July 17, 2018

A new reason for unveiling Trump's tax returns

Boomberg - In case you've forgotten about them, President Donald Trump's personal income tax returns still matter. So do the Trump Organization's business relationships and finances. If you ever doubted either of those things, consider the president's meeting in Helsinki on Monday with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

During their press conference, the subject of "compromising" information arose at the very end of their briefing.

"Sir, do you — does the Russian government have any compromising material on President Trump or his family?" Jonathan Lemire, an Associated Press reporter, asked Putin.

Trump shook his head and smirked, gazing down at his lectern. Putin chuckled.

"Yeah, I did hear these rumors that we allegedly collected compromising material on Mr. Trump when he was visiting Moscow," Putin replied, before noting that it was impossible to gather intelligence on the multitude of Western businesspeople who visit Russia. Trump was never important enough in his pre-presidency days to warrant the Kremlin's attention, he added.

"Well, it’s difficult to imagine utter nonsense on a bigger scale than this," Putin said. "Please disregard these issues and don’t think about this anymore again."

Trump then chimed in: "I have to say if they had it, it would have been out long ago." He added that the Justice Department's investigation of possible collusion between Trump's campaign and the Kremlin during the 2016 presidential election was a "total witch hunt." Then he called an end to the briefing and walked away with Putin.

No comments: