Scarborough: Trump leaked his own tax returns as distraction

MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough is accusing President Trump of leaking his own 2005 tax returns in an effort to “distract from Russia hearings and the Trumpcare meltdown.” 

“This one tax return is not bad for him because he cherry picked one return from over a decade ago and had it leaked to the press,” Scarborough tweeted Wednesday morning.

“The Trump camp released one positive tax return to distract from Russia hearings and the Trumpcare meltdown. That’s painfully obvious.”

This one tax return is not bad for him because he cherry picked one return from over a decade ago and had it leaked to the press. https://t.co/P5cMuApGVe

— Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) March 15, 2017

The Trump camp released one positive tax return to distract from Russia hearings and the Trumpcare meltdown. That’s painfully obvious. https://t.co/NLBVPJhwg6

— Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) March 15, 2017

MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow on Tuesday night released two pages from Trump’s 2005 tax returns on air, after journalist David Cay Johnston acquired them.

{mosads}After Maddow hyped the show on Twitter, the White House released details from the same two pages of Trump’s 2005 tax returns, reporting that Trump paid $150 million in income and paid $38 million in federal taxes in 2005.

The statement also knocked MSNBC for “illegally” publishing the report.

Scarborough once had a friendly relationship with Trump, but the two became adversarial during the presidential race, with Scarborough criticizing Trump harshly and Trump responding by mocking “Morning Joe” TV ratings.

Scarborough is off from the program this week. 

Trump is the first president in decades to not publicly release his tax returns.

Trump has previously said he would not release them while he is being audited by the IRS, but the IRS has noted that an audit would not prevent anyone from releasing the information on their own.