This morning, Paul Manafort at last put a final answer to the question of whether Donald Trump is going to release his tax returns. You know, the ones he’s waffled about releasing for the duration of the campaign. The ones that Mark Cuban said will show he’s worth way less than what he claims. The ones that George Will says will show deep ties to Russian oligarchs and Putin. The ones Trump promised he would release before the election. Those returns?

You’re not getting them.

From The Hill:

“Mr. Trump has said that his taxes are under audit and he will not be releasing them,” Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort told “CBS This Morning.” “It has nothing to do with Russia, it has nothing to do with any country other than the United States and his normal tax auditing process,” Manafort added. Trump has pushed back in recent months on calls from Democrats and some Republicans, namely former GOP nominee Mitt Romney, to release his tax returns. Conservative columnist George Will this week argued Trump doesn’t want to release his taxes because they show “he is deeply involved in dealing with Russia oligarchs.”

Last year, Trump told Hugh Hewitt that he would release his taxes.



“Well I’d certainly do all the tax returns.”

He’s changed his tune back and forth many times between then and now, per Trump Standard Operating Procedure, but the bottom line is, he vowed he would released them. More than once.

Mitt Romney put the pressure on to have Trump release his taxes, and Mitt released his own, like every other candidate since the 1970s.

But here today, in the wake of a growing unease about his coziness with Russia and possible dirty hands, his campaign making it clear that he will not, definitely not, absolutely won’t be releasing his tax returns doesn’t look at all suspicious or guilty, right? Totally innocent and usual.