One of the biggest mysteries during the 2016 presidential campaign was whether or not Donald Trump would ever release his Tax returns. Just two days after being sworn into office as the new president, Trump might see his financial information leaked to the public at the hands of Wikileaks.
Wikileaks on Trump
WikiLeaks, led by Julian Assange, became a household name back in 2010 when they helped leaked footage from the Iraq War, most notably an airstrike in Baghdad that killed several Iraqi journalists. Recently, WikiLeaks had its presence felt during the election when they released private email documents from John Podesta, then chair of the Hillary Clinton campaign.
During this time, Donald Trump and his supporters quickly fell in love with organization as it helped them gain an advantage of Clinton. While WikiLeaks has been viewed as a positive for Trump over the last year, that bond might soon be broken. As seen Twitter, and reported by The Hill, on January 22, WikiLeaks is now offering to release Trump's tax returns.
Trump Counselor Kellyanne Conway stated today that Trump will not release his tax returns. Send them to: https://t.co/cLRcuIiQXz so we can.
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) January 22, 2017
On Sunday morning, Presidential Counsel Kellyanne Conway confirmed that Donald Trump has no intentions of releasing his tax returns, despite vowing to do so after a current audit was complete by the IRS.
In response, WikiLeaks fired back. "Trump Counselor Kellyanne Conway stated today that Trump will not release his tax returns," WikiLeaks wrote on their Twitter account, before adding, "Send them to: https://wikileaks.org/#submit so we can."
WikiLeaks offers to post Trump's tax returns https://t.co/dRl0M9uVA5 pic.twitter.com/Fjicr12Da8
— The Hill (@thehill) January 22, 2017
In a follow-up tweet, the organization didn't hold back their thoughts of the former host of "The Apprentice," especially when it came to the secretive nature of his finances.
"Trump's breach of promise over the release of his tax returns is even more gratuitous than (Hillary) Clinton concealing her Goldman Sachs transcripts," the message read.
Moving forward
While it's unknown if the tax returns will ever be made public, by Donald Trump or WikiLeaks, it's likely the new president won't be happy with the apparent threat.
Trump has only been in office for two days, but has spent most of his time arguing over the size of the crowd at his inauguration, while pushing back at the Women's March that was attended by over 500,000 people in the nation's capital.
