President Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen casted doubt on whether Trump’s tax returns were actually under audit by the IRS during the presidential election.
The president has cited an audit as the reason he hasn’t made his tax documents public.
{mosads}When Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif.) asked Cohen if he knew whether Trump’s tax returns were actually under audit in 2016, Cohen replied, “I don’t know the answer.”
“I asked for a copy of the audit so that I could use it in terms of my statements to the press, and I was never able to obtain one,” Cohen said during his testimony Wednesday at the House Oversight and Reform Committee.
Cohen said Trump didn’t want think tanks examining his tax returns, leading to an audit that could result in penalties.
“I presume that he’s not under audit,” Cohen said.
Under IRS policy, the agency audits the sitting president’s tax returns. But the IRS has said that audits don’t prevent people from releasing their own tax returns.
Democrats are interested in viewing Trump’s tax returns to learn about any conflicts of interest he may have.
Cohen said that he’s seen Trump’s returns but has never gone through them. He described the returns as “quite long.”