Is there anyone concerned at the ugly turn the election has taken with the release of a few pages of Donald Trump’s taxes from 1995? The ugliness is not that Trump’s taxes have been revealed, per se, but that it was done, in part it appears, by getting an elderly lawyer to violate his duty of confidentiality to his client. One might say that Trump deserves what he gets. But in this age of ever-eroding privacy, it is alarming when the official rules meant to guard privacy come under assault.

When first asked by the New York Times, Trump’s one-time tax-man Jack Mitnick gave the right answer: “he could not divulge details of Mr. Trump’s finances without Mr. Trump’s consent.” But the clever reporters got him talking on the more general topic of “Mr. Trump’s approaches to taxes” and managed to steer him into confirming that the few Xeroxed pages in their possession were copies of bona fide Trump tax documents. Before long Mr. Mitnick was explaining how he filled out the forms.