MSNBC: Former IRS Commissioner Says Trump Should Release His Returns
RUSH TRANSCRIPT:
MELBER: "This is brand new breaking news. You are hearing it first on MSNBC. This is mark Everson, a former IRS chief in the bush administration. We spoke with him and he says look, Donald Trump should release his taxes and the audit is no excuse. I want to read exactly what he said, breaking news here. When Americans file their tax returns each year, they declare under penalty of perjury to the best of their knowledge they are true, correct and complete. He says trump is no exception. He either stands by his returns or he doesn't. The point there being that even if you are under audit, you have already said as a factual legal matter, these are my numbers and give to the government. The IRS chief saying trump could release them to the government. He went on to tell us that quote, it would be a real rupture in our political system for a candidate to refuse to honor that transparency. Here's what Donald Trump said to NBC news about this very issue."
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TRUMP: "Until my audit is finished, very simple, you're not going to see anything. When it's finished, you are going to see it but I'm not going to complicate things by doing it."
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MELBER: "The argument there again, some tax lawyers have backed Trump up on this, is that because you might have changes to your statement, you might have numbers that you put in that you said were accurate at the time and you later changed them, that that complicates it and that doesn't necessarily mean there's any wrongdoing. It's always been the tradition in recent times for candidates to put forward their numbers so that voters can look at it and the voters can decide. Last thing I want to mention from our reporting because we spoke to a lot of people about this hot issue that I don't think is going anywhere, we also spoke to a former senior IRS official so this is someone I spoke to in government who oversees this stuff and he said look, trump's financial profile suggests he might be paying a very small amount of taxes or his yearly income may be lower than trump wants to acknowledge. Quote, this may not be a political judgment but an ego thing about his wealth where the taxes suggest he's not as rich as his statements have suggested. That's another separate former IRS official. So different people in the IRS basically weighing in here and saying he can release, the audit's no excuse and the voters, many people feel, have a right to see these numbers and judge for themselves for a men who would be president."
