There could be three distinct motivations for why President Donald Trump is so defensive about his tax returns, MSNBC legal analyst Maya Wiley explained on Tuesday.
Breaking news in the battle over Trump’s tax returns, lawyers for Deutsche Bank confirming the firm holds tax returns relating to subpoenas for Trump, his companies and his immediate family members," MSNBC's Ayman Mohyeldin reported. "The bank will not publicly confirm exactly who those returns belong to, claiming that would reveal specific details about how its customers conduct business."
"Why is he so defensive about his tax returns? Mohyeldin asked.
"We’ve heard several things that suggest reasons he might be defensive," she replied. "One, for example, is The New York Times reporting about how much money he has lost. I mean, there is certainly the factor of running on being an excellent businessman with perhaps a financial record that shows you’re not.
"The second is implications in — of whether he’s overstating earnings, overstating deductions, implications about whether he’s actually committed tax fraud, for example, or insurance fraud for that matter," she continued. "I mean Michael Cohen said he did these kinds of things all the time and suggested that might be a problem."
"The third and this is where the counterintelligence point comes in, the counterintelligence committee also wants this information because Robert Mueller all but confirmed counterintelligence investigation of the FBI, not that surprising, lots of reason to suspect there might be ongoing investigations of some form," she explained.
"Deutsche Bank is the bank that has been in bed with Russia for a long time and it is one of the only banks that would lend money to Donald Trump," Wiley reminded. "So if you want to understand whether or not Russia has any leverage over Donald Trump, that is a good place to look."
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