DNC: Trump’s ‘audit excuse is a sham’

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) on Tuesday slammed President Trump for long claiming that he can’t release his tax returns due to an audit after the White House made some tax info public to undercut an MSNBC report.

“The White House’s willingness to release some tax information when it suits them proves Donald Trump’s audit excuse is a sham,” DNC senior adviser Zac Petkanas said in a statement.

“If they can release some of his information, they can release all of the information. The only reason not to release his returns is to hide what’s in them such as financial connections with Russian oligarchs and the Kremlin.”

{mosads}The White House said late Tuesday that Trump reported $150 million in income and paid $38 million in federal taxes in 2005, releasing a statement before MSNBC could reveal the documents on air.

DCReport.org obtained two pages of Trump’s 2005 Form 1040 that MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show” dedicated its hourlong program to.

Journalist David Cay Johnston shared the documents with the left-leaning network after receiving them in the mail from an unidentified source.

Trump was the first major-party presidential nominee in decades to refuse to release his tax returns. He claimed repeatedly that he would do so once a routine audit was over, though the IRS said that an audit does not prevent anyone from releasing their own returns. 

Democrats and some Republicans have since pressured Trump to release more information, with many concerned about his potential financial ties overseas, particularly to Russia.

The White House on Tuesday criticized MSNBC’s coverage of the topic and extensive promotion of it before Maddow’s broadcast that evening.

“You know you are desperate for ratings when you are willing to violate the law to push a story about two pages of tax returns from over a decade ago,” it said in a statement. “Despite this substantial income figures and tax paid, it is totally illegal to steal and publish tax returns.”