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Who is Nick Akerman? Here's why he thinks Trump and Ivanka could face a 5-year jail term because of tax fraud

Nick Akerman said that Trump’s tax fraud is far more serious than the notoriety of former US President Richard Nixon who was involved in the Watergate scandal

The New York Times' explosive report on President Donald Trump’s taxes has been causing quite the storm and is the topic of discussion as the country prepares for presidential elections in a month's time. Former assistant special Watergate prosecutor Nick Akerman weighed in on the revelations from the NYT report and claimed these could send POTUS to prison.
 
In a video interview with CNN, Akerman said that Trump’s tax fraud is far more serious than the notoriety of former US President Richard Nixon who was involved in the Watergate scandal. Akerman He said, “It looks like Trump has done a whole series of activities that could qualify as tax fraud, not just tax avoidance.” He then mentioned the difference between tax fraud and tax avoidance that the NYT report has accused Trump of. Akerman said, “Tax avoidance is simply taking the tax code and getting the most deductions you could get under the code which is perfectly illegal. Tax fraud, however, is lying about what your income was, lying about what your deductions are.”

A user tweeted Akerman’s video slamming the channel and the former prosecutor saying: "#FakeNews #CNN has this Nick Akerman saying @realDonaldTrump and @IvankaTrump could do jail time for tax evasion. This guy has a major case of TDS. It’s just lie after lie on that channel."

Akerman mentioned how Trump's daughter, Ivanka Trump, who also serves as a White House adviser 'could go to jail too' pointing to the consultant fees allegedly paid by Trump to Ivanka, “There was no legitimate reason for Ivanka to get those consulting fees as she was already getting paid as a Trump employee. The only possible reason to do this is to move the money around so that they would not be taxed to Donald Trump but the effect would go onto Ivanka Trump’s tax returns who probably had certain losses that she could take against it. So in the end, the government gets zero dollars."

When asked if Trump could go to jail because of tax fraud, Akerman replied in the affirmative, “No question about it and his daughter is going to jail too. Tax evasion is a 5-year felony and a pretty serious crime. The more the money gets stolen the longer you go jail for.” Akerman speculated the two could have been shifting the money around to avoid paying taxes. That, he said, could land the president in some trouble should he leave office in January. “The only thing that’s saving him at this point is the Department of Justice’s guideline that says you can’t indict a sitting president,” Akerman said. “Once he’s no longer a sitting president, he is subject to being indicted.”
 
The NYT report stated that POTUS’ private records show that his company once paid $747,622 in fees to an unnamed consultant for hotel projects in Hawaii and Vancouver, British Columbia. Ivanka’s public disclosure forms – which she filed when joining the White House staff in 2017 – show that she had received an identical amount through a consulting company she co-owned.” 
 
After Akerman's comments dropped, it caused a furor on the Internet where people too chimed in saying Trump might land up in jail. Others opined that he must not get re-elected. A social media user wrote, “If we all stick together and stay the course. We might just actually see him get arrested post-inauguration. Nick Ackerman was just on CNN & he said what Trump has done is definitely a going to prison offense.” 

Another wrote saying Trump is not eligible for the presidency. “It is so wrong that we have to caveat that ‘if not re-elected’. He's a criminal and he should not be eligible for the presidency. This idea that a sitting president can't be charged is long overdue for some re-evaluation. Plus his kids aren't president, so why not charge them?” Another concurred, “I wish logic would apply and that a known criminal could NOT be re-elected and would actually be "asked" to step down immediately. It gives the criminal every reason to use 100% of the power of the presidency to retain power no matter what... things are about to get much worse.” 

Who is Nick Akerman?

Nick Akerman is a lawyer of national prominence and represents cases related to civil subjects, criminal matters, and high profile government probes. With nearly 40 years of legal experience, the lawyer is best known as the assistant lawyer for the Watergate case prosecution team that brought down former US president Richard Nixon.

He has also served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York, where he prosecuted on a wide range of white-collar criminal issues. This included bank frauds, stock frauds, complex financial frauds, environmental and tax crimes as reported on Dorsey and Whitney LLP website. The site reports that Akerman is also an expert on computer crime and the protection of critical information related to computer data. The lawyer regularly uses the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and trade secret laws that need data thieves to give back stolen computer data and prohibits the dissemination of the data to competitors.

Akerman has also appeared on many news shows like on MSNBC where he has opined on national issues. He has been quoted by several acclaimed news publications like the Washington Post, the New York Times, Newsweek, The Hill, Politico, and Vice News to name some. The lawyer has also written Op-Ed pieces in the New York Times, the New York Daily News, The Daily Beast, and Newsweek stating his views from time to time. 

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