Theories have proliferated since Tuesday night when reporter David Cay Johnston unveiled part of President Trump’s 2005 tax return. Johnston says the Form 1040 just landed in his mailbox. The form is stamped “CLIENT COPY,” suggesting it wasn’t leaked from the IRS (which would be very disturbing).
But “CLIENT COPY” doesn’t mean Trump leaked it — a popular theory because the return actually shows Trump (a) being wealthy (which is central to his own self-image) and (b) paying a high rate of taxes. Instead, this detail probably means the leaker was someone to whom Trump provided just that 2005 Form 1040, but not the rest of his 2005 tax return.
Here’s one clue: In 2005, reporter Tim O’Brien published a book Trump Nation, which included speculation that Trump may not actually be a billionaire. Trump sued O’Brien for this slight (and lost badly). Ian Tuttle at National Review included these details in a report on the suit last year:
He sued in Camden, N.J. — in family court. This move kept a prima facie laughable suit from being thrown out — but began the case down the path of discovery. “Because he came after me on his reputation being damaged,” O’Brien tells me over the phone, recounting the timeline, “the questions about his net worth, that opened us up to getting his tax returns, his bank records, etc., etc.” For the next three years, Trump dragged his feet. “The case dragged on for as long as it did because he wouldn’t comply with discovery requests,” says O’Brien. “He wouldn’t turn over the tax returns, then the tax returns came in almost so completely redacted as to be useless.”
Who redacted the forms? Was the 1040 redacted? Who had access to the 1040 before it was redacted?
So — and this is guesswork — maybe O’Brien or a colleague is a source. Maybe someone who works or worked at Family Court in Camden, N.J., is the source. Maybe this is the wrong path, but it seems plausible now.
Timothy P. Carney, the Washington Examiner’s commentary editor, can be contacted at [email protected]. His column appears Tuesday nights on washingtonexaminer.com.
