The Gadfly is going to go out on a limb here and postulate that Donald Trump never, ever, ever intended to release his tax returns to the public. Never, ever.
Keep in mind the following as Drumpf and his lawyers go to hell and high water, and ultimately to the U.S. Supreme Court, to keep the American people from ever seeing his tax returns -
In the runup to, and during the 2016 campaign, Drumpf unequivocally stated that he would release his taxes. There are many videos of him saying as much (with Drumpf, there's always a video or a tweet):
As the 2016 election drew nearer, Drumpf pivoted from say he was going to release his taxes to, "oh, so sorry, I can't, I'm being audited, they won't let me." There is absolutely nothing in IRS law that prevents someone under audit from publicly releasing their tax returns. People do it all the time. Richard Nixon did it, and did so at the height of the Watergate investigation.
After Drumpf was "elected" the story of his taxes being under audit grew in scope - he suddenly began claiming that he was being audited in perpetuity, so sorry folks, no taxes, probably ever.
The IRS does not comment on people being audited. However, they do send a formal letter to audit targets. Drumpf has failed to even produce the official IRS audit letter, which contains no private information as it is just a form letter, that would indeed corroborate his story that he is currently under IRS audit. Drumpf's long-time personal attorney Michael Cohen testified recently that he tried to get a copy of the IRS audit letter in 2016 from Drumpf, to combat press reports. Drumpf declined to provide it.
And now that the House Ways and Means Committee in Congress is threatening to subpoena his tax returns from the IRS, which by law they have a right to do, Drumpf is now saying that he will fight the release of his taxes all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Quite the dramatic reversal huh? The kind of reversal that makes one believe that there may be some scandalously explosive information in those tax returns.
The spectacle of watching Drumpf hide under the skirt of a federal government agency (the IRS) to keep even more of his unethical, probably criminal deeds hidden from public view is entertaining to say the least.
You know which presidential candidate in 2016 instructed the IRS to release 15 years of their taxes, showing that they and their spouse paid back more than 40% of their income in state and federal taxes, and - also showed charitable contributions totaling 10% of their gross income during that timeline?
Uh-huh . . .
And The Gadfly is just going to leave that right fucking there.
----TFG
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