The White House Says It's Illegal to Publish Trump's Taxes, but the Gag Is . . . It's Not

On Tuesday, March 14, two documents from President Donald Trump's 2005 tax returns were revealed on MSNBC's The Rachel Maddow Show. Of course Trump, who frequently cited a tax audit as an excuse to avoid releasing his taxes during his presidential campaign, claimed he was less than thrilled about Maddow exposing his taxes on her show. (Meanwhile, some have theorized that it's possible Trump himself leaked the tax return.) A statement from the White House even went as far as claiming the highly talked about moment was "totally illegal."

The fact is, Trump's claim is incorrect. Legal precedent maintains that journalists reserve the right to publish "truthful information on matters of public concern," so as long as the documents were not acquired illegally, Maddow and her team are pretty certainly in the clear. Maddow specifically made a point to explain how the the tax forms were obtained on the show. David Cay Johnston, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter, joined her on air and said that the files mysteriously showed up in his mailbox. So is it illegal to publish someone's taxes? In this case, no.