DEMS/HOUSE OF REPS/MICHAEL COHEN/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/TRUMP TAXES: “U.S. President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen said on Wednesday [2-27-19] that Trump has not released his tax returns because he feared that public scrutiny would lead to an audit and tax penalties. In congressional testimony that could aid efforts by House Democrats to obtain Trump’s returns, Cohen also said he does not believe the president is under audit, despite repeated claims by Trump that he could not release his returns because they are being audited by the Internal Revenue Service. Members of the House of Representatives tax committee also pointed to other segments of Cohen’s testimony as topics likely to draw further scrutiny, including claims that Trump deflated the value of his properties to lower his tax bill and called the government ‘stupid’ for giving him a $10 million tax refund in 2008. As a presidential candidate in 2016, Trump broke with a decades old practice of making his tax returns public and continues to refuse to release them as president.”
–David Morgan, “Cohen: Trump feared audit if he released tax returns,” Reuters, February 27, 2019 1:54 pm