Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s (D-MA) lengthy plan to extinguish corruption in Washington subtly targets President Trump’s older sister Maryanne Trump-Barry, it was revealed Monday.
Warren’s plan – a 25 minute read, according to Medium – promises to combat corruption in Washington with reforms largely related to lobbyist activity and government transparency. However, her anti-corruption plan also calls for reforms in the federal judiciary, specifically calling to “close the loophole that allows federal judges to escape investigations for misconduct by stepping down from their post.” She specifically lists former Ninth Circuit Judge Alex Kozinski, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, and Trump’s sister Maryanne Trump-Barry:
When Ninth Circuit Judge Alex Kozinski was confronted with a judicial ethics investigation for sexual misconduct towards young female law clerks, he resigned — and the investigation immediately ended. Similarly, sexual assault and perjury complaints against Brett Kavanaugh were dismissed when he was confirmed to the Supreme Court, and Donald Trump’s sister Maryanne Trump-Barry resigned from the bench, ending an investigation into the Trump family’s decades-long tax schemes, including potential fraud. Under my plan, investigations will remain open until their findings are made public and any penalties for misconduct are issued.
The accusations against Barry surfaced as part of a New York Times investigation, which indicated that she and her siblings participated in “dubious tax schemes” on behalf of their father, Fred Trump. Barry retired from her post as a federal appellate judge following a February letter indicating that the investigation was “’receiving the full attention’ of a judicial conduct council,” the Times reported. However, Barry, 82, was already nearing retirement and listed as an “inactive senior judge.”
Trump dismissed the Times’ investigation as a “very old, boring and often told hit piece”:
The Failing New York Times did something I have never seen done before. They used the concept of “time value of money” in doing a very old, boring and often told hit piece on me. Added up, this means that 97% of their stories on me are bad. Never recovered from bad election call!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 3, 2018
Trump’s lawyer Charles Harder also slammed the piece, calling it “100 percent false, and highly defamatory.”
“There was no fraud or tax evasion by anyone. The facts upon which the Times bases its false allegations are extremely inaccurate,” he continued:
President Trump had virtually no involvement whatsoever with these matters. The affairs were handled by other Trump family members who were not experts themselves and therefore relied entirely upon the aforementioned licensed professionals to ensure full compliance with the law.
Trump’s brother Robert also released a statement on the matter:
Our dear father, Fred C. Trump, passed away in June 1999. Our beloved mother, Mary Anne Trump, passed away in August 2000. All appropriate gift and estate tax returns were filed, and the required taxes were paid. Our father’s estate was closed in 2001 by both the Internal Revenue Service and the New York State tax authorities, and our mother’s estate was closed in 2004. Our family has no other comment on these matters that happened some 20 years ago, and would appreciate your respecting the privacy of our deceased parents, may God rest their souls.
Warren’s corruption plan comes in the wake of mounting questions involving her own actions, including cushioning her campaign with millions from her senatorial bid (in which she accepted money from big donors), advocating for big defense contractors, and falsely claiming Native American heritage for decades.
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