With Concerns Fraudulent Schemes Continue, Explosive NYT Reports Sparks Renewed Demand for Trump's Tax Returns

People participate in a Tax Day protest on April 15, 2017 in New York City. Activists in cities across the nation are marching today to call on President Donald Trump to release his tax returns. (Photo by Stephanie Keith/Getty Images)

With Concerns Fraudulent Schemes Continue, Explosive NYT Reports Sparks Renewed Demand for Trump's Tax Returns

"If Donald Trump was willing to go to such incredible lengths to hide how he really 'made' his fortune—what's stopping him now from bilking the presidency and American taxpayers for everything they're worth?"

Government watchdog groups on Wednesday renewed their calls for President Donald Trump to release his tax returns following a bombshell New York Times report alleging that the president has orchestrated numerous schemes to avoid paying hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes over the years.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) pointed to the article, which was released late Tuesday, as new evidence that her proposed legislation mandating that all candidates for public office release their tax returns.

Trump is the first president in four decades to refuse to release data regarding how much he has paid in taxes.

Warren's call was echoed by Susanne Craig, one of the journalists who reported on the "outright fraud" Trump appears to have committed to avoid paying taxes--as well as the false claims of his status as a "self-made" billionaire which he used to win over customers of his businesses as well as voters in 2016.

"It's mind boggling to me how much we learned about Donald Trump and his tax shenanigans through the documents we got. It really underscores the need for presidents--Donald Trump in particular--to release their tax returns," Craig wrote on Twitter.

Others pointed out that while the Times reported on schemes that were coordinated mainly in the 1990s to enrich Trump and his siblings, there is evidence that the president is still today undervaluing his assets--as he did with his parents' properties--to avoid paying taxes on them.

Tax authorities in New York also opened an investigation into the Times' allegations.

"The Tax Department is reviewing the allegations in the NYT article and is vigorously pursuing all appropriate avenues of investigation," officials told the Washington Post.

Trump responded to the report by dismissing it as an "old, boring" hit piece, but did not dispute the claims--similar to his response to another explosive article the Times released earlier this year regarding Donald Trump Jr.'s 2016 meeting with an emissary from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which he called "long" and "boring."

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders also released a statement on the Times' report, but it did little to refute the substantive claims and evidence put forth in the article.

Saying only that the IRS "reviewed and signed off on these transactions," Huckabee Sanders attacked the Times' credibility and its failure to report on positive news regarding the Trump presidency.

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