Latest news with #PaulWalczak
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump's reality TV–style pardon spree has real consequences for the justice system
Welcome back, Deadline: Legal Newsletter readers. There's a new legal process in America. It used to be that a guilty verdict or plea was followed by years of appeals and, perhaps years after that, a prayerful pardon application. This week showcased a new playbook: skirt your tax obligations by millions of dollars to fund a lavish lifestyle, plead guilty and, instead of going to prison or paying restitution, have your mom raise money for the president and then get pardoned. That's the case of Paul Walczak in a nutshell, but he's not the only new clemency recipient. Among this week's winning contestants were the reality television couple Todd and Julie Chrisley, whom President Donald Trump sprung from hefty prison terms for financial fraud. Their daughter spoke last summer at the Republican National Convention, where she likened her parents' purported persecution to Trump's indictments. You could say they're kindred spirits with the president when it comes to reality TV, fraud and, with those first two commonalities in mind, a knack for casting their cases as coming from unscrupulous prosecutors (in the Chrisleys' case that prosecutor being a Trump appointee, by the way). Remember, Trump's pardon spree didn't start this week or even this year. In his first term, he kicked things off by pardoning Joe Arpaio, the Arizona lawman convicted of contempt for disobeying a court order to stop racial profiling people for immigration enforcement. That set the 'law and order' tone that carries through to this day, when shirking court orders in the name of immigration enforcement sums up the Trump administration's legal work. Another former sheriff was among the lucky winners on Trump's clemency show. When Scott Jenkins of Virginia was sentenced to 10 years for bribery in March, the acting U.S. attorney had the temerity to criticize him for having 'violated his oath of office and the faith the citizens of Culpeper County placed in him when he engaged in a cash-for-badges scheme.' The prosecutor's statement from that bygone era continued, 'We hold our elected law enforcement officials to a higher standard of conduct and this case proves that when those officials use their authority for unjust personal enrichment, the Department of Justice will hold them accountable.' That is, until — well, you know. 'No MAGA left behind,' Ed Martin tweeted upon Jenkins' pardon. You may recall Martin as having effectively been deemed too extreme for confirmation by the Republican-controlled Senate for Washington, D.C.'s top prosecutor job. So the administration shifted his duties, and his portfolio now includes being the DOJ's pardon attorney (the last one, Liz Oyer, was fired in March after she refused a speedy request to recommend restoring Mel Gibson's gun rights, which the Trump-supporting actor lost due to his domestic violence conviction). One gets the sense that corruption prosecutions are not a priority in the Trump administration. That's evident not only through the president's clemency but also through his Justice Department's actions in court — perhaps most notably in moving to dismiss New York City Mayor Eric Adams' corruption case for overtly political reasons. Ryan Reilly of NBC News observed a connection between the Adams and Jenkins cases, noting that they're linked by the DOJ's Public Integrity Section, which, he reported, 'has shrunk in both size and influence during the Trump administration.' The Adams connection leads us to another big story this week: Trump announced his intention to nominate Emil Bove to be a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit. Bove came onto the scene as then-candidate Trump's criminal defense lawyer, losing the hush money trial alongside his co-counsel Todd Blanche. Blanche is now the DOJ's deputy attorney general and Bove is principal associate deputy. Putting Bove on the bench would reward a sinister use of his law license with a lifetime judicial appointment. His handling of the Adams case is just one example but it's enough to show that he hardly deserves to be a lawyer, much less a judge. Recall that Bove not only pushed for an overtly political dismissal of the corruption case but caused several ethical prosecutors to resign rather than do his dirty work. And after all that, Bove failed to get the case dismissed in the shady way he wanted to — that is, in a way that would've given Trump's DOJ the option of holding the charges as political leverage over the Democratic mayor. The reason Bove failed in his corrupt mission was that the judge presiding over the case, Biden appointee Dale Ho, saw through the farce and refused to allow it. To be sure, Democrats are at fault for failing to confirm a deserving nominee to the Philadelphia-based circuit when they had the chance last year, leaving a vacant seat for Republicans to fill. The consequences of that failure shouldn't be forgotten, then, if Bove is privileged to be in the position of making decisions like the one Ho had to make, in rising above the base impulses of lawyers like Bove. Have any questions or comments for me? Please submit them on this form for a chance to be featured in the Deadline: Legal blog and newsletter. This article was originally published on
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump's Most Successful Business Venture
This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. Paul Walczak didn't have a plausible defense, but he did have a backup plan. As a Florida nursing-home executive, he'd defrauded taxpayers out of almost $11 million, using it to fund a lavish lifestyle. He pleaded guilty last fall, but applied for a pardon after Donald Trump retook office, claiming that he'd been prosecuted because of his mother Elizabeth Fago's support for Trump. Only after she attended a $1 million-per-person April fundraiser, which promised face time with the president, did Trump grant Walczak a full pardon. The press can't declare things 'bribes' without concrete proof, and it's not entirely clear how much of the money Fago donated herself, but even the staid New York Times resorted to snark in describing the case. 'A judge had justified the incarceration by declaring that there 'is not a get-out-of-jail-free card' for the rich. The pardon, however, indicated otherwise,' Kenneth Vogel wrote. A million bucks is, by the standards of this administration, pretty paltry. Trump has made many millions off being president. Earlier this week, my colleague David Frum took stock of the corruption of Trump's second term and concluded, 'Nothing like this has been attempted or even imagined in the history of the American presidency. Throw away the history books; discard feeble comparisons to scandals of the past.' Yet even against this backdrop, the brazenness of the pardon's timing makes it stand out. Whether or not Trump was bought in this case, he's eager to create the impression that he is for sale. And for good reason: What's bad for the integrity of American rule of law has been very good for Trump's bottom line. After a career of high-profile mediocrity, punctuated by flamboyant failures, the selling of the presidency is the most successful business venture of his career. Business prowess is at the center of Trump's renown and political appeal, but the impression that he is a titan of industry is more a creation of The Art of the Deal and The Apprentice than his actual CV. By the time he ran for president for the first time, he'd largely given up on the real-estate development that made him famous, instead concentrating on licensing his name to products and buildings. That was mostly a concession to reality: At that point, Trump was struggling to find lenders because he'd stiffed so many banks. Trump's businesses declared bankruptcy six times, and although he has consistently defended these filings as savvy business moves, an even savvier business move is not needing to declare bankruptcy. Trump managed the impressive task of losing money as a casino owner. Although Atlantic City was in decline as a whole during Trump's time there, a Temple University legal scholar found that Trump underperformed competitors: 'His casinos were not the 'best' and not even average. They were the worst.' The president's lofty net worth was less a product of success than a product of coming into his father's fortune. In 2021, Forbes calculated that he would have made more money if he'd just put his inheritance in an S&P 500 index fund. (And the money that he did make might have been less if he hadn't been committing extensive fraud.) During Trump's first term, he began finding ways to profit from the presidency. He charged the Secret Service big bills to stay at his properties while protecting him (even though son Eric claimed that they stayed at a discount), and had officials like Vice President Mike Pence unnecessarily rack up charges there too. Moreover, the hotel he owned near the White House became an essential location for any officials looking to influence him. There was, it seemed, a benefit to being seen—and probably more importantly, to spending some dosh. Although this seemed like a clear violation of the Constitution's emoluments clause, attempts to enforce it were stymied in court. But in his second term, Trump has far surpassed these relatively petty hustles. The profits started rolling in even before he won reelection, as speculators poured cash into Trump Media and Technology Group—a business with wretched numbers but high upside for anyone wishing to influence the president. Since November, the flow has increased. 'Few if any legitimate investors entrusted their money to Trump's businesses when he was out of office,' Frum noted, but now Middle Eastern governments, Chinese crypto investors, and American corporations are all finding ways to get money into Trump-related businesses. The White House claims that because Trump's sons run these companies, no conflict of interest exists, but experts have noted that Trump hasn't really distanced himself meaningfully from his companies and he continues to profit from them. And nearly everyone involved is winning. Trump is making out like a bandit—perhaps very much like a bandit—and people such as Paul Walczak are getting their pardons. (Notably, Trump seems quick to pardon people charged with either fraud or corrupt use of government positions—both offenses of which he has been accused.) Unfortunately, the losers are the American people: anyone who might want the government to support rule of law, discourage corruption, and operate as something other than a concierge desk for those wealthy enough to buy in. When news emerged earlier this month of Trump's plans to accept a $400 million airplane from the Qatari government, Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri, a Republican, dismissed any concerns about emoluments. 'I think nobody believes that Donald Trump can be bought,' he said. 'I mean, what does Donald Trump need more money for?' This is either deeply cynical or painfully gullible. Trump's entire career has been consumed by his quest for more money—this is a man who once cashed a 13-cent prank check from a Spy magazine correspondent—even if he hasn't always been very good at it. Now that he's found a reliable way to keep the cash rolling in, he's not going to turn it down. Related: The Trump presidency's world-historical heist There's no such thing as a free plane. Here are three new stories from The Atlantic: The conversations Trump's doctors should be having with him The perilous spread of the wellness craze Bring back communal kid discipline. Today's News An appeals court temporarily paused a lower-court ruling that had blocked most of President Donald Trump's tariffs. The acting director of ICE gave Harvard University 30 days to challenge the Trump administration's ban revoking the college's ability to enroll international students. Elon Musk announced yesterday that he is leaving the Department of Government Efficiency after saying that he is shifting his focus from politics back to his companies. Dispatches Time-Travel Thursdays: Any recent college graduate will tell you that their head felt heaviest after the cap came off, Amogh Dimri writes. Explore all of our newsletters here. Evening Read How America Lost Control of the Seas By Arnav Rao 'He who commands the sea has command of everything,' the ancient Athenian general Themistocles said. By that standard, the United States has command of very little. America depends on ocean shipping. About 80 percent of its international trade by weight traverses the seas. The U.S. needs ships to deliver nearly 90 percent of its armed forces' supplies and equipment, including fuel, ammunition, and food … In the middle of the 20th century, the U.S. had a thriving, well-regulated ocean-shipping industry. Then the country turned its back on the system that made it all possible. Read the full article. More From The Atlantic Striking down Trump's tariffs isn't a judicial coup. A Swiss village destroyed by a landslide A way to understand Pope Leo XIV's mission of love Xochitl Gonzalez on Diddy's defenders Culture Break Read. These five books will redirect your attention and break the spell of malaise. Make a pledge. Moral courage can result in something beautiful. A lovely paradox of doing good in the world is that it does you good too, according to the happiness expert Arthur C. Brooks. Play our daily crossword. Stephanie Bai contributed to this newsletter. When you buy a book using a link in this newsletter, we receive a commission. Thank you for supporting The Atlantic. Article originally published at The Atlantic
Atlantic
2 days ago
- Business
- Atlantic
The Presidency Is Trump's Most Successful Business
This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. Paul Walczak didn't have a plausible defense, but he did have a backup plan. As a Florida nursing-home executive, he'd defrauded taxpayers out of almost $11 million, using it to fund a lavish lifestyle. He pleaded guilty last fall, but applied for a pardon after Donald Trump retook office, claiming that he'd been prosecuted because of his mother Elizabeth Fago's support for Trump. Only after she attended a $1 million-per-person April fundraiser, which promised face time with the president, did Trump grant Walczak a full pardon. The press can't declare things 'bribes' without concrete proof, and it's not entirely clear how much of the money Fago donated herself, but even the staid New York Times resorted to snark in describing the case. 'A judge had justified the incarceration by declaring that there 'is not a get-out-of-jail-free card' for the rich. The pardon, however, indicated otherwise,' Kenneth Vogel wrote. A million bucks is, by the standards of this administration, pretty paltry. Trump has made many millions off being president. Earlier this week, my colleague David Frum took stock of the corruption of Trump's second term and concluded, 'Nothing like this has been attempted or even imagined in the history of the American presidency. Throw away the history books; discard feeble comparisons to scandals of the past.' Yet even against this backdrop, the brazenness of the pardon's timing makes it stand out. Whether or not Trump was bought in this case, he's eager to create the impression that he is for sale. And for good reason: What's bad for the integrity of American rule of law has been very good for Trump's bottom line. After a career of high-profile mediocrity, punctuated by flamboyant failures, the selling of the presidency is the most successful business venture of his career. Business prowess is at the center of Trump's renown and political appeal, but the impression that he is a titan of industry is more a creation of The Art of the Deal and The Apprentice than his actual CV. By the time he ran for president for the first time, he'd largely given up on the real-estate development that made him famous, instead concentrating on licensing his name to products and buildings. That was mostly a concession to reality: At that point, Trump was struggling to find lenders because he'd stiffed so many banks. Trump's businesses declared bankruptcy six times, and although he has consistently defended these filings as savvy business moves, an even savvier business move is not needing to declare bankruptcy. Trump managed the impressive task of losing money as a casino owner. Although Atlantic City was in decline as a whole during Trump's time there, a Temple University legal scholar found that Trump underperformed competitors: 'His casinos were not the 'best' and not even average. They were the worst.' The president's lofty net worth was less a product of success than a product of coming into his father's fortune. In 2021, Forbes calculated that he would have made more money if he'd just put his inheritance in an S&P 500 index fund. (And the money that he did make might have been less if he hadn't been committing extensive fraud.) During Trump's first term, he began finding ways to profit from the presidency. He charged the Secret Service big bills to stay at his properties while protecting him (even though son Eric claimed that they stayed at a discount), and had officials like Vice President Mike Pence unnecessarily rack up charges there too. Moreover, the hotel he owned near the White House became an essential location for any officials looking to influence him. There was, it seemed, a benefit to being seen—and probably more importantly, to spending some dosh. Although this seemed like a clear violation of the Constitution's emoluments clause, attempts to enforce it were stymied in court. But in his second term, Trump has far surpassed these relatively petty hustles. The profits started rolling in even before he won reelection, as speculators poured cash into Trump Media and Technology Group—a business with wretched numbers but high upside for anyone wishing to influence the president. Since November, the flow has increased. 'Few if any legitimate investors entrusted their money to Trump's businesses when he was out of office,' Frum noted, but now Middle Eastern governments, Chinese crypto investors, and American corporations are all finding ways to get money into Trump-related businesses. The White House claims that because Trump's sons run these companies, no conflict of interest exists, but experts have noted that Trump hasn't really distanced himself meaningfully from his companies and he continues to profit from them. And nearly everyone involved is winning. Trump is making out like a bandit—perhaps very much like a bandit—and people such as Paul Walczak are getting their pardons. (Notably, Trump seems quick to pardon people charged with either fraud or corrupt use of government positions—both offenses of which he has been accused.) Unfortunately, the losers are the American people: anyone who might want the government to support rule of law, discourage corruption, and operate as something other than a concierge desk for those wealthy enough to buy in. When news emerged earlier this month of Trump's plans to accept a $400 million airplane from the Qatari government, Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri, a Republican, dismissed any concerns about emoluments. 'I think nobody believes that Donald Trump can be bought,' he said. 'I mean, what does Donald Trump need more money for?' This is either deeply cynical or painfully gullible. Trump's entire career has been consumed by his quest for more money—this is a man who once cashed a 13-cent prank check from a Spy magazine correspondent—even if he hasn't always been very good at it. Now that he's found a reliable way to keep the cash rolling in, he's not going to turn it down. An appeals court temporarily paused a lower-court ruling that had blocked most of President Donald Trump's tariffs. The acting director of ICE gave Harvard University 30 days to challenge the Trump administration's ban revoking the college's ability to enroll international students. Elon Musk announced yesterday that he is leaving the Department of Government Efficiency after saying that he is shifting his focus from politics back to his companies. Dispatches Time-Travel Thursdays: Any recent college graduate will tell you that their head felt heaviest after the cap came off, Amogh Dimri writes. Evening Read How America Lost Control of the Seas By Arnav Rao 'He who commands the sea has command of everything,' the ancient Athenian general Themistocles said. By that standard, the United States has command of very little. America depends on ocean shipping. About 80 percent of its international trade by weight traverses the seas. The U.S. needs ships to deliver nearly 90 percent of its armed forces' supplies and equipment, including fuel, ammunition, and food … In the middle of the 20th century, the U.S. had a thriving, well-regulated ocean-shipping industry. Then the country turned its back on the system that made it all possible. More From The Atlantic Read. These five books will redirect your attention and break the spell of malaise. Make a pledge. Moral courage can result in something beautiful. A lovely paradox of doing good in the world is that it does you good too, according to the happiness expert Arthur C. Brooks. Play our daily crossword. Stephanie Bai contributed to this newsletter.
The Independent
4 days ago
- Business
- The Independent
Trump pardoned a tax cheat. But only after his mom attended president's $1 million dinner
A former nursing home executive who had pleaded guilty to tax crimes has been pardoned by President Donald Trump based on an application apparently focused not just on his offenses, but on the political activity of his mother. Paul Walczak submitted his application for a pardon days after Trump's inauguration. It noted that his mother, Elizabeth Fago, had raised millions of dollars for the president's campaigns, as well as those of other Republicans, The New York Times reports, citing a person who received the application but was not authorized to share it. It also claimed that Fago had connections to an effort to damage President Joe Biden 's 2020 campaign by publicizing the diary of his daughter, Ashley Biden. The application reportedly argued that Walczak's criminal prosecution had resulted from his mother's political advocacy, rather than the crimes to which he pleaded guilty — specifically, using money for employee taxes to fund his lifestyle, including the purchase of a yacht. Weeks after the application for clemency was submitted, there was no news, while other Trump allies received pardons. It was then that Fago was invited to a $1 million-per-person fundraising dinner at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, which promised face-to-face time with the president. Less than three weeks later, the pardon came through. Walczak was facing 18 months in prison, two years of supervised release, and would have to pay $4.4 million in restitution, according to a sentence handed down 12 days earlier. The judge justified ordering the jail time by saying that there 'is not a get-out-of-jail-free card' for the rich. A White House official echoed the application's argument, telling the Times that Walczak was 'targeted by the Biden administration over his family's conservative politics.' Walczak withheld taxes from employee paychecks, totaling $7.4 million between 2016 and 2019. Over the same period, he also didn't pay $3.4 million of his business's portion of employee Social Security and Medicare taxes, according to the Justice Department. During this time, $1 million was spent on a yacht, hundreds of thousands of dollars was transferred to personal accounts, and business accounts were used for shopping at Bergdorf Goodman, Cartier, and Saks. Furthermore, in 2018, he ceased filing personal tax returns, despite continuing to receive a salary and transferring funds from the business accounts to his own personal use. Other transfers were made to a family member and his wife. In total, he owed the IRS $10.9 million. He was charged in February 2023 with 13 counts of tax crimes, pleading guilty to two counts and agreeing to pay restitution on November 15, 2024, just 10 days after Trump won the presidential election. According to the Times, Fago had held three fundraisers for Trump campaigns and attended VIP events at both the 2017 and 2025 inaugurations alongside her son, Walczak's half-brother, Joey Fago, and his wife, social media posts show. They also attended a 2020 election night watch party at the White House and that year's Christmas party. She also reportedly played a role in the saga of Ashley Biden's diary, found at a house in Delray Beach, Florida, that the former president's daughter had been renting in the run-up to the 2020 election. The diary was apparently shown to Trump campaign officials at Fago's home before being flagged to Project Veritas by Stephanie Walczak, her daughter. In a subsequent probe during the Biden administration, investigators obtained a search warrant related to a Project Veritas official who sought information about 'potential co-conspirators,' including communications with Fago and her daughter, among others. After Trump re-entered the White House earlier this year, the Justice Department announced it was closing the investigation into the diary. Fago, her daughter, nor anyone at Project Veritas were ever charged. In seeking clemency for Walczak, the application for a presidential pardon claimed his prosecution arose because he was the son of a prominent Trump supporter and cited the pardon issued to Hunter Biden by his father in the final days of his presidency. Biden said in a statement at the time that Hunter 'was singled out only because he is my son.' While waiting for word on the pardon of her own son by Trump, Fago attended the fundraiser dinner at Mar-a-Lago. Although it was billed as having a $1 million price tag, it is unclear whether she donated to MAGA Inc., the political action committee sponsoring the event. The amount was far larger than any of her previous donations to political causes of Trump's campaigns, and the group has until July to disclose any information on donors. After his pardon came through, a social media post shows the family celebrating with Walczak wearing a red, Trump-style hat with 'Make Paul Great Again' written across the front.
NZ Herald
4 days ago
- Politics
- NZ Herald
Trump pardoned tax cheat after mother attended $1.6m dinner
As Paul Walczak awaited sentencing early this year, his best hope for avoiding prison time rested with the newly inaugurated President. Walczak, a former nursing home executive who had pleaded guilty to tax crimes days after the 2024 election, submitted a pardon application to President Donald Trump around Inauguration Day.
