When we cover George Conway’s statements, articles, or tweets, we don’t do so because he was married to Kellyanne, creating a weird dynamic that some voyeurs find irresistible. No, we’re not interested in someone’s marriage, failed or not. We assume adults can take care of themselves so long as no one is being abused. We do cover George closely because he has a powerful legal mind and remains one of the most powerful attorneys in Washington. When he offers his opinion, it’s often based upon a unique mastery of the law combined with things he may “hear” in his position among his professional and social herd.

Any attorney that has passed the bar knows that with very few exceptions, a criminal case requires the prosecution to prove intent. (Unfortunately for Matt Gaetz, he may be charged with one of those few crimes for which intent is irrelevant.). Tax fraud and bank fraud are unusual in that the facts themselves are often the easiest to prove, they’re right there on paper; “One of these numbers is wrong because look at these different numbers.” More difficult problems arise when proving that the person intended to steal from the government by cheating on taxes. One might claim it was a mathematical error or miscommunication between the person charged and the accounting firm, or proving who knew what about the fraudulent filings.

Ignorance of the law is not a defense, but the government must still prove that the person intended to cheat – a subtle distinction that can even trip up lawyers and judges. This is precisely why Conway believed it was relevant to publish a screengrab of an old Trump tweet and juxtapose it against Trump’s claim last night:

"You didn’t pay tax on the car or a company apartment…you didn’t pay tax, or education for your grandchildren — I, don’t even know what do you have to put? Does anybody know the answer to that stuff?"

Prosecutors call this an admission… pic.twitter.com/3Myuzy0cB9

— Andrew Feinberg (@AndrewFeinberg) July 4, 2021

Yes, he certainly admitted that he did what they accuse him of doing. Additionally, most people do, in fact, understand the principle. As an example, if your business provides you a personal car, a house, $75,000 in tuition for a family member, a full-time maid, and butler,, every spring assigns fully paid-for meetings with the concierge at the Ritz Paris, and a field pass for the Super Bowl, those thinks sound like income to a regular person and not just part of the job. The fact that our examples are intentionally outrageous doesn’t mean that the real gifts are any less obviously income. It is not hard to understand.

But even if it was hard to understand, Conway found an example of Trump claiming to fully understand even the subtleties of tax law:

https://t.co/cs8QhU0oeR pic.twitter.com/f1zVE9bBPD

— George Conway (@gtconway3d) July 4, 2021

It sounds to us like Trump never bothered to fix the actual tax laws that he understood better than anyone, It sounds like he merely fixed how tax laws applied to him. Falling back upon his experienced wisdom, it sounds like he set about to demonstrate how the tax laws should work without changing the actual law. This, of course, can be helpful when one must prove that one intended to commit the crime.

By the way, these charges are just the beginning. Prosecutors can almost always amend their complaint to add charges. The grand jury remains in place and perhaps the prosecutors may be holding some charges back, especially as applied to individual family members. After all, they need to prove intent and Trump keeps shouting his mouth off, it may help with other possible charges down the road.

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