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

let's break all of it down with pulitzer prize-winning investigative reporter, david cay johnston. he wrote the big cheat, how donald trump fleeced america and enriched himself and his family. david, i've got to get your reaction to this penalty, because when i heard 1. 6 million, i don't know, give me a break, i would guess trump's legal bills are higher than that. >> very likely, they are. the penalty is 100% of the tax, basically. so, trump is also going to have to pay the tax that was not paid. remember, this is a state case. this isn't the federal tax that was avoided, it was the state level tax, which is roughly a third to a quarter, according to a third of the federal rate. >> does that mean he's going to be paying more for federal tax fraud? i'm just saying, 1. 6 million seems like no biggie. trump is not in trouble, trump is not in jail, he is still a very wealthy man, and could blow his nose was 1. 6. he's not in jail. weissenberg is. >> right, i agree with you about that, totally. weisselberg was charged by prosecutors who were hoping to get him to turn on donald, and it

joining us now is david cay johnston, pulitzer prize -winning investigative reporter and author of theiched himself and his family. also tim o'brien, senior oh editor of bloomberg opinion, an msnbc political analyst, and the host of the bloomberg podcast, crash course, which launched today. david, let's begin with the criminal liability that donald trump could be facing. could he end up sharing that resume item with al component of tax criminal? >> absolutely. if alvin bragg, the manhattan district attorney, goes after trump personally and he's got pretty close to a slam dunk criminal fraud case. donald trump, in 1984, filed a tax return with something called a schedule c in which he had no revenue and took over $600,000 an expensive's. the state of new york in city of new york auditors disallowed up. trump demanded a trial. in both cases he lost. the judges said that's civil fraud, not criminal, but civil. his own lawyer testified against him and essentially accused him of being a forger. once judges have said that, you are on notice. and yet as candidate and president donald trump fi

david cay johnston and trystan snell, thank you both very much. >>> still ahead, kevin mccarthy may haveally gotten his precious gavel, but his headaches are not over. his biggest migraine, of course, in the form of serial fabricator george santos, or whatever his name actually is. more on that later after the break. ctually is more on that later after the break. uwith less asthma. and can help you breathe better in as little as 2 weeks. dupixent is an add-on treatment for specific types of moderate-to-severe asthma that's not for sudden breathing problems. dupixent can cause allergic reactions that can be severe. get help right away if you have rash, chest pain, worsening shortness of breath, tingling or numbness in your limbs. tell your doctor about new or worsening joint aches and pain, or a parasitic infection. don't change or stop asthma medicines, including steroids, without talking to your doctor. ask your specialist about dupixent. type 2 diabetes? including steroids, without talking to your doctor. discover the ozempic® tri-zone. in my ozempic® tri-zone, i lowered my a1c, cv ris