Chuck Grassley
Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says he doesn’t entirely trust the New York Times report that’s highly critical of President Trump’s finances. Among other things, the report says the president only paid $750 in federal income taxes during 2016 and 2017.
Grassley says he’s waiting for more solid data on the allegations, especially this close to Election Day. “It does seem like this $750 is a small amount, in fact, it’s a ridiculously small amount, but I don’t have the facts,” Grassley says. “We don’t even know whether those facts are true.” The report says Trump paid no income tax at all in 11 of the 18 years the paper reviewed, while the president calls the report “totally fake news.”
Grassley, a Republican, is chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, which writes tax law, so while he’s following the story closely, he’s wary about the source. “You’ve gotta’ believe the New York Times, but when so many things they put out about Trump that’s wrong or misleading, you wonder,” Grassley says. “For sure, somebody violated Section 6103 of the Tax Code by violating the privacy of income tax.”
Grassley questions why the Internal Revenue Service is taking so long to complete its audit of the president, but he adds, no one is above the law — especially when it comes to the IRS. “Whether it takes one year or ten years to get to the bottom of this,” Grassley says, “if he owes more than $750, he’s going to pay not only more than the $750, he’s going to pay a lot of interest, he’s going to pay a lot of fines.”
Outside of the EPA, Grassley says a letter from the IRS is the scariest letter a person can get from the federal government.