This says the final report of the Commission that investigated the attack on the Capitol 3:22
(CNN) --
This must feel like a never-ending year for former President Donald Trump, whose actions seem to be taking their toll on him in public, painful and costly ways.
Trump is famous for escaping accountability, but during the second half of 2022 he came under scrutiny in a way that has made things difficult for his 2024 aspirations.
The FBI searched his Florida compound, where classified documents were seized.
His company was found guilty of tax fraud.
House Democrats released documents related to their tax returns, and are expected to release their actual returns before Republicans, who won a smaller-than-expected majority under Trump's influence, pass next year. to govern the commission.
Many candidates Trump endorsed failed in key Senate races, costing Republicans a majority in that chamber.
These are the conclusions of the report of the House of Representatives commission on Trump's taxes
The former president has not been accused of any crime as an individual.
But he has appointed special counsel at the Justice Department to oversee two Trump-related investigations: the one tied to the Mar-a-Lago document hoarding and the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.
Trump has lashed out at the House committee investigating the January 6 insurrection, and his most ardent supporters tried to stymie it, but it's hard to objectively dismiss his damning 800-page report, detailing the former president's efforts to quash the 2020 presidential election and his role in inspiring rioters to attack the Capitol.
advertising
Trump taxes were not properly audited, according to commission 2:55
And while the commission's criminal referrals to Trump to the Justice Department are largely symbolic, the former president still has to wait for what emerges from the Justice Department's own investigations.
Meanwhile, there is no indication that the former president — who launched his third non-consecutive presidential bid last month — has done much to clear the GOP field, where other hopefuls are weighing their options over the holidays.
a series of setbacks
The ongoing year-end revelations that are undermining Trump's power facade include big events, like the commission's January 6 report, and smaller details.
Hidden in the court documents is the uncomfortable truth that even his loudest acolytes at Fox News knew his 2020 election fantasy was bogus.
Fox News opinion host Sean Hannity admitted he did not believe "for one second" the fraud claims he helped push.
It might be nice for Fox viewers to hear that from Hannity, but the admission came off-air and in a statement as part of Dominion Voting Systems' $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against the conservative network, according to The New York. Times.
Hannity, as we know from text messages, was in close contact with then-Trump Secretary General Mark Meadows in the days leading up to January 6.
That conservative elites in Trump's circle knew the truth adds context to the fraud fears they fueled to encourage Republican lawmakers to pass new election security laws in battleground states.
The truth about taxes
The release of Trump's tax information, without his consent, by House Democrats confirmed what anyone might have guessed: that he paid no federal income tax in a year in which he was in charge of the country.
Even in years like 2018, where he paid about $1 million in federal taxes, the rate he paid, just over 4%, was on par with the bottom half of American taxpayers.
Special tax rules for real estate barons, which Congress can't seem to address, help explain why Trump's tax bill looks so different from that of regular wage-earning Americans.
But the end result is that the former president looks like a tax evader.
Trump broke with tradition in 2016 by refusing to release his personal tax returns.
But his team immediately tried to weaponize the disclosure of his information.
"If this injustice can happen to President Trump, it can happen to all Americans without cause," Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said last week.
Declining popularity among Republicans
Trump made sure his influence was felt during the 2022 midterm elections, but after the Republicans failed to get a "red wave", some members of his party have blamed him for the party's poor performance.
Now he must contend with polls like the CNN one earlier this month, which showed that most Republicans and Republican-leaning independents want the party to nominate someone other than Trump in 2024. His top choice?
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
The GOP governor, who won a landslide re-election last month, enjoyed much stronger favorability ratings than Trump among Republicans, according to the CNN poll.
That's bad news for a man who jumped to the front of the 2024 Republican field and launched another presidential bid at the very moment he began to look politically weak.
What does the victory of the Democratic party in the US mean?
0:55
Even his most ardent supporters are getting sick of some of his antics.
The $99 Trump-themed digital cards hit the NFT market at the wrong time and drew derision from even his most loyal supporters.
"I can't keep doing this," complained Steve Bannon, the former adviser who was sentenced to four months in jail for contempt of Congress after ignoring a January 6 subpoena from the commission.
(He has appealed that sentence).
2023 may not be much better
Many of the problems that dogged Trump in 2022 will not end with the start of the new year, and could even worsen.
His company, convicted of tax fraud in late 2022, also faces civil charges from the New York attorney general in 2023.
On the election theft front, it's not just special counsel Jack Smith that Trump has to worry about.
A special Atlanta-area grand jury investigating efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 Georgia election has already begun writing his final report, CNN reported earlier this month.
That will serve as a mechanism for the panel to recommend whether Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis should pursue charges.
As Trump envisions returning to the White House, one of the latest bipartisan efforts lawmakers agreed to this month was an update to the Voter Recount Act, making it clear that attempts like Trump's after 2020 — to exploit outdated language in federal election law and undermining the Electoral College—can never happen again.
donald trump