Trump denies Russian income despite letter showing $100 million from Russian sources

Responding to Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who said he wants to learn more about Trump’s Russian money, the Trump team released a letter from his attorneys denying he had received Russian funds.

The letter, which is dated March 8 and thus was not prepared in response to Graham’s request, claims that a review of the last 10 years of Trump’s tax returns does not show “any income of any type from Russian sources.” But the letter also notes that the statement has “a few exceptions.”

The “exceptions” involve payments for holding the Miss Universe pageant in Moscow and profits from the sale of property to an undisclosed “Russian billionaire.”

Those payments alone account for over $100 million in self-admitted Russian income, but the entire letter is a sham to convince Americans that Trump has no Russian business ties, without releasing his tax returns to prove it.

The release of this letter underscores Trump’s steadfast refusal to do what every other candidate of both parties has done since the late 1970s. Trump and his subordinates have a documented track record of lying about all sorts of issues, from the mundane to the status of the FBI. Yet they expect reporters and the public to accept on faith their assertion that Trump has not received money from Russia.

There are no rational grounds to believe Trump, and his own letter gives away the game. Until his returns are released, nothing he says about them can be believed.