A bipartisan investigation is officially underway into a whistleblower claim that an official at Donald Trump’s Treasury Department interfered with an audit into the tax returns of the president of Vice President Mike Pence.
According to The Washington Post, “Two senators are looking into a whistleblower’s allegations that at least one political appointee at the Treasury Department may have tried to interfere with an audit of President Trump or Vice President Pence, according to two people with knowledge of the matter, a sign that lawmakers are moving to investigate the complaint lodged by a senior staffer at the Internal Revenue Service.”
The report notes that staffers for GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley and Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden met with the whistleblower earlier this month and “follow-up interviews are expected”
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It could not be learned to what extent the senators consider the whistleblower a credible source. Trump administration officials have previously played down the complaint’s significance and suggested that it is politically motivated.
The whistleblower, a career IRS official, initially filed a complaint in July, reporting that he was told that at least one Treasury political appointee attempted to improperly interfere with the annual audit of the president’s or vice president’s tax returns. In recent weeks, the whistleblower filed additional documentation related to the original complaint, which was given to congressional officials in July, the two people said. These people spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the complaint, which pertains to a confidential IRS audit that cannot be disclosed under federal law.
Trump is terrified that Congress and the American people will see his tax returns
The fact that Donald Trump has so far refused to release his tax returns – despite the long-observed norm that candidates for president disclose them – indicates that he doesn’t want the public to see behind the curtain of his finances.
The revelation that Trump’s Treasury Department is potentially improperly meddling in an audit of his tax returns only further demonstrates just how terrified he is that either Congress or the public will get a glimpse of the documents.
When it comes to his tax returns, Trump is behaving like a man who knows he’s a fraud and just doesn’t want the public to see further proof of that reality.
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Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
