Editorial: President Trump’s tax returns, documents should see the light of day
In a news conference that must have astonished official Washington — and most of the nation — President Donald Trump insisted Thursday he has no personal or business ties to Russian interests.
“I own nothing in Russia. I have no loans in Russia. I don’t have any deals in Russia,” he said.
Americans can take the president at his word — or he could release his tax returns. Perhaps the returns would clarify what relationship, if any, Trump has with Russian interests.
Either “the Russians have something on Trump, or … there are financial ties that are requiring Trump to behave this way,” Sen. Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat, said recently.
Trump refused to make his returns public during the campaign, and his aides have suggested the papers will never be released.
If the president wants to dispel any suggestion of a connection to Russia, though, transparency is his best option.
Trump won the election, so going public with his returns now would not imperil his campaign. It would actually benefit the president, with relatively little risk.
He should make his tax returns public.
If he fails to do so, however, there are alternatives to force some degree of transparency.
In 1999, Trump’s company tried to buy a Kansas City riverboat casino, The Star has reported. As part of that application process, his staff submitted relevant documents.
Trump later withdrew the application. And the Missouri Gaming Commission sealed the records from public review.
For several months, news organizations, including The Star, have asked the Missouri Gaming Commission to unseal the application documents. The newspaper has argued the information in the documents is of high public interest.
We have filed Sunshine Law requests for the paperwork.
To date, the commission has kept the documents secret. Missouri law allows the commission to seal the records but does not appear to require it. Commissioners are content leaving residents and the country in the dark.
We understand why the commission would want to keep most gaming applications secret. Companies applying for a gaming license might be asked to submit sensitive and speculative documents, not to mention proprietary information that could be damaging if made public.
But Trump was never licensed in Missouri, and he likely will never have business pending here. The paperwork is almost two decades old. Reporters want the documents to see if they would shed any light on his holdings then or on any business relationships he might have disclosed that have relevance today.
The Missouri Gaming Commission holds documents that could help the public better understand the opaque business interests of the president. It should make them public.
This story was originally published February 18, 2017 at 8:30 PM with the headline "Editorial: President Trump’s tax returns, documents should see the light of day."