'An attempted coup': Trump biographer warns the president's stonewalling on taxes is an assault on the rule of law

On Wednesday, Pulitzer Prize-winning economic and fiscal policy journalist David Cay Johnston appeared on MSNBC's "All In with Chris Hayes," and eviscerated President Donald Trump's administration for trying to conceal the president's taxes.

"The law here is crystal clear," said Johnston, saying that reason House Democrats gave to request the returns from the IRS "absolutely fall under the oversight functions of Congress."

"I think we should look at this as part of something Donald Trump said today," continued Johnston "He said there is an attempted coup. Well, there is an attempted coup in this country, and it's by Donald Trump. He has to bring law enforcement to its heel. He has to get people who have loyalty to him ... so that he can run roughshod over the law and he can evade responsibility and impose his personal will everywhere in this government."

"Donald Trump, who twice lost civil tax fraud trials, confessed to being a sales tax cheat, and The New York Times showed he engaged in a great deal of tax cheating late in the last century — knows that if his tax returns get examined outside of the IRS, he's got serious problems," Johnston said. "That's why he is so desperate to cover up. As part of his effort to extend his lawlessness to the government, and all of us and our liberties are seriously at risk here."

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