iStock/TheCrimsonRibbon(NEW YORK) — The journalist who obtained the purported first two pages of President Trump’s 2005 tax returns and made them public said Wednesday morning that Trump was probably not behind the anonymous release.
“The venom and the anger and the falsehoods in the White House statement suggests that, no, he’s probably not the source,” David Cay Johnston told ABC News’ “Good Morning America” Wednesday. “That tells me that this is somebody who either worked at the accounting firm or had connections to it or this copy was turned over to someone in a regulatory proceeding, in litigation, in a financial statement, and why not the whole return?”
Johnston said the documents were delivered anonymously to his mailbox. Johnston had speculated Tuesday night that Trump, who is the first president in decades not to release his taxes, or someone close to him, may have been the source of the documents.
The White House issued a response to ABC News before Tuesday night’s MSNBC release of the information lauding Trump’s income and taxes paid.
“Before being elected President, Mr. Trump was one of the most successful businessmen in the world with a responsibility to his company, his family and his employees to pay no more tax than legally required,” a statement from the White House said. “That being said, Mr. Trump paid $38 million dollars even after taking into account large scale depreciation for construction, on an income of more than $150 million dollars, as well as paying tens of millions of dollars in other taxes such as sales and excise taxes and employment taxes and this illegally published return proves just that.”
ABC Breaking News | Latest News Videos
Copyright © 2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.