Trump Accused Of Mass Corruption?

Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Information from former President Donald Trump’s tax returns released by Congress shows evidence of the “rampant corruption” of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) during the Trump administration according to Glenn Kirschner, former U.S. Attorney and current MSNBC analyst.

The release of the returns was voted on late Tuesday night by members of the House Ways and Means Committee and showed evidence that supported the New York Times investigation from the height of the Trump administration, namely that he was never under an audit like he had claimed. As the returns show Trump had used millions of dollars in business losses over the years to reduce having to pay taxes, even though he had millions of dollars of income coming from different sources.

The 29-page summary report issued by the Ways and Means Committee following the vote showed that the IRS which had at the time been led by former U.S. Treasurer Steve Mnuchin had failed to complete the mandatory audit of Trump’s tax returns. This is the first delay in an audit of this sort since the Nixon presidency.

The report does not suggest that Trump or any of his associates were in any way associated with the IRS decision. However, Mnuchin had used his position to block Congress from gaining access to the former President’s returns in what government watchdogs Citizens for a Responsible and Ethical Washington said was an “unprecedented” challenge to the committee’s investigators’ authority.

Trump during his presidency had repeatedly cut the IRS’ funding despite calls for more resources by Mnuchin.