The Republicans made a big mistake by not asking Donald Trump to make public his taxfiles in 2015

[kentuck]

It created suspicions from the beginning.

What was he trying to hide?

He kept saying they were "in audit".

Here it is, 7 years later, and we still haven't seen his taxfiles?

If he is going to run for president again, he should be required to show his tax forms. The people need to know who their president is associating with. No exceptions.

Now, we hear that the House Ways and Means Committee is to finally get to see the tax records, after they were released by Chief Justice John Roberts.

People are sick of this Godfather shit.

[Baitball Blogger]

1. But will this House get to act on those records

Or will it be for the Republican controlled house to decide to squash them?

We will have to depend on leakers.

[Thunderbeast]

2. "WE" are not going to see his tax filings

They will be provided to the investigating House committee, and possibly given to the DOJ if fraud is found. Unless he is indicted on tax fraud the public will be kept secret.

There has never been a legal requirement for candidates to share confidential returns. While many would like to see the documents, unless they are revealed in a legal proceeding, they will remain behind the curtain.

[jimfields33]

3. We already saw some of them when Rachel Maddow had a huge show on it

I guess we’ll see a few more years. The total is six years I believe I can’t remember how many Rachel showed on her show, but it was probably a few anyway.

[Ocelot II]

4. The tax returns will not be made public unless they become evidence

in an official proceeding, and maybe not then. We will not see them otherwise. Presidential candidates are not required to release their tax returns and have been doing so voluntarily only since the '70s. Since the minimum qualifications for the presidency are set out in the Constitution, it's quite possible that a statute passed by Congress requiring the release of tax information as a prerequisite would be declared unconstitutional. The House Ways & Means committee will see them, and they may or may not contain evidence of crimes. I suspect the reason TFG wouldn't disclose them is that they would show that he's not as rich as he claims to be (and no doubt the numbers were presented so as to minimize his tax liability). By themselves they probably don't show evidence of crimes, although comparing them to other financial records might reveal fraud wrt asset valuations. What's actually important about the whole controversy is that the precedent has been established that Congress can subpoena a president's financial records.

[Grins]

5. And do what if he refused?

He WON primaries. They elected him.