WASHINGTON (Diya TV) — On Tuesday night, the American public were provided another small glimpse of President Donald Trump’s tax returns, which he has refused to release since declaring his candidacy, citing a continuing audit as the reason.
The President’s 2005 1040 tax form, which was leaked to investigative reporter David Cay Johnston and televised during a segment of Rachel Maddow’s prime time broadcast on MSNBC, showed that the real estate mogul turned President paid $38 million in taxes on $150 million in income, figures confirmed by the White House.
This is the second such incident of leaked details from Trump’s tax returns to the media. In October of last year, The New York Times obtained copies of his 1995 returns, which showed he claimed a $916 million loss that could have prevented him from paying income tax for up to 18 years. Regardless, there remains more than one gaping hole when it comes to public knowledge of where Trump’s money comes from.
Here are a few of the questions that are still yet to be answered.
Where did his money come from?
The documents released Tuesday showed how much income tax Trump paid, but they did not reveal the sources of his income. Some believe these sources are key to determining potential conflicts of interest, or even potential violations of the Constitution’s emolument clause, which prohibits anyone in office accepting any sort of gift from a foreign entity.
A “We the People” petition posted on the White House’s website has garnered north of one million signatures, it calls for the president to release all of his returns for that precise reason.
“The unprecedented economic conflicts of this administration need to be visible to the American people, including any pertinent documentation which can reveal the foreign influences and financial interests which may put Donald Trump in conflict with the emoluments clause of the Constitution,” the petition reads.
Income tax from other years?
We only have information from two years worth of filings, and we know his 1995 filing could have prevented him from paying income tax for 18 years. But in that decade, did Trump ever pay income taxes? We also don’t know if Trump’s income increased or decreased after 2005, and we still don’t know what his income was in 2015, the year he announced his candidacy for president.
There is information about Trump’s tax payments before 1995. According to The New York Times, Trump did not pay federal income tax in 1978, 1979, 1984, 1991 and 1993.
Who leaked the returns?
The 1995 and 2005 returns were leaked directly to reporters — Susanne Craig of The New York Times, and David Cay Johnston, currently editor and founder of DCReport.org. On both occasions, the returns appeared to be personal copies, the documents leaked this week were labeled “client copy.”
Johnston speculated publicly on Maddow’s show that he thinks Trump sent them himself.
“Let me point out, It’s entirely possible that Donald sent this to me. Donald Trump has, over the years, leaked all sorts of things.” he told Maddow. “Donald has a long history of leaking material about himself when he thinks its in his interest.”
