgeted expenses for FY2026 alone. He stated that the deficit was not caused by a bad economy but by budgeting decisions from the previous administration.

This is the first time since the Great Recession that the city faces a budget shortfall of this magnitude this late in the fiscal year. Mamdani’s first deputy mayor Dean Fuleihan stated the administration would only include new tax revenue if it were included in Hochul’s budget, which it was not.

With a severe revenue shortfall, Mamdani’s plans for free programs are unlikely to materialize. He has promised fare-free buses by eliminating the $2.90 fare on all MTA buses citywide, universal childcare, and state-funded “baby baskets” for every newborn containing formula, diapers, and postpartum supplies.

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$50 Billion and 30K Dead People: HUD’s Turner Exposes Waste, Fraud and Abuse

HUD Secretary Scott Turner announced new policy changes aimed at restricting federal housing benefits to U.S. citizens, tightening oversight of taxpayer-funded programs, and addressing what he described as large-scale waste and payment errors within the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Turner said HUD has moved to block non-permanent residents from accessing FHA-insured mortgages, while also launching audits of public housing authorities to ensure federal housing dollars are not being used to support illegal aliens.

HUD Secretary Scott Turner announced new policy changes aimed at restricting federal housing benefits to U.S. citizens, tightening oversight of taxpayer-funded programs, and addressing what he described as large-scale waste and payment errors within the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Turner said HUD has moved to block non-permanent residents from accessing FHA-insured mortgages, while also launching audits of public housing authorities to ensure federal housing dollars are not being used to support illegal aliens.

“We eliminated non permanent residents eligibility for FHA insured mortgages, and we are auditing public housing authorities to ensure taxpayer dollars don’t support illegal aliens,” Turner said.

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Gavin Newsom shoots down claim $236M program for California’s mentally ill has helped just 22 people in four years

California Governor Gavin Newsom’s $236 million program to help those with severe mental illness who bounce between homelessness and jail has helped a measly 22 people since the its launch in 2022, a new report reveals.

Newsom’s CARE Court was billed as a “completely new paradigm” to get the mentally ill off the streets and into treatment, with up to 12,000 people expected to benefit, the Daily Mail reported.

But only 22 people have been sent to treatment over the past four years, after a state analysis found that up to 50,000 could be eligible for the program.

The 22 court-ordered cases were among roughly 3,000 petitions filed statewide as of October. Of those, only 706 were approved, including 684 voluntary agreements that never intended the meet program’s goal, according to the Daily Mail.

Newsom has denied the report.

“CARE Court has helped THOUSANDS of Californians into care to recover — not 22. Even under the most NARROW definition (court-ordered treatment plans, which is one of many treatment outcomes), the number is 600+ and growing,” his press team tweeted.

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IT BEGINS: Zohran Mamdani Announces Plans to ‘Tax the Wealthy’ to Compensate for NYC Budget Deficit 

Well that was fast.

Zohran Mamdani has been mayor of New York City for less than a month and he is already talking about raising taxes on the ‘wealthy’ to make up the city’s budget deficit, which he claims is on par with the Great Recession.

Get ready to see a lot of Uhauls leaving the city.

CNBC reports:

New York Mayor Mamdani says city must hike taxes on wealthy to fill $12 billion deficit

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Wednesday said the city’s wealthiest must pay more in taxes to help fill the staggering budget deficit of more than $12 billion that he was left by his predecessor.

“This is at a scale that’s actually greater than what we saw here in New York City during the Great Recession,” Mamdani said of that budget hole during an interview with CNBC “Squawk Box” co-anchor Andrew Ross Sorkin at City Hall.

The Democrat, who took office on Jan. 1 after campaigning on a platform of hiking taxes on the rich, attributed the big deficit to “gross fiscal mismanagement.”

He pointed to actions taken by former Mayor Eric Adams, and by ex-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, whom he soundly defeated in the November general election, for causing that budget gap.

Mamdani vowed that his administration will be up front with New Yorkers about budget issues that have been “hidden from them for far too long.”

City Comptroller Mark Levine earlier this month said the new mayor faces a budget shortfall that is projected to total $12.6 billion over the next two fiscal years.

That comprises a $2.2 billion projected deficit on the city’s nearly $116 billion budget for fiscal 2026, which ends on June 30, and a $10.4 billion gap in fiscal 2027.

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Proof Positive: CA’s Homeless Industrial Complex Is Just a Giant Money-Laundering Operation

Laura Ingraham and Bill Essayli detailed new developments in California’s Homelessness Fraud and Corruption Task Force during a recent exchange focused on the state’s handling of taxpayer-funded homeless services and a growing number of criminal cases tied to misuse of public money.

Ingraham opened the discussion by pointing to the origins of the task force and its narrow focus on homelessness programs, asking why those services became the priority of the investigation.

“Back in April, you launched this task force to investigate corruption in California. You focused on homeless services. Tell us why. This might be just the tip of the fraud iceberg here,” Ingraham said.

Essayli explained that his background as both a former prosecutor in Los Angeles and a former state legislator shaped his decision to examine homelessness spending, particularly given the scale of public investment and the lack of measurable improvement.

“Yeah, Laura, remember, before I was the prosecutor here in LA, I was in the legislature. Over the last five years, California spent $24 billion on homelessness, and it only got worse. So of course, the question is, where did the money go? What happened to 24 billion?” Essayli said.

He said those questions led directly to the creation of the Homelessness Fraud and Corruption Task Force. Essayli acknowledged that federal investigations require time, even as public frustration grows.

“So I launched this task force, and just quickly, I mean, federal investigations do take time. I know the public wants action. It takes time to put these cases together,” he said.

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REPORT: $236 Million Gavin Newsom Program to Help the Mentally Ill Has Helped Only 22 People in Four Years

A $236 million program heralded by California Governor Gavin Newsom that was intended to help get mentally ill people off the street has helped a whopping 22 people in four years, according to new reports.

That sounds about right for Newsom. Wouldn’t you like to know how much the people who ran this program were paid?

It’s fascinating how California keeps throwing massive amounts of cash at their homeless problem and the problem just keeps growing, while lots of people get wealthy by running these programs.

The New York Post reports:

Gavin Newsom shoots down claim $236M program for California’s mentally ill has helped just 22 people in four years

California Governor Gavin Newsom’s $236 million program to help those with severe mental illness who bounce between homelessness and jail has helped a measly 22 people since the its launch in 2022, a new report reveals.

Newsom’s CARE Court was billed as a “completely new paradigm” to get the mentally ill off the streets and into treatment, with up to 12,000 people expected to benefit, the Daily Mail reported.

But only 22 people have been sent to treatment over the past four years, after a state analysis found that up to 50,000 could be eligible for the program.

The 22 court-ordered cases were among roughly 3,000 petitions filed statewide as of October. Of those, only 706 were approved, including 684 voluntary agreements that never intended the meet program’s goal, according to the Daily Mail.

Newsom has denied the report.

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How the US Regime Subsidizes Immigration—both Legal and Illegal

In recent months, stories from both the legacy media and the independent media have continued to pile up on how undocumented foreign nationals—also known as “migrants” and “illegal aliens”—are able to take advantage of a vast network of taxpayer funded benefits in daycare, medical care, housing, and more. 

For example, both the New York Post and Denver Post report that these foreign nationals have “overwhelmed” the Denver Health hospital system in Denver, and that the situation is “unsustainable.” Meanwhile, public schools report classrooms are filling up quickly with the children of these foreign nationals. Denver is hardly alone. The New York Post notes that both the City of New York and the state government have expanded local welfare programs, including pre-paid credit cards, to further ensure that migrants continue to receive cash and resources from American taxpayers. This is in addition to the approximately 66,000 foreign nationals who are housed in hotels and shelters, care of both New York and federal taxpayers. USAToday reports that colleges “across the country” are receiving millions in taxpayer money to offer housing to migrants at no charge. Chicago’s mayor is bragging he’s giving away $17 million in taxpayer-funded giveaways to “asylum seekers” who are presently living off the sweat of the taxpayers in government shelters. This, of course, is just a downpayment on many more planned giveaways. 

Just how much in taxpayers’ resources is going to foreign nationals? It’s difficult to estimate for a number of reasons. The spending is done through numerous different government agencies at various levels of government. Moreover, much of the money if filtered through non-profits (i.e., “NGOs”) that are labeled “charities” but are simply adjuncts of the regime. 

Once we add up $1 billion here and $77 million there, after a while we’re talking about real money, and one thing becomes abundantly clear: the regime and its partners are subsidizing the influx of foreign nationals who are promised a variety of both cash and in-kind benefits. It must also be noted that, contrary to certain myths, the largesse is not reserved for only the so-called “illegal aliens.” Legal immigrants can take advantage of the generous and well-funded American welfare state even more readily than can the undocumented migrants.

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Virginia Democrats Now Seeking to Double Their Own Pay as They Raise Taxes, After Running on ‘Affordability’

Democrats in Virginia ran on affordability, but everything they have done since retaking power there says the exact opposite.

The tax rate in Virginia is poised to become the highest in the nation, beating even California, and they are trying to create a slew of new taxes.

Now, they are trying to give themselves a pay raise that is basically double what they already make.

NewsBusters reports:

Va. Dems Seek to More than Double Their Pay – While Rushing to Impose Flurry of New Taxes

After campaigning on “affordability,” Virginia state Democrats have introduced a measure to more than double their salaries, now that fellow Democrat Abigail Spanberger is in the Governor’s Mansion, giving them control of all three branches of their state’s government.

“Virginia Democrats are now trying to give themselves a PAY RAISE after proposing thousands of dollars in new taxes hammering working families, the Virginia Senate Republican Caucus warned in a X.com post highlighting how the legislators’ pay raise would hurt taxpayers:

“They ran on ‘affordability,’ but all they’ve done is introduce insane left-wing policies and take from your pocket to line their own. TOTAL CON JOB!”

Indeed, an amendment to the Virginia state budget (SB30), introduced by Democrats L. Louise Lucas in the state Senate and Vivian Edna Watts in the House of Delegates, would more than double their salaries, raising the pay in both chambers by about 150%.

What have these people done to earn a pay raise? They’ve been in power for like ten minutes.

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Three Maryland Cousins Charged in $3.5M Tax Fraud and COVID-19 Unemployment Scheme

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland unsealed a superseding indictment today, charging three cousins in connection with a tax-fraud scheme.

Daiwor “Mark Brown” Woah-Tee, 52, of Belcamp, Maryland; Dekwii Woah-Tee, 47, of Baltimore, Maryland; and Laiworpaye Woah-Tee, 49, of Nottingham, Maryland, are charged with conspiracy to submit false, fictitious, and fraudulent claims.  

The superseding indictment also charged Daiwor Woah-Tee and Dekwii Woah-Tee with wire fraud conspiracy, wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft stemming from a scheme to fraudulently obtain unemployment insurance benefits during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Beginning in January 2018 and continuing until December 2024, Daiwor Woah-Tee, Dekwii Woah-Tee, and Laiworpaye Woah-Tee knowingly and willfully conspired to defraud the United States and the Department of the Treasury by filing fraudulent Form 1040s seeking tax refunds from the IRS through fictitious claims based on fraudulent material representations.  

The co-conspirators identified and recruited individuals willing to become customers of their tax return business and obtained tax documentation and personal identifiable information from those individuals seeking tax return preparation assistance.

Daiwor Woah-Tee used the information obtained from individuals to prepare tax filings with the IRS. Then the co-conspirators filed, or caused to be filed, false tax returns that contained fabricated information regarding the taxpayer’s dependents, income, education expenses, and eligibility for the Earned Income Tax Credit.

The co-conspirators caused the IRS to deposit funds into bank accounts that they controlled and then caused the IRS to deliver treasury checks to addresses they controlled.  As a result, the co-conspirators obtained tax refunds they were not entitled to in connection with submitting tax returns in which they illegally sought at least $3.5 million in refunds.

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