Exxon—which made nearly $8 billion in profit last year and could perhaps afford better lawyers—called the action “fundamentally unfair.”

Tillerson, whom Putin personally awarded Russia’s Order of Friendship in 2013, reportedly argued at the time that he was not in favor of sanctions because he believed them to be ineffective, which we imagine is definitely the case if you choose to ignore them.

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Source: Trump tax team is delusional

In the wake of the absolute (and ongoing) train wreck that is the Republican effort to repeal and/or replace Obamacare, the Trump administration really needs to score a legislative win, any legislative win. Now, all the pressure is on National Economic Council director Gary Cohn and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to get tax reform done, even if it turns out to be a shadow of the plan Trump proposed on the campaign trail and again in April. And at this point, that might be the best the team can hope for, particularly when it comes to Trump’s vow to slash the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 15 percent. Yesterday, we learned that “political and fiscal realities” suggested the corporate tax rate might not get below the low 20s and today, a new report pegs 25 the lowest it’ll go, given all the remaining questions about how to pay for the thing. Amazingly, though, everyone in the White House working on the bill thinks they’ll be able to get it done as planned, laws of math, time, and space be damned. Per Axios:

A source who recently met with White House tax officials [described] their mood as one of “irrational optimism.” The source said the reality is they’re still having immense problems finding revenues, and figuring out how to eliminate incentives for U.S. companies to park money overseas.

Speaking of taxes. . .

You might have heard that legendary hedge-fund manager Steve Cohen is plotting a $20 billion comeback, set to begin in 2018, when he’ll be allowed to return to the industry. One reason, we imagine, is to stick it to Preet Bharara, the former U.S. Attorney General—currently a distinguished scholar in residence at N.Y.U., after being canned by Trump—who played a large part in seeing that Cohen’s firm pleaded guilty to insider-trading charges in 2013. And, to be clear, that’s undoubtedly part of it. But, as it turns out, it’s just one piece of the equation. The other involves the fact that, come 2018, a host of hedge-fund managers will be forced to write very large checks to the I.R.S., after the government closed a loophole that allowed for the deferral of federal and state taxes on certain kinds of offshore compensation. Per the Wall Street Journal: