'Just wrong!' Former lawyer slams Trump for 'weaponizing' the IRS
After years of legal sparring, the House Ways and Means Committee finally received former President Donald Trump's tax returns from while he was president when the IRS transmitted them this week, belatedly allowing for congressional oversight of his finances in the brief window before the incoming Republican House majority takes over the committee.
On Thursday's edition of MSNBC's "Deadline: White House," Trump's former personal attorney Michael Cohen raged about how long this process had taken — and how the former president has gamed the system every step of the way.
"The Mueller team never had Trump's taxes," said anchor Nicolle Wallace. "Do you think DOJ has them, and how long do you think they had them?"
"It would be nice for them to tell us," said Cohen, who once went to prison after committing tax fraud for Trump. "But while I was on your show so many times, I've always said that Donald Trump's power is delay, delay, delay ... what Donald did is he delayed the ability to get the tax returns. You remember at the House Oversight Committee, you have people like Mr. Clay and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and all asking me questions about Donald Trump's taxes, about how he moves money around. And I gave them the answer. They should have been able to get those tax returns immediately. So that now with the change of the House, it wouldn't be affected by it. And this is unfair. It is unfair to America, it is unfair to the American people. You would never have gotten away with it, certainly, I would have 48 hours to turn them over based on Southern District of New York's attitude."
The upshot, fumed Cohen, is that "this guy skates over two and a half years ... weaponizing the government and to prevent the returns from being shown. And now it looks like he's going to win that again."
"This is just wrong," said Cohen. "We have to hold government accountable to move in a more expeditious manner. Because the way that they move now, only benefits the guilty. And Donald Trump is guilty of all of the allegations regarding his tax returns that I put forth during that oversight hearing."
Watch below:
Michael Cohen slams Trump for "weaponizing" IRS www.youtube.com