Looks like Donald Trump leaked his own “client copy” 2005 tax return as Trump-Russia distraction

| 6:30 pm EDT March 14, 2017
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Rachel Maddow is the best thing on cable news, she has been for a long time, and she still will be when the sun comes up tomorrow. But right now her audience is trying to figure out why she teased this evening that she had Donald Trump’s tax returns, only to spend an hour revealing bascially nothing. She technically does have Trump’s tax return, but it’s for one year from a long time ago and it’s only the first two pages and it tells us very little. In fact the only two relevant words on it may be “client copy.”

The gig was up when Rachael’s guest David Cay Johnston revealed that the returns had arrived anonymously in his mailbox, and he said that for all he knew, they might’ve come from Trump himself. Gradually it became clear why he suspected as much. These 2005 returns are from before Trump allegedly went broke in 2008, before he allegedly got into bed with Russia financially, and they’re probably the last time he filed a tax return that didn’t contain anything embarrassing about himself. Furthermore, the leaked copy omits the names of the people and businesses the money came from, conveniently leaving us in the dark as to whom he was doing business with. But when you get to the bottom you see a stamp on the document that all but confirms where it really came from.

This tax return (PDF here) is stamped “client copy” on the signature line, in place of a signature. If this were a leak from anyone inside the government, it would be signed and it wouldn’t have that stamp. So this leak came from Donald Trump himself, or Melania, or perhaps his accountant, or someone who stole it from them. Which means it came from Donald. So why would he do this right now?

Tonight it was revealed that FBI director James Comey will be publicly testifying tomorrow about the Trump-Russia investigation. The news was announced by Democratic Denator Sheldon Whitehouse, suggesting it will be the kind of news that Democrats want to hear. This could be devastating for Donald Trump. So why not create a media distraction by anonymously leaking his least harmful tax return to his longtime enemy David Cay Johnston the night before? This is not the fault of Johnston, who has long done good work, and it’s not the fault of Rachel Maddow. They really did have a Donald Trump tax return. It’s just that in this case, for once, Trump’s taxes are not the story. Comey’s testimony about Trump and Russia is the story. And Trump knows it. Contribute to Palmer Report