In a column for the Daily Beast, longtime investigative journalist and Donald Trump biographer made the case that there is enough evidence of financial fraud in the former president's tax returns from 2015 to 2020 to indict and prosecute him.
At issue, he noted, are deductions taken for Trump companies -- some of which may never have existed.
According to Johnston, the author of "The Big Cheat: How Donald Trump Fleeced America and Enriched Himself and His Family," he found "powerful evidence of criminal tax evasion," after reviewing the documents after they were released on Friday morning to the public after years of obstruction from Trump.
"Consider a rich business owner who fabricates deductions but who would still owe zero tax in the audited year even if those deductions were denied. That means an audit that will not generate any tax revenue. That’s also what Trump apparently did in 26 sole proprietor, or Schedule C, filings in the six years of released tax returns," he wrote before adding, "Trump also turned a profit off a portion of the tax system, making $2.8 million profit off the Alternative Minimum Tax, or AMT."
As for those 26 Trump businesses that may or may not exist, Johnston suggested that investigators dig deeper into how the former president used them to get out of paying taxes in the years involved.