October surprise: Trump tax docs ‘illegally obtained,’ published

By WND Staff

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It’s only the second day of October and we have the first October surprise of the 2016 presidential election.

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.”

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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.'”

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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.”

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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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