re: #23 Alyosha

I know that the 2005 tax returns were a bit underwhelming…
But imagine if 2006’s are released on Friday. And 2007’s next Tuesday.
Just to make the fucker sweat.
A guy can dream.

Well, Rachel Maddow is known for building a case for her position on her show over a number of days (her assumption is that a viewer knows nothing initially about the subject, so the viewer needs to be brought up to speed. It can be tedious for those who already know about the subject, but invaluable for people new to a subject.)

As for the fellow she got the information from, David Cay Johnston? He says that people are calling his house and threatening him, his children, &c.

The White House is claiming that the release is illegal. Apparently they are unfamiliar with the “transom window” idea of a journalism outlet: The outlet is not responsible for someone stuffing a brown envelope through a press outlet’s transom window. It is why the New York Times was not convicted for publishing the Pentagon Papers. (The person releasing the info might have committed a crime, but Dr. Maddow did not.)

Voice of America has an article on the White House claiming the report by Dr. Maddow was illegal:
voanews.com

The White House has issued a statement saying President Donald Trump had more than $150 million in income in 2005, on which he paid $38 million in income taxes, and blasted a television report disclosing his official tax returns as an illegal act.

The statement late Tuesday was issued before a report broadcast by MSNBC-TV. Network host Rachel Maddow revealed what she said were two pages of Trump’s 2005 tax forms, and credited David Cay Johnston, a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist and tax analyst, as the source of the information.

Johnston told Maddow he found the two pages in his mailbox. He said he did not know who sent them, or why.

Maddow said she sent copies of the forms to the White House for comment. The administration issued its public statement before her program went on the air Tuesday night.

(more at VOA)