Former President Donald Trump held a rally in Sarasota, Florida Saturday night, and openly pondered “does anybody know the answer to that stuff?” regarding if it’s required to pay taxes on company perks like a car or apartment, as the Trump Organization allegedly failed to do. CNN’s Jim Acosta had an answer for him: “People do know the answer to that stuff,” specifically the people who put Allen Weisselberg, the Trump Org’s chief financial officer, in handcuffs last week.

Acosta played a vide0 clip from Trump’s Sarasota event, noting that the former president “seemed to be confirming key pieces of the prosecution’s case against his namesake company and its CFO”:

They go after good, hard-working people for not paying taxes on a company car. “You didn’t pay tax on the car! Or a company apartment!” You used an apartment because you need an apartment because you have to travel too far where your house is, you didn’t pay tax, or education for your grandchildren. I don’t even know. Do you have to… does anybody know the answer to that stuff? Okay? But they indict people for that!

“Yes, people do know the answer to that stuff,” said Acosta. “The people who put the Trump Organization’s chief financial officer in handcuffs know the answer to that stuff.”

Acosta noted that “repeating ‘what’s the big deal?’ has become the Trump family’s go-to PR strategy,” showing two clips of the former president’s sons, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., shrugging off the allegations.

“These are employment perks,” said Eric Trump. “You know, a corporate car, which everybody has.” Trump Jr. said that the Trump Org had paid for Weisselberg’s grandchildren’s education “because my father is a good guy.”

[Note: Everybody does not have a corporate car, and there is no “it’s ok if you are a good guy” defense for federal tax evasion.]

Acosta asked CNN political commentators Alice Stewart and Ana Navarro what they thought about this Trump defense strategy.

“It certainly felt like an admission,” said Navarro, calling it a “Leona Helmsley type strategy,” referring to the hotelier convicted for tax evasion who had infamously said “only the little people pay taxes.”

“Look,” Navarro continued, “the evidence that they knew that it was illegal is the fact that they were keeping two sets of books.” Both New York City and New York State were known to be “notoriously aggressive” regarding tax cheats, she said.

Stewart added that if she were Weisselberg right now, she’d be “singing like a canary” and she found it “concerning” that the Trumps were trying to “just write this off.”

“This is not just about fringe benefits,” said Stewart. “This is about tax evasion…no matter how big or how small, this is tax evasion. It’s against the law and I do expect someone to be held accountable for it.”

Watch the video above, via CNN.

The post CNN’s Jim Acosta Answers Trump’s Rally Question About Tax Evasion Charges: The People Who Put the Trump Org CFO In Handcuffs ‘Know the Answer to that Stuff’ first appeared on Mediaite.

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