MSNBC host Rachel Maddow went through the two pages, which reveal the President paid $38 million in taxes on more than $150 million in income
Part of Donald Trump's tax returns have finally been revealed.
MSNBC obtained two pages of the President's 2005 returns which were aired on US TV on Tuesday night.
Host Rachel Maddow said she received the documents from journalist David Cay Johnston, who revealed that he received them in the mail.
In response to the report, the White House issued a statement saying that Trump paid $38 million in taxes on more than $150 million in income in 2005.
The Trump administration did not release any documents supporting its numbers.
The White House said in its statement: "You know you are desperate for ratings when you are willing to violate the law to push a story about two pages of tax returns from over a decade ago.
"Before being elected President, Mr. Trump was one of the most successful businessmen in the world with a responsibility to his company, his family and his employees to pay no more tax than legally required."
Maddow earlier posted a cryptic tweet teasing that she was set to share the long-awaited details of the President's finances.
She simply tweeted: "We've got Trump's tax returns... (Seriously)."
The two pages of the return showed that Trump and wife Melania paid $5.3 million in income taxes and $31 million in the "alternative minimum tax" on income of more than $150 million. It included a $105 million writedown on losses.
The two pages of the return actually were first published on David Cay Johnston's DCReport.org before they were revealed on Maddow's show.
Johnston, a veteran investigative reporter, obtained the tax returns when they showed up in his mailbox, he said. He then brought the story to Maddow's show.
The revelation was expected to give Maddow's show a ratings spike, after she already has enjoyed higher viewership since Trump took office. But given the buildup in the hour or so before the Tuesday broadcast, her scoop was a bit overhyped.
Maddow herself opened her show suggesting that that the documents they had were just a start to perhaps more revelations later, and she devoted the opening segment of her show to running through many of the stories she has featured in recent weeks, including Trump and his associates ties to Russian officials.
"It is totally illegal to steal and publish tax returns. The dishonest media can continue to make this part of their agenda, while the president will focus on his, which includes tax reform that will benefit all Americans," the White House said in a statement.
Maddow, however, said that "for the record, the First Amendment gives us the right to publish the return."
The bigger intrigue may be in who leaked the two pages, which were labeled "client copy." Johnston didn't discount that Trump, or one of his associates, may have leaked the documents.
"It could have been leaked by someone in his own direction," he said, as Twitter ran the gamut of theories that Trump may be intent on distracting from the negative attention to Republican efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare.
It has led to speculation - among rivals and in the media - that Trump has something to hide.
Maddow, whose show has gotten a significant bounce in the ratings since Trump took office, has focused in particular on Trump and his associates ties to Russia.
The then-Republican candidate came under intense pressure for failing to publish his tax records as is custom in for Presidential candidates.
The New York Times published a report claiming to have evidence of his astonishing tax income tax returns from the mid-1990s.
It showed Trump wrote off a loss of almost a billion dollars due to unsuccessful business ventures.
The Times said it was sent the tax returns anonymously through the post and showed them to Trump's former accountant Jack Mitnick.
Now aged 80, he confirmed the document was "legit" and specifically the astronomical loss.
The Trump campaign responded by accusing the Times of being media bias.
A spokesman said: "The only news here is that the more than 20-year-old alleged tax document was illegally obtained, a further demonstration that the New York Times, like establishment media in general, is an extension of the Clinton Campaign, the Democratic Party and their global special interests.
"What is happening now with the FBI and DOJ on Hillary Clinton ’s emails and illegal server, including her many lies and her lies to Congress are worse than what took place in the administration of Richard Nixon - and for more illegal."
"That being said, Mr Trump has paid hundreds of millions of dollars in property taxes, sales and excise taxes, city taxes, states taxes, employee taxes and federal taxes, along with very substantial charitable contributions.
"Mr Trump knows the tax code far better than anyone who has ever run for President and he is the only one that knows how to fix it.
"The incredible skills Mr Trump has shown in building his business are the skills we need to rebuild this country.
" Hillary Clinton is a corrupt public official who violated federal law, Mr Trump is an extraordinarily successful private business who followed the law and created tens of thousands of jobs for Americans."
Culled from Mirror
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