Sarah Sanders claims Congress ‘not smart enough’ to understand Trump’s tax returns
![Sarah Huckabee Sanders revealed to Special Counsel Robert Mueller what many of her critics have long claimed: she misled the American public while working for Donald Trump. The White House press secretary revealed in her conversations with prosecutors that she inaccurately claimed to have received from FBI members in the wake of the president’s decision to fire ex-FBI Director James Comey. At the time, Ms Sanders said she was receiving messages from “countless members of the FBI” that said they had lost confidence in the ex-FBI director. In her conversations with the special counsel’s office, however, it was determined Ms Sanders’ claims were “not founded on anything.” Ms Sanders instead described her false statement as a “slip of the tongue,” also revealing she spoke to the president shortly after the press briefing in which she lied for Mr Trump. He told her that she did a “good job,” the report said, “and did not point out any inaccuracies in her comments.” The massive, 448-page report was released Thursday with a significant level of redactions. > .@SHSanders45 says "countless" FBI agents have contacted WH to say they'd lost confidence in Comey. We've heard otherwise. pic.twitter.com/ztWnebQ5Jy> > — Steven Portnoy (@stevenportnoy) > > May 10, 2017Ms Sanders “told the press after Comey’s termination that the White House had heard from ‘countless’ FBI agents who had lost confidence in Comey,” the report states. “But the evidence does not support those claims. The President told Comey at their 27 January dinner that ‘the people of the FBI really like [him],’ no evidence suggests that the President heard otherwise before deciding to terminate Comey, and Sanders acknowledged to investigators that her comments were not founded on anything.”House Democrats are now calling on Mr Mueller to testify by May 23, describing the attorney general’s decision to withhold a full version of the report as “regrettable, but no longer surprising.” Congress’ two top Democrats say the special counsel’s report “appears to undercut” Mr Barr’s assertion that it lacked sufficient evidence to conclude that Mr Trump obstructed justice.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said there’s a big difference between Mr Barr’s description of Mr Mueller’s report and what the document actually reveals. Their joint statement suggests that Democrats are prepared to press the obstruction issue even as the presidential election season approaches.Meanwhile, Mr Barr announced his intention to provide a small group of lawmakers with a report including fewer reductions than the one released Thursday. Additional reporting by AP](https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/4xbv5lyp9L9JM7aanhWk.w--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTcyMA--/https://media.zenfs.com/en/the_independent_635/b7f1484421cc0abd912cbbbb57e566a6)
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders has claimed members of Congress are not “smart enough” to understand Donald Trump’s finances after Democrats formally requested the president’s tax returns.
When Fox News host Chris Wallace asked whether Mr Trump will order the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to defy Congress’s request, Ms Sanders refused to give a clear answer.
She instead went on to criticise congressional Democrats.
“This is all about political partisanship,” Ms Sanders said.
“This is a dangerous, dangerous road and frankly Chris, I don’t think Congress, particularly not this group of Congressman and woman, is smart enough to look through the thousands of pages that I would assume president Trump’s taxes will be.”
“My guess is most of them don’t do their own taxes and I certainly don’t trust them to look through the decades of success that the president has and determine anything,” she added.
House Democrats have set a deadline of 23 April for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to turn over several years of Mr Trump’s personal and business tax documents.
Mr Trump broke from political convention during the 2016 presidential campaign by refusing to release his tax returns.
In contrast, Hillary Clinton has released tax returns from 2000 to 2015 .
Ms Sanders’ comments come as Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris released 15 years’ worth of tax documents.
The records show Ms Harris and her husband, Douglas Emhoff, have paid more than $2.2m (£1.7m) in federal taxes over the past five years, according to her campaign.
Ms Harris has followed fellow Democratic candidates Kirsten Gillibrand and Elizabeth Warren by releasing her tax returns.
Senator Bernie Sanders has also said he will release his tax filings after he described himself as a millionaire earlier this week.
Mr Sanders has dismissed suggestions that his newfound wealth, which is believed to have come from book sales following his 2016 campaign, undermines his political message.
