“Yeah, well, we’re going to find out”, said the 68-year-old former secretary of state, as she was joined by many others including the 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney in asking Trump to release his tax returns.
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In January, Donald Trump had this to say when he was asked about whether he would release his tax returns: “I have very big returns, as you know, and I have everything all approved and very handsome and we’ll be working that over in the next period of time”.
He told the Associated Press that he wouldn’t release his returns before the November elections unless what he described as Internal Revenue Service audit of his finances was complete.
There is a curious echo to Romney’s accusation of a “bombshell” in Trump’s tax returns.
“There’s nothing to learn from them”, Trump said, adding that he doesn’t believe voters are interested.
In a tweet, Trump said that he told the concerned media house that his taxes were being subjected to routine audit and will release details after completion of audit- and not post election.
Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton also questioned Mr. Trump on the issue at a rally Wednesday.
Here he is telling Hugh Hewitt previous year, before he got in the race, that he’d release his returns.
O’Brien’s deep dive into the candidate’s finances (the one that made Trump so upset he took him to court) reveal a businessman so anxious about the public perception of his (purported) successes that he was obsessed with making the Forbes 400 – a list members of the über-rich secure in their wealth “abhorred” and “loathed”.
There is also precedent for releasing tax returns even when they are under audit. Carswell, now at Vanity Fair, told the Post she played the recording to Maples, who confirmed the call was from Trump himself and cried upon hearing him say that a ring he had given her was not meant to imply an engagement – although their engagement was announced weeks later.
Why release returns, and what should be read into Trump’s stonewalling? “You learn very little from tax returns”. Individual donations to politicians are disclosed publicly, but donations to advocacy SuperPACs aren’t; Trump’s private tax return could reveal recent gifts to conservative-voter-alienating interest groups. “So you have got to ask yourself, why does he not release them?”. “There is nothing that prevents releasing tax returns that are being audited”, he wrote.
“Think of Donald Trump’s personal qualities: the bullying, the greed, the showing off, the misogyny, the absurd third-grade theatrics”, Romney said in his March 3 speech.
“If you’re a full-time real-estate professional, as Trump is, you can list unlimited depreciation (write-offs) against your other income”, Johnston said, diving deep into tax law jargon. Carswell says Maples persuaded Trump to invite her out with the two of them to make up for the trickery.
“Nobody should give until audits are over”, Trump said.
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When one reporter asked about Clinton using the phrase “security inquiry”, Comey said the word “investigation” is “in our name.And I’m not familiar with the term ‘security inquiry'”.
