01/03/23 01/03/23 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> the fight for the good of brazil, we will use our weapons that our adversaries feel threatened the most. long live brazil and long live the brazilian people. amy: in brazil, luiz inácio lula

da silva is inaugurated as the new president, rocking a stunning comeback for the former union leader and president as he replaces barret president jair bolsonaro who boycotted the ceremony and fled to orlando, florida, while he faces criminal investigations. we will get the latest. then after years of legal challenges from former president donald trump, congress releases six years of his tax returns. >> the taxeturns ctain relatily wilinformiod not infoationhat i mu anybodwould underand. th are extmely compl. the dical democrats behavior is a shame upon the was congress. amy: that is trump's response. we will speak with david cay johnston who says tax returns showed knowingly committed brazen tax fraud. he is the author of "the big cheat: how donald trump fleeced america and enriched himself and his family."

as well as "perfectly legal: the covert campaign to rig our tax system to benefit the super rich -- and cheat everybody else." all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. the 118th united states congress officially begins today, with lawmakers taking their oaths of office amid a leadership fight in the house of representatives. republican leader kevin mccarthy is the front-runner to be elected speaker of the house but appears just short of the 218 votes needed to clinch a victory in the first round of voting. that's despite a major concession mccarthy made to far-right republicans who've over the weekend when he agreed to a rule that would allow a snap election at any time to oust him from the role of house

speaker. i'm on the new congress members to be sworn in today is republican george santos of new york, facing mounting outrage and a number of investigations after he admitted he lied about his work, education, his family history on his resume and campaign platform. federal and state investigations have been launched against santos. meanwhile, resign authorities also announced this week they're planning to revive fraud charges against santos stemming from a 2008 incident in which santos reportedly used a stolen checkbook and false name to make a $700 purchase in rio de janeiro. the criminal charges were approved by a brazilian judge in 2011 but by then santos was already living in new york. he reportedly confessed to the fraud while still in brazil but recently has denied having committed any crime.

in brazil, luiz inácio lula da silva has been sworn in to a third term as president. lula spoke to hundreds of thousands of supporters in the capital brasília on sunday, pledging to fight poverty, invest in education and health, and halt illegal logging in the amazon rain forest. >> in the fight for the good of brazil, we will use the weapons that our adverries fear the most. the truth that prevails over the lies. the hope that conquers fear and the love that defeats hatred. long live brazil and long live the brazilian people. amy: the far right former president jair bolsonaro boycotted sunday's ceremony, leaving brazil on friday to go fly to orlando, florida, after first refusing to concede the election to lula. we'll have more on lula's historic third presidential term after headlines.

the world health organization has once again called on china to share real-time data on the country's massive surge in coronavirus cases amid dire predictions that china could face over 1 million covid deaths this year. the world health organization is seeking data on hospitalizations, infections, deaths, and wants genetic sequencing data that could help identify the emergency of -- emergence of dangerous new coronavirus variants. in a new year's address, chinese president xi jinping defended his government's handling of the pandemic while acknowledging that the former zero-covid policy had taken a toll on china. >> after arduous efforts, we have overcome challenges which were not easy for everyone. at present, the epidemic, prevention, control is entering a new phase. it is still a time of struggle. everyone is working hard.

amy: in europe, a massive heat dome hasrought unssonably warm winter weather that's shattered records in at ast ven countrs. weekentemperatures soared by as much as 36 degrees fahrenheit above rmalver a va region sttching from france to western russia. this comes after europe logged its warmest year on record in 2022. palestinians have condemned a visit by israel's newly-installed national security minister itamar ben-gvir to the al-aqsa mosque in occupied east jerusalem. it was ben-gvir's first public act since he was sworn in last week to the most far-right government in israel's history. he was previously convicted of racist incitement against arabs and supporting a terrorist group. the palestinian foreign ministry called his visit to al aqsa under heavy security an unprecedented provocation. and a spokesperson for hamas said it would lead to more conflict. >> it is clear that mbers of

the current government are more extre than any previous one, the u.s. or the international community come in or the regional powers can stop the extremist of this government. therefore, if this behavior continues, it will bring us all to a big conflict and a real battle on the ground. amy: in the occupied west bank, israeli forces shot and killed two palestinians and wounded three others in a raid on a village outside jenin overnight sunday. the killings came as israel's army worked to demolish the family homes of two palestinians who were killed in a shootout in september. this is hani abed, whose home was demolished. >> the family was homeless. this is collective punishment. if they could, they would demolish the entire area. it will not bring the result they are expecting. it will not break our spirit. on the contrary, this will make people more determined and

steadfast, god willing. amy: iran's top woman chess player has fled spain after receiving threats not to return to iran for competing at an international tournament in kazakhstan without a hijab. iranian law requires women to to wear a head scarfn public even when in other countries. sarasadat khademalsharieh's decision was seen as a gesture in solidarity with anti-government protests that erupted in iran in response to the death of mahsa amini in the custody of iranian so-called morality police. in related news, several iranian soccer players were arrested after attending a new year's eve party with women and where alcohol was served. the players were current and former members of tehran's prominent soccer clubs. a local media outlet said many of the detained soccer players had also expressed support for the mass protests. ukraine's military says 400 russian conscripts were killed

and another 300 were wounded in a massive new year's day missile strike in the russian-occupied donetsk region. in a rare admission of heavy battlefield losses, russia's defense ministry acknowledged dozens of troops were killed, but gave a much lower death toll. >> russian air defense systems shot down two himars missis. four rockets with slow support heads against the tempora deployment points, 63 were russian servicemen were killed. amy: even if the lower death toll is accurate, it was one of the deadliest single attacks on russian forces since the start of the war last february. it came as russia began 2023 by firing a barrage of cruise missiles across ukraine just after midnight on new year's day. at the vatican, tens of thousands of people have paid final respects to pope benedict as he lay in state in st. peter's basilica. benedict died on saturday at the age of 95. in 2013, he shocked the catholic

church when he became the first pontiff to resign in almost 600 years. his tenure was marked by widening sexual abuse scandals in the catholic church. a 2021 report found benedict failed to act in at least four cases of sexual abuse by priests when he was the archbishop of munich. benedict was a fierce opponent of abortion, birth control, and lgbtq+ rights. he opposed reforms to the catholic church, including allowing women to join the clergy. and as a cardinal, he led a campaign to stamp out liberation theology and to silence and expel priests who taught it. in mexico, at least 17 people were killed after gunmen attacked a prison in the northern border city of juárez sunday. the associated press reports at least two dozen prisoners escaped, identified by local officials as members of a drug gang with ties to a powerful cartel. the drugord rafael caro quintero is reportedly among the

escapees. juárez, located across the border from el paso, texas, has been an epicenter of drug violence since the launch of the u.s.-backed so-called war on drugs that has killed tens of thousands of people in mexico. the state of missouri is slated to execute the first openly transgender woman in u.s. history. 49-year-old amber mclaughlin is scheduled to die by lethal injection today unless a request for clemency is approved by missouri's republican governor mike parsons. her clemency plea details her traumatic childhood, facing horrific abuse from a foster parent and her adoptive father. she suffered from a brain injury and fetal alcohol syndrome and struggled with mental health issues as an adult, having attempted suicide several times. she was convicted of murder and other charges in 2006. the jury in her case was deadlocked but missouri law allows the trial judge to issue a conviction in those cases.

she transitioned during her time in death row, would also be the first woman executed in missouri since 1976. the house ways and means committee released six years worth of trump's tax returns friday. the release contains thousands of pages of tax documents for trump and his wife, along with business returns for several of trump's hundreds of companies for the years he ran for president within office. $750 in federal income tax during his first year in office in 2017. he paid no tax in his last year in office has president in 2020. later another broadcast, we will speak with journalist david cay johnston who says the returns show trump knowingly committed brazen tax fraud. and in sports news, buffalo bills player damar hamlin remains hospitalized in critical condition after he suffered a

cardiac arrest on the field monday night against the cincinnati bengals. the 24-year-old collapsed less than six minutes into the game's first quarter after making a tackle. medical staff administered cpr and used a defibrillator to restore his pulse before bringing an ambulance onto the field. the game was indefinitely suspended as other football players wept. he was rushed to the university of cincinnati medical center where he was intubated and sedated. his injury came just minutes after bills' defensi back johnson left the game with a head injury and just days after the miami dolphins quarterback suffered his third head injury of the season following a concussion that left him hospitalized in week 4. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!,

democracynow.org, the war and peace report. when we come back, we go to brazil where luiz inácio lula da silva was ignited rated -- inaugurated as the new president, marking a stunning comeback for the former union leader. we will get the latest. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman in new york, joined by democracy now! co-host juan gonzález in chicago. hi, juan. juan: hi, amy. welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. amy: we begin today's show in latin america's largest country, brazil, where people filled the streets sunday to celebrate the inauguration of luiz inácio lula da silva as their new president, marking a stunning comeback for the former union leader who replaces far-right president jair bolsonaro. >> we are here because the

inauguration of lula shows restoration of our democracy. we are here to show political force and that democracy includes all races, ethnicities, and social classes. amy: lula served as brazil's most popular president from 2003 to 2010 and helped lift tens of millions of brazilians out of poverty. but in 2018, as he prepared to run for office again, he was jailed on trumped-up corruption charges, paving the way for the election of bolsonaro. the charges were later thrown out. bolsonaro boycotted sunday's ceremony. he left brazil friday and went to orlando, florida, after first refusing to concede the election to lula. bolsonaro is staying with the brazilian mixed martial arts fighter and longtime supporter jose aldo and reportedly plans to stay in florida for at least

a month to avoid multiple criminal investigations. the move echoed donald trump's departure from washington, d.c., hours before joe biden was sworn in as president. lula heads brazil's workers' party. during his inauguration sunday afternoon in brasilia, he lashed out against the far-right former president bolsonaro and vowed to fight poverty and invest in education and health and halt illegal logging in the amazon rain forest. >> lots of years we were left in one of the worst periods in our history, an era of shadows, doubt, a lot of suffering. but this nightmare came to an end with the sovereign boat in the most important election since the country's return to democracy. an election that has shown the brazilian people's commitment to democracy and its institutions. this extraordinary victory of democracy forces us to look

forward, forget our differences which are much less in which unite us forever. love for brazil and our people. much of what we built and a years unfortunately was destroyed in left than half that period. first by the cook's former president dilma rousseff in 2016 and then by the four years of the government destroyed the country and whose legacy history will never forget. the fight for the good of brazil, we will use the weapons that our adversaries fear the most. the truth that prevails over the lies. the hope that conquers fear. and the love that defeats hatred. long-lived result and long-lived the resilient people -- longley brazil and long-lived the resilient people. amy: lula has appointed 11 women to serve in his government, more than any previous administration.

goldman prize-winner marina silva was chosen as brazil's environmental nister. she held the post in lula's previous two terms in office, during which amazon deforestion slow signicantly. indigeno land anwater fender ônia ajajara s named bril'first-ever misteror indigous peops. lula also nominated the black activist, journalist, and educator anyelle franco as brazil's new minister of racial equality. she's the sister of marielle franco, who was a human rights and racial justice activist and member of rio de janeiro's city council before she was assassinated in 2018. ahead of lula's swearing-in sunday, the brazilian supreme court temporarily banned registered gun owners from carrying their firearms in the capital brasilia until after the inauguration ceremony.

the move came amid rising concerns of violence from the far-right and supporters of defeated president jair bolsonaro. lula addressed bolsonaro's supporters during a speech at the national congress, where he was sworn into office for his third term in office. >> we do not carry any spirit of revenge against those who try to subjugate the nation to the personal and ideological purposes, that will guarantee the rule of law. those who made mistakes will answer for their mistakes and the due legal process. amy: as we broadcast, brazil's new president lula is paying his respects at the afro brazilian sucker great pele's open casket in santos as one of his first actions ashe country's new head of state. for more we are joined by two guests. maria luísa mendonça is director

of the network for social justice and human rights in brazil and a visiting scholar at the city university of new york graduate center. and journalist michael fox is host of the podcast "brazil on fire" and former editor of nacla. we welcome you both back to democracy now! maria luísa mendonça, let's begin with you. talk about the significance of lula returning as president, what this means. >> this is very important. it is a historical moment for brazil. as we heard from lula and also from the supporters that were present at the inauguration, this is about the return of democracy in brazil because bolsonaro was only able to get elected because there was a parliamentary coup against former president dilma rousseff in 2016 that opened the space

for that. and then lula was arrested, although there was no evidence against him. so it was a long way to return to democracy. i think it was very symbolic -- it was important that bolsonaro was not present at the inauguration. what it meant was there were representatives of different, diverse sectors of brazilian society that made lula the new president. so it was a very important, symbolic moment, and a moment of joy. and also it was important because in the first day, lula also issued several executive

orders that are very important in terms of changing policy and reputed resilient to touche and come areas of environmental protection, education, gun-control, and also changing policy, for example, to stop -- keep public corporations in brazil. juan: maria luísa mendonça, i would like to ask you while lula himself is personally still very popular in brazil, the same is not necessarily true for the workers party. what are going to be the problems he faces with the new congress? if you could talk about that. >> there are very strong lobby in congress, for example, the agribusiness, mining corporations, they have very

strong lobby. at the same time, in the parliament tree elections -- parliamentary elections, the party that lost most seeds was the traditional conservative party, not the left-wing progressive party. so still has a broad coalition of progressive parties. and i think lula also can rebuild a lot of institutions as he is already doing. he is rebuilding the ministry of environment, the ministry of gender equality/racial equality, the labor ministry. and he appointed very important key people to run those institutions. so i think he is going to be able to advance progressive

policies, although, of course, there will be a battle, especially with the agribusiness sector, that is very strong in brazil. at the same time, lula also already signed important policies to rebuild, for example, funding to protect the amazon and other important areas in brazil, the wetlands. so i think environment of protection is going to be key. an important because the main cause of environment or destruction is the expansion of agribusiness plantations. so i think at the same time lula reveals the ministry that protects and gives support to small farmers in brazil.

so i think that will be an important balance and much more participation of civil society and organizations, progressive organizations and social movements in his administration. juan: i would like to bring in michael fox, the freelance journalist, former editor of nacla. welcome to democracy now! could you talk abo the forgn policy implicaons of lula's return both for latin america and also he played a major role in the formation of the brics nations of brazil, russia, china, india, and south africa in terms of a new international hold against the foreign, western imperialism. >> like you mentioned, lula coming back -- he created during his first two terms 35 different

embassies, many of them in latin america and in africa. the whole idea was -- that is why the brics was so important. that is going to be important. these are all things that bolsonaro had completely taken brazil -- had taken brazil from these international agreements, and that is something lula's first trip, talking about he will be going to argentina and if you, toeenter brazil into that regional integration, regional organization. these things are huge. this is clueless bread-and-butter. -- lula's bread and butter. lift brazil into an international sphere, talk with the rich countries, dialogue with the united states and china. lula already talked about the importance of these two different countries that are key

in top trading partners for brazil. at the same time, continue the regional integration. his foreign minister under dilma rousseff, talk about the top three tenants of lula's foreign policy which will be first south american relations, then latin american relations, that african elections, re-upping those d ties which lula thought was so important. 19 different heads of state or their senate and 65 different foreign delegations. we have never seen this before at every zillion -- brazilian inauguration. you have the foreign delegations from ukraine and right behind them was the foreign delegation from russia, both of them wanting to be close to lula. the brics was huge that he brought in. he also negotiated the iran nuclear deal. he is huge, important figure.

he really brings back on an international level, going to be huge for brazil. amy: michael fox, can you talk about the significance -- i mean, some talked about bolsonaro flying out, you might say he was fleeing, but on friday, without conceding defeat, he flies to orlando -- not that far from where president trump is at mar-a-lago, often referred to, by the way, subtropical trump. any talk about the significance of this and the criminal investigation that may be beginning? >> his leaving early was kind of the final straw in and administration which had no respect for brazilian democracy. that is how so many people in brazil see this and saw it on this day. when he was flying out, people cheering around the country because it was the final kind of

leg of his government. the fact he flew to florida of all places -- for weeks before we had been hearing he was going to be spending new year's in mar-a-lago with trump. he obviously was not. usually significant come the fact he was not there to actually hand over the presidential sash. this is the first time a brazil ian president was not there to pass the presidential sash to the incoming president. as maria luísa mendonça has talked about, this diverse group of brazilian people, a black trash collector, the folks -- a cook, a handicap activist who passed the sash onto lula and showed the brazilian people coming together. there were all of these different, these convictions these cases against bolsonaro, which are really important, but we saw yesterday, ari asked the

supreme court to issue preventative prisons for bolsonaro for the crime he committed under his term. it will be an interesting thing to see how this plays out in the coming weeks and months. what we understand is part of the reason why he left early was his lawyers suggested he should be -- he might want to leave the country so as to not have issues and problems regarding these different, you know, potential lawsuits against him. juan: maria luísa mendonça, michael mentioned the military dictatorship of the dark period of brazil's modern history. what is your sense of the role of the brazilian military at this point? quite a few, obviously bolsonaro supporters are hoping the military will somehow or another step in and reverse what is happening, large protest cap of bolsonaro supporters now in existence for weeks. talk about how lula will deal

with were expected to deal with the military. >> lula is in conversation with the military, even during his campaign. i think the military is divided. i think what we s right now is the majority of people within the military is not willing to take a political role at this time. so bolsonaro kind of instrument of military and gave them a lot of power in different situations, but now what lula is doing is completely reforming the key institutions in the country and placing the technical people, people who are really experts in the fields where they are, for example, for the first time brazil will have

a woman as the head of the ministry of health. she is a very important expert in public health. they're going to be investigating why bolsonaro did not buy vaccines at the time, why there were so many bans in brazil because of covid that could have been prevented. we are rebuilding and transforming institutions, and the military is going to keep its traditional role and not take the role of civilian and civil society organizations. so i think there has been negotiations, and i think we are very happy ash social movements in brazil are very happy with how lula is rebuilding institutions and really bringing

the experts to each area in terms of, you know, now moving forward and rebuilding policies that would benefit the majority. amy: let's talk about the people he has appointed, the 11 women to serve in the government, more than any of her previous -- other previous administration, such as marina silva was chosen as brazil's environmental minister. held the post in lula's previous twterms. indinous ld and war defeer sônia guajara was -- and the first-ever minister for indigenous peoples. lula also nominated the black activist, journalist, and educator anyelle franco as brazil's new minister of racial equality. so significant, who she is, the sister of marielle franco, who was a human rights and racial justice activist rio de

, janeiro city councilmember assassinated in 2018. ,can you talk about these people? it is such a game chanr. you have now for the first time in years, definitely since well before bolsonaro, people that are focused on trying to defend the amazon rain forest and are there and ready to stop deforestation. i spoke with marina silva just before lula's electoral victory and she said i have already handed the document to get 20 deforestation and now we need to take the steps to implement them. it is not going to be easy but they will do it under lula's first administration and that is key. the fact there is an indigenous person, an indigenous ministry.

indigenous people have had their back against the wall. they have been attacked under the bolsonaro government. the amazon rain forest has 50% of the deforestation happening under bolsonaro was in and on indigenous conservation zones. now being led by an indigenous person is key. the fact marielle franco's sister is the head of racial justice is huge. all of these things bringing absolute change. when we talk about the theme lula's government means, change from what we have seen under bolsonaro, the pushback on the white supremacy that has been attacking brazil so much. the attacks and allies. this is a complete game changer for brazil. it marks what the coming days

and the coming weeks and months will mean for lula. juan: maria luísa mendonça, i wanted to ask you about the role of the judiciary in brazil. it has been very controversial. judges have been accused oftentimes of trying to shape the political process by their rulings. how do you expect the supreme court and the judiciary to act now under the -- with the new lula administration? >> we have seen a change in the supreme court since the parliamentary coup against dilma rousseff. the supreme court went along with the coup at the time. but i think during the bolsonaro administration, he was so extreme inerms of attacking all democratic institutions in brazil, including attacking the

supreme court, then we saw the supreme court taking a turn and really making sure that we will have free and fair elections, getting lula out of jail and restoring democracy. so i think we ha seen that change, which is very important, and also the new minister of justicin brazil also is willing to move forward, for example, with the investigation on the assassination of marielle franco. i think we will have important advancements in that area as well in terms of fighting against impunity in the country

and of course there will always be a battle -- the judge that made that the case against lula was likely to defend it. of course we will have still a lot to do in terms of activism in brazil, but we have very important measures and policies that just in this last couple of days we have seen that key policies have been announced. amy: finally, michael fox, one of his first acts in office, lula's in brazil paying respect to pele, known as the king, the great afro brazilian soccer player, the soccer icon of the world. at the6,000 perstadi were he made me of hibest goals, comfortingpele's widow.

if you could and talking about the significance of this start. interestingly, pele, who overcame so much racism in brazil, the accomplice relationship he had with the brazilian crew leaders? >> the fact this comes in one of lula's first days and the fact he says despite just been inaugurated i'm going to go to this is key. the loss of pele has been huge for brazil. there were three days of mourning and the light were on at the stadium across the untry. people came out crying. this is the soccer great but he also ufied a country, right? and brought them forward so much. like you said, his relionship with the dictatorship, his relationship with power was complicated because he did not often speak out. he did not come out against

them, played it easy, but what he represented for brazil was huge and he was this international symbol that was important even for the united states. if pele had never come to play in the united states, i probably never would have played soccer. the fact they held off his funeral and this day of mourning r today is key and absolutely really timely and it is showing the beginning of this new administration, beginning hope, really, for brazil. that is what everyone is talking about. i think this is a really important day for brazil brazil andians. amy: we want to thank you both for being with us. michael fox, former editor of nacla, host of the podcast "brazil on fire." maria luísa mendonça, director of the network for social justice and human rights in brazil. next step come after years of legal challenges from former

president donald trump, congress releases six years of trump's tax returns. we will speak with the pulitzer prize winning journalist who wrote two books about donald trump, david cay johnston. he says the return showed trump committed brazen tax fraud. we will look at what he did and did not pay in taxes in this country and what he did pay in taxes in countries around the world. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: ercot a winco and fire. fred white died new year's day at the age of 67. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. after years of legal battles before former president donald trump and congress, the house ways and means committee released six years of trump's tax returns friday, including thousas of documts from the years he ran from president and was in office. the records reveal $750 in federal income taxes during his

first year in office in 2017. in his last year in office 2020, he paid no federal taxes. they also showed the tax laws trump signed in late 2017 open new opportunities for him and disclosed income from a wide range of foreign countries, including canada, panama, saint maarten, the philippines, united arab emirates, china, and britain. trump responded to the release in videotatement >> tse taxeturns contain relatily littl informaon and t infortion thahonest ybody uldnderstand. ey are eremely cplex. e radica democrats' behavior is a shame upon the u.s. congress. amy: are next guest says the tax returns show trump took tax fraud. david cay johnston, pulitzer prize-winning investigative

reporter, co-founder of d.c. report. his most recent book is titled "the big cheat: how donald trump fleeced america and enriched himself and his family." also wrote "perfectly legal: the covert campaign to rig our tax system to benefit the super rich -- and cheat everybody else." david, welcome back to democracy now! talk about what you found most significant, what you are most surprised by in these latest tax releases. >> donald used a number of legal devices to reduce taxes, no surprise. but he did something absolutely brazen. that requires us to go back to 1984. that was the year trump tower was selling apartments like crazy and his first casino open. he has cash flowing into his pockets. he filed a tax return that included something called a schedule c. that is what freelancers use, what i use for my book writing business. on it he showed no revenue but

over $600,000 of expenses. auditors for the city of new york and the state of new york spotted that, disallow it, trump donated a trial. he -- judges wrote scathing opinions about what he was doing. what turns up in these tax returns? he filed 65 schedule c. 26 had zero revenue and hundreds of thousands of dollars in expenses. there were a handful of others where the income and expenses were exactly to the dollar equaled out which is impossible to believe is anything but manipulation. for those 26 returns were he was on notice, illegal to create a fictitious business and take to do actions, he could easily be prosecuted either by the federal government or the manhattan district attorney often bragged for cheating on state taxes the same way.

i think that is the most brazen thing in there. juan: david cay johnston, for those not friendly with the schedule c, what are the irs regulations about being able have a business that has no income but has all kinds of expenses and how long could that go on before the irs normally has a red flag to go after you? >> you can start up a business and have expenses to start up, but you have to show you were attempting to make a profit. if you go on for five years, the irs will almost always to this is a hobby and the taxpayers are not going to subsidize your hobby. but trump did 26 of these, which shows how determined he was to thumb his nose at the law. trump has always done this. i have no donald trump promise 35 years.

he is always thumbing his nose at the law when he gets caught as he repeatedly in various civil regulatory actions and some court cases agree he cheated illegal immigrants, as he called them, who were brought into the country to work for him. he always somehow says, oh, no, this is a great victory for me, you don't know what you're talking about, it is too complicated. nonsense. donald trump has been a criminal his whole life. he is just really good at evading law enforcement. juan: unlike let's say reporter like maggie haberman whose recent book has gotten a lot of attention, there are people like you and the late great wayne barrett who have been tracking or were tracking trump over decades. what this whole issue of him actually during the six years of his run for president and being president actually having net losses? could you talk about that? >> donald reported net losses.

think about that when we talk about crime. reported crime. we don't know the real level of that. donald reported massive losses so big that he had 150 some million dollars of positive income -- wag, capitagains, vidends, ierest,nd pensions. 150 billn dollarplus. atis tax rurns shonegative income ofbout $53 milon. at is a $2 million swi st a lot othat was acmpliedhrough aaw that donald trump lobed for in 1992 that allows real estate people, people -- big estate investors, not mom-and-pop i own one rental property. big real estate investors. live much tax-free. their only income is from real estate. the rest of their income is modest. donald -- i've been told by a number of retired irs agents who

have reached out to me that they have gone over the returns and their fundamental conclusion -- these are people who don't know each other, but know me -- they all said the same thing. it appears to be made up. whoever heard of donald just making something up? amy: i wanted to go back to 2016, key presidential debates between donald trump and hillary clinton with this exchange about trump's taxes. >> you have to ask yourself, why won't he release his tax returns? i think there may be a couple of reasons. first, maybe he is not as rich as he says he is. second, maybe he is not as charitable as he claims to be. third, we don't know all of his business dealings but we have been told through investigative reporting that he owes about $650 million to wall street and reign banks. or maybe he doesn't want the

american people, all of you watching tonight, to know he has paid nothing in federal taxes because the only years that anybody has ever seen were a couple of years when he had to turn them over to state authorities when he was trying to get a casino license and they show he did not pay any federal income tax. >> that makes me. smart. . amy: and then four years later in the presidential debate with joe biden with moderator chris wallace. >> i know you pay a lot of other taxes, but i am asking you to specific question, is it true you paid $750 in federal income taxes each of those two years? > i have paid millions of dollars in taxes. millions of dollars of income tax. let me tell you, there's a story on one of the papers -- i paid $38 million one year. i paid 27 -- >> show as your tax returns. >> you will see it as soon as it

is finished. go to the board of elections. 118 page so report that says everything i have come every bank i have, i am totally under leveraged because the assets are extremely good and we have -- i built -- >> i'm asking a specific question. i understand all that but i'm asking, mr. president, i'm asking a question. will you tell us how much you paid in federal income taxes in 2016 and 2017? >> millions of dollars. >> you paid millions of dollars. so not $750. amy: when will we get to see it? well, we just got to see it in 2022 at the end of the year. i wanted to ask you to respond to these, david cay johnston, to your allegation that shows he committed tax fraud, which would mean he should end up in prison. and maybe he's talking about the

millions of dollars he paid in taxes not to the u.s. governnt but to governments around the world. >> the tax returns, amy, showed donald paid more income taxes to foreign governments than to the united states. donald's foreign entitlements as president should concern us a lot. you will recall in the 2016 campaign he said the saudis buy lots of apartments from a, i like them. that tells you he is influenced by people putting money in his pocket that the president should be insulated from that. everything you heard donald say during the two debates was basically nonsense. the case of paying taxes, there's a tiny sliver of truth. he paid overseas. the rest of it is absolute nonsense. and he knew it was absolute nonsense. but understand donald has no problem with lying through his teeth.

he lied under oath in judicial proceedings. donald essentially believes whatever he says makes it so. but he just makes stuff up. amy: what about breaking the law? >> well, why didn't auditors catch donald trump is a very good question. first of all, congress has given the irs for two decades -- more than two decades, extra money to pursue the working poor and make sure they don't cheat on their taxes. but at the top, the republicans have ordered cuts of audits of corporations and wealthy people. almost 25,000 families make $10 million a year or more. the most recent year we have data, 66 audits were closed stop that is a fraction of 1% of those families. secondly, donald does so long as he has attack seduction he could not use this yr but can use in future years -- an auditor

assigned just tax return would quickly conclude even if he found a whole bunch of bogus material, he would still owe no taxes so the irs practice generally is to close such a file and move on to one that is easier and will produce immediate revenue. we need to change that. i have asked irs and members of congress for decades now to conduct a detailed study of people who report negative incomes not once in a while as a business fails, but year after year after year, which is what trump does. i think we would discover some shocking things about our taxes. juan: david, i would like to ask you, in terms of going back to the schedule c issue mentioned, you highlighted, and a one piece you said this was the easiest case to make in terms of a potential criminal activity. why is that? why would a jury be more likely

to find someone guilty just on the schedule schedule c violations and the more complex, legal issues that arise when you study trump's filings in depth? >> first of all, that is not the most important case to bring. the most important case of human intelligence documents he stole and took to mar-a-lago. but on the tax front, you think creating fictitious business and taking tax deductions for plain and simple thing or near people can understand. many of the things donald trump is done with his taxes are esoteric. it took me years and years and years to learnow the t system reall wor. paid xawyers tminus ount of ney becae our tax codes ridiculouy complicated and inlves ver comex concepts involving accounting, appreciation, all sorts of terms i'm sure most people watching

are going, what? but this is simple and easy to prove. remember, the manhattan da got 17 felony convictions on 17 charges against the trump organization and a subsidiary company, 100% owned by donald trump, for much smaller tax fraud involving untaxed items to executives, cars, things like that. showing people, here's the tax return. there's no evidence of a business that existed when he took these deductions. no evidence of documentation, receipts, invoices to show an actual business. people will grasp that i believe. i think it would take a prosecutor at most three days to present the case. amy: finally, why was only one irs agent charged with

investigating and reviewing donald trump's taxes when he was president? the significance of that kind of review not having happened, even though it is a law, david? >> presidential tax returns and vice presidential tax returns are supposed to be audited. biden and kamala harris were audited. obama and biden were audited. he appointed charles mnuchin and the recent irs commissioner. while they say they had no idea that these audits were being done, they are responsible. it does not matter if you did not know. the question is, why didn't you know? assigning a single irs agent to something this complex and refusing him access to specialists -- amy: 10 seconds >> it shows you this is the lawlessness of the trump administration. they were lawless. amy: david cay johnston, thank

you for big with us, twice pulitzer prize investigative journalist, cofounder of d.c. report, stepping down from that. author of "the big cheat: how donald trump fleeced america and enriched himself and his family." and many more books including "perfectly legal: the covert campaign to rig our tax system to benefit the super rich -- and cheat everybody else."

♪ ♪ welcome to nhk "newsline." i'm ramin mellegard in tokyo. criticism is mounting in russia against the country's military commanders after dozens of russian soldiers were killed in a ukrainian rocket strike in the eastern donetsk region. russian defense ministry officials said on wednesday the attack destroy