The @nytimes reported today that Donald Trump may have illegally financed his 2016 campaign with a secret loan that potentially exceeded legal limits. The report is the latest in a Times series examining Trump's tax returns. Thread below. (1/8) https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/10/09/us/donald-trump-taxes-las-vegas.html

The @nytimes reports that in September 2016, at the height of the presidential campaign, Trump quietly took out a $30 million bank loan in the name of an LLC that he jointly owns with billionaire developer Phil Ruffin, with Trump Tower Las Vegas as collateral. (2/8)

Tax records show the LLC paid Trump over $21 million in 2016 & claimed a tax deduction on the payments.

6 weeks after obtaining the loan, Trump gave $10 million to his campaign.

Federal law requires that candidates disclose bank loans used in connection w/ their campaign. (3/8)

If Trump secretly financed his 2016 campaign using an undisclosed bank loan backed by a billionaire developer, then voters have been illegally deprived of important information about the true sources of Trump's financial support. (4/8)

Additionally, if the LLC took a tax deduction for the payments to Trump, it would mean that Trump secretly relied on taxpayers to help subsidize his 2016 campaign. (5/8)

Disclosure to voters in 2016 would have been important, since Trump’s claim that he was self-financing his campaign was central to his message.

The @nytimes also reports Phil Ruffin guaranteed the loan. Under campaign finance law, such a guarantee is treated as a...(6/8)

...contribution to the candidate, subject to legal limits and reporting requirements. If the loan was used in connection with Trump’s campaign, then Ruffin would have made an illegal contribution to the Trump campaign, potentially valued as high as $30 million. (7/8)

Trump would have violated the law by accepting an excess contribution from Ruffin in the form of a loan guarantee and failing to report it. (8/8)