Donald Trump said Wednesday that he plans to release his taxes when an IRS audit is completed, despite telling the Associated Press the previous day that he would not release his tax documents.
“In interview I told @AP that my taxes are under routine audit and I would release my tax returns when audit is complete, not after election!” the real estate mogul tweeted Wednesday, after Trump’s critics, including Mitt Romney and other Republicans, who have urged Trump to make his tax returns available.
Trump’s resistance to releasing his tax documents leaves major questions for voters weighing a candidate whose campaign is staked on his business acumen and the fact that he is “very, very rich” — and would mark a major break with decades of precedent set by the nominees of the two major political parties.
The presumptive Republican nominee told The Associated Press in an interview Tuesday “there’s nothing to learn from them.”
Despite telling conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt in February 2015 — before he declared his candidacy — he “would release tax returns,” Trump has pivoted to say he would not do so while his income tax filings are still under audit by the Internal Revenue Service. Given that he says his tax returns since 2009 are still under audit, it is highly unlikely Trump will release anything before the November 2016 election if he sticks to that reasoning.
“He still leaves himself this out by saying if this audit wraps up before the November election, then sure he’ll release his tax returns,” said Julie Pace, one of the AP reporters who interviewed him, on CNN’s “At This Hour.” “We said, ‘Will you push your lawyers on this, will you tell them that voters deserve to know this information regardless of the audit?’ He said, ‘No.’ He said, ‘One, the voters don’t actually care about this, and two, there is no new l information that would come out of the tax returns.'”
In February, the IRS said: “Federal privacy rules prohibit the IRS from discussing individual tax matters. Nothing prevents individuals from sharing their own tax information.”
The Trump campaign did not respond to CNN requests for comment.
Trump has resisted pressure from Democrats and forces within his own party — most notably 2012 GOP nominee — who have called on him to release tax returns.
Rep. Darrell Issa, a California Republican who has endorsed Trump, also told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Wednesday that the real estate mogul told him that he intends to release his taxes after the audit.
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SOURCE: CNN, Jeremy Diamond
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