Thread: Is It Illegal to Publish a President’s Tax Returns?

Is It Illegal to Publish a President’s Tax Returns?

By ADAM LIPTAK MARCH 15, 2017

Photo

A federal law makes it a felony for federal or state employees “willfully to disclose to any person” without authorization “any return or return information.”CreditAl Drago/The New York Times

WASHINGTON — Even before Rachel Maddow disclosed two pages of President Trump’s 2005 tax returns on her MSNBC program, the White House accused her of complicity in unlawful conduct. “It is totally illegal to steal and publish tax returns,” a statement from the White House said.

The first part of the accusation, about stealing, is true. The second part, about publishing, runs headlong into the First Amendment.

What do we know about how Ms. Maddow obtained the records?

David Cay Johnston, a former tax reporter for The New York Times, said that he received the forms “over the transom,” or unsolicited, in his mailbox.

Did whoever sent the documents to Mr. Johnston commit a crime?

Perhaps. A federal law makes it a felony for federal or state employees “willfully to disclose to any person” without authorization “any return or return information.” The First Amendment would provide no defense to a source who violated such a law.

But Mr. Johnston, without providing evidence, said the leak may have been authorized. “It’s entirely possible that Donald sent this to me,” he said on Ms. Maddow’s show. “It’s a possibility, and it could have been leaked by someone at his direction.”

Is it illegal for journalists to publish tax information received unsolicited?

The same federal statute says yes. But the statute is almost certainly unconstitutional.

“It shall be unlawful for any person to whom any return or return information” is disclosed without authorization, the law says, “thereafter willfully to print or publish in any manner not provided by law any such return or return information.”

But the Supreme Court has said that journalists are free to publish truthful information on matters of public concern notwithstanding laws to the contrary as long as they did nothing illegal in obtaining the information.

What does the leading Supreme Court case say?

In 2001, in Bartnicki v. Vopper, the Supreme Court considered whether a Pennsylvania radio station had been entitled to air a surreptitious recording of a cellphone conversation. A federal law made it illegal to broadcast such recordings, but the radio station aired it anyway.

The recording had arrived unsolicited. Its contents, about a labor negotiation, were truthful and newsworthy.

Even though the station’s source obtained and disclosed the information unlawfully, the radio station was free to broadcast it because it was “a matter of public concern,” Justice John Paul Stevens wrote for the majority.

“A stranger’s illegal conduct does not suffice to remove the First Amendment shield from speech about a matter of public concern,” Justice Stevens wrote.

Are Mr. Trump’s tax returns ‘a matter of public concern’?

In a concurring opinion in the Bartnicki case, Justice Stephen G. Breyer said that it mattered that the union officials were minor-league public figures. “They thereby subjected themselves to somewhat greater public scrutiny,” he wrote, “and had a lesser interest in privacy than an individual engaged in purely private affairs.”

The president of the United States, it would follow, invites much more probing public scrutiny.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/15/u...0White%20House

Why wouldn't the Privacy Act of 1974 apply in this case? Shouldn't anyone who released this information without knowing its source be culpable for doing so under the law? IMO, Mr. Johnston, Ms. Maddow and NBC should be held accountable for making the information public since none of them knew the original source of the information and didn't have President Trump's approval. Oh well, just my unqualified opinion for what it's worth.

Once the White House released the info it was all legal reporting.

White House releases 2005 Trump tax info ahead of TV report | abc7 ...

abc7.com/politics/white-house-releases-2005-trump-tax-info/1801098/
17 hours ago - President Donald Trump earned $153 million and paid $36.5 million in income taxes in 2005...

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

Once the White House released the info it was all legal reporting.

White House releases 2005 Trump tax info ahead of TV report | abc7 ...

abc7.com/politics/white-house-releases-2005-trump-tax-info/1801098/
17 hours ago - President Donald Trump earned $153 million and paid $36.5 million in income taxes in 2005...

Yep, I guess that pretty much answers my questions. Once Trump released it, there were no longer any privacy issues.

I don't think the White House saying how much he earned and how much tax paid has anything to do with the illegal release of the 2 pages of tax returns. Two completely different things. Reporting on the White House statement is legal reporting, sure, but any reporting on the illegally obtained returns is still illegal, seems to me, and the JD2 article doesn't say anything about legal or illegal reporting, one way or another.

Congressman: Rarely used law could make Trump tax returns public

Many public officials must share their tax returns. Why not the president?

"The Supreme Court has said that journalists are free to publish truthful information on matters of public concern notwithstanding laws to the contrary as long as they did nothing illegal in obtaining the information."



“A stranger’s illegal conduct does not suffice to remove the First Amendment shield from speech about a matter of public concern,” Justice Stevens wrote.