President Trump said Wednesday that the leak of part of his 2005 tax return to the media is “a disgrace.”
In a sneak-peak clip released by Fox News of an interview scheduled for 9 p.m. ET on “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” Trump said he has “no idea” where the tax return documents came from.
“I have no idea where they got it but it’s illegal and they’re not supposed to have it and it’s not supposed to be leaked and it’s certainly not an embarrassing tax return at all, but it’s an illegal thing they’ve been doing it, they’ve done it before and I think it’s a disgrace,” Trump said.
MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow teased on Twitter that she would discuss a Trump tax return on her Tuesday show. But before that happened, she got scooped by the Daily Beast and even the White House itself.
The White House statement revealed Trump had $38 million dollars in taxes on an income of $153 million dollars.
“Despite his substantial income figure and tax paid, it is totally illegal to steal and publish tax returns,”‘ the statement said. “The dishonest media can continue to make this part of their agenda, while the President will focus on his, which includes tax reform that will benefit all Americans.”
Maddow invited investigative journalist David Cay Johnston on to her program, who was the person who initially received the documents before sharing them with MSNBC. He said they had dropped into his mailbox and for all he knew, it could have been Trump himself who sent the documents.
Trump also hinted to Carlson that “interesting items” will come to light in the next couple weeks, related to his unproven accusation that former President Barack Obama wiretapped Trump Tower during the 2016 campaign.
“[W]iretap covers a lot of different things,” Trump said. “I think you’re going to find some very interesting items coming to the forefront over the next two weeks.”
