October surprise:
Trump tax docs 'illegally obtained,' published, 'Only news here is ... the New York Times ... is an extension of
the Clinton Campaign', 10/2/16
Late Saturday night, the
New
York Times published a story speculating Donald Trump may have legally avoided paying federal
income tax for 18 years due to deductions from a declared $916 million loss in
1995. As evidence, a partial collection of the businessman’s state tax
documents for New York, New Jersey and Connecticut were published.
“The only news here is
that the more than 20-year-old alleged tax document was illegally obtained, a
further demonstration that the New York Times, like establishment media in
general, is an extension of the Clinton Campaign, the Democratic Party and
their global special interests,” a campaign statement said in response.
New York Times executive
editor Dean Baquet, while on a panel discussion at Harvard in September, he
would risk jail to publish Trump’s tax returns. It is unknown whether he had
the newly published documents in his possession at the time.
By federal law, it is
illegal to publish an unauthorized tax return: “It shall be unlawful for any
person to whom any return or return information (as defined in section 6103(b))
is disclosed in a manner unauthorized by this title thereafter willfully to
print or publish in any manner not provided by law any such return or return
information. Any violation of this paragraph shall be a felony punishable by a
fine in any amount not exceeding $5,000, or imprisonment of not more than 5
years, or both, together with the costs of prosecution.”
Indicative of how the paper
may respond to prosecution or lawsuits from Trump himself, Banquet said he
would argue that Trump’s private tax returns are vital to the public interest
because his “whole campaign is built on his success as a businessman and his
wealth.”
According to the Times
story, “the pages were mailed last month to Susanne Craig, a reporter at the
Times who has written about Mr. Trump’s finances. The documents were the first
page of a New York state resident income tax return, the first page of a New
Jersey nonresident tax return and the first page of a Connecticut nonresident
tax return.”
Asked if the Times was
in possession of other Trump tax returns, Craig said, “We’re doing a lot of
reporting around this. So we’re going to keep going. Maybe a ‘no comment.'”
The New York Times also
took advantage of the complexity of the tax code and paid no taxes in 2014,
reported Hotair, and received an income tax refund of $3.5 million, even though
the company had a pre-tax profit of $29.9 million.
“The effective tax rate for
2014 was favorably affected by approximately $21.1 million for the reversal of
reserves for uncertain tax positions due to the lapse of applicable statutes of
limitations,” the Times explained.
In a Sunday morning
tweet, Trump did not deny the claims, but said he “know[s] our complex tax laws
better than anyone who has ever run for president and am the only one who can
fix them.”
Senate Minority Leader
Harry Reid, who in 2012 falsely claimed Mitt Romney didn’t pay taxes, leaped on
the Times claim.
“Trump is a
billion-dollar loser who won’t release his taxes because they’ll expose him as
a spoiled, rich brat who lost the millions he inherited from his father,” the
Nevada Democrat said in a statement.
“Despite losing a
billion dollars, Trump wants to reward himself with more tax breaks on
inherited wealth while stiffing middle-class families who earn their paychecks
with hard work,” he continued.
The Hillary Clinton
campaign was quick to respond with a “Trump ‘smart’ tax calculator” mocking the
GOP nominee on its website. Meant to “calculate how much you would pay in taxes
if you paid the same as Donald Trump,” users are asked to input their salary
and all receive the same $0 bill.
“Donald Trump says it’s
because he’s smart. The New York Times says it’s because he lost almost a
billion dollars,” the website reads.
Supporters are seeing it
differently. Rudy Giuliani, former New York mayor, said Trump “had some
failures and then he built an empire,” calling the businessman “a genius at how
to take advantage of legal remedies that can help your company survive and
grow.”
“Don’t you think a man
who has this kind of economic genius is a lot better for the United States than
a woman, and the only thing she’s ever produced is a lot of work for the FBI
checking out her emails,” Giuliani told ABC’s This Week.
On “Fox News Sunday,”
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie declared the Times piece “a very, very good
story for Donald Trump.”
Speaking on “Reliable
Sources,” NewsBusters executive editor Tim Graham attacked the story as
partisan spin and a Trump take-down. “This paper has all the restraint of a
pack of flesh-eating zombies,” Graham said.
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