President Trump asserted Wednesday that the leak of part of his 2005 tax return to the media was “certainly not from the White House” and that the journalist who first got the documents “he’s not much.”
He made the comments during an interview with Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, who noted that David Cay Johnston, the investigative journalist who received the documents and shared them with MSNBC, said he might have received them from a leaker in the White House.
“Certainly not from the White House. That I can tell you. I do not know where they got it,” Trump replied. “This guy has been following me for 25 years. He’s not much.”
The assertion is a notable departure from Trump’s recent allegations that officials, who are holdovers from former President Barack Obama’s administration, were leaking information to the press.
Trump added that 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 Johnston on to her program. He said they had dropped into his mailbox and for all he knew, it could have been Trump himself who sent the documents.
