NYT: Trump Has Previously Undisclosed Chinese Account

Trump Org lawyer: overseas office that bank account paid taxes for has been inactive since '15
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 21, 2020 7:37 AM CDT
NYT : Trump Has Previously Undisclosed Chinese Account
President Trump speaks in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington on Sept. 28, 2020.   (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

As President Trump and the GOP try to damage Joe Biden's 2020 campaign by going after his son Hunter, a new revelation could show "a potentially major conflict of interest" for Trump himself, per the Guardian. That disclosure comes via the New York Times, which has been doing a deep dive into the president's taxes and now has yet another follow-up—this one involving China. The newspaper reports that Trump has quietly kept a bank account there for years, one of only three nations other than the US where he has such an account (the other two are the UK and Ireland). And while he apparently paid next to nothing in federal income tax back in the States over the past decade or so, the account in China managed by Trump International Hotels Management LLC paid more than $188,000 in local taxes while going after licensing contracts between 2013 and 2015.

The Times, which reports the foreign accounts held by Trump aren't listed as personal assets on public financial disclosure forms like they're supposed to be, notes it's not clear how much money may have passed through them. Meanwhile, Trump continues to slam Joe Biden for not going after China hard enough, as well as try to dig up dirt on Hunter Biden's own alleged business dealings there. Trump Organization attorney Alan Garten tells the Times the account was opened so the company could pay local taxes after it opened up an office there to look into possible hotel deals in Asia. "No deals, transactions, or other business activities ever materialized, and, since 2015, the office has remained inactive," Garten says, declining to name which Chinese bank holds the account. "Though the bank account remains open, it has never been used for any other purpose." More here, including what the Times says is "ample evidence of Mr. Trump's efforts" to do business in China. (More President Trump stories.)

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