There are no plans, for now, to release President Donald Trump’s tax returns following a New York Times report that during the 1990s Trump evaded paying the appropriate taxes, as a result of which he managed to reap millions, the White House said Wednesday.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters that she was “not aware of any plans” for the President to release his tax returns, adding that the Times article was a “totally false attack based on an old, recycled news story.”
Sanders further stressed she was “not going to sit and go through every single line of a very boring, 14,000-word story,” but didn’t openly deny any of the facts in the article. She only referenced a statement from Charles Harder, an attorney for Trump, who said that allegations Trump engaged in “dubious” tax practices were “100 percent false.”
Harder claimed Trump “had virtually no involvement” with the tax strategies used by his family, and delegated those tasks to others, The Hill writes. He also warned the Times it would face a defamation lawsuit if it suggested Trump participated in a fraudulent tax scheme.
The story published on Tuesday cites records that show Trump and his siblings created a “sham” corporation to disguise taxable gifts from their parents, thus avoiding to pay high taxes and eventually reaping over $400 million in today’s dollars.
President Trump likewise dismissed the story as “very old, boring and often told hit piece,” but failed to deny any of the reporting.
“The Failing New York Times did something I have never seen done before. They used the concept of ‘time value of money’ in doing a very old, boring and often told hit piece on me. Added up, this means that 97% of their stories on me are bad. Never recovered from bad election call!” he tweeted on Wednesday.
Back in 2016, during his presidential campaign, Trump was criticized for his refusal to release his tax returns, a move which broke with tradition. He repeatedly claimed his taxes couldn’t be made public because they were under audit, but many noted that he could still request that they be released.
On Wednesday, the White House Press Secretary maintained some of Trump’s taxes were “still under audit” but she didn’t specify if those taxes were from the period in question.
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