I Have To Wonder

George Will is a noted conservative/libertarian columnist has brought up an interesting conversation about Donald Trump connections with Russian.’

George Will raises possible Trump link to Russian oligarchs
The Hill
By Joe Conch
July 26, 2016

Fox News contributor George Will says GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump will not release his tax returns because they may show "he is deeply involved in dealing with Russia oligarchs."

"Both the campaign chair and anybody you talk to, including Sen. [Chris] Murphy [D-Conn.] would not go down that road once pressed on the connection between Russia and the Trump campaign," said Baier. "But they have thrown it out there. George?"
[…]
"Well, it's the sort of thing we might learn if we saw the candidate's tax returns," Will responded. "Perhaps one more reason why we're not seeing his tax returns — because he is deeply involved in dealing with Russian oligarchs and others. Whether that's good, bad or indifferent, it's probably the reasonable surmise."

That does raise some interesting questions.

Trump’s hidden tax returns take on new significance
MSNBC
By Steve Benen
July 26, 2016

A couple of weeks ago, when Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg tried her hand at political punditry, the progressive jurist raised a variety of concerns about Donald Trump. Among them was an issue that had largely faded from the debate.

“How has he gotten away with not turning over his tax returns?” Ginsburg asked. “The press seems to be very gentle with him on that.”
[…]
Trump can make questions like these go away quickly by doing what every presidential candidate in the post-Watergate era has done. For reasons the Republican candidate hasn’t explained, he continues to stick to secrecy.

So what is he hiding?

How much in debt to the Russians is he? Is it enough that they can use it for leverage?

ABC News article about his visit to Russia back in

Trump speculated in a speech Monday that “China, Russia or one of our many, many friends… hacked the hell out of us,” but the GOP candidate and his top advisers have rejected the suggestion that the Russians were motivated to help the business mogul. Trump tweeted Monday morning prior to his speech, “The new joke in town is that Russia leaked the disastrous DNC e-mails … because Putin likes me.”

Suspicions about the Russian interest in Trump’s candidacy stem in part from the Republican businessman’s comments and long history of work with Russian business interests. Trump has long hinted that he would have a warm relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

And Trump is not alone; his campaign manager Paul Manafort has ties also with Russia,

Trump’s campaign manager, Paul Manafort, who did consulting work in Ukraine for a political candidate with Russian ties, dismissed outright the notion that Russian hackers were looking to help the Republican nominee.

Asked by George Stephanopoulos on ABC News’ “This Week” on Sunday if there were any ties between Trump’s campaign and Putin, Manafort said, “No, there are not. That’s absurd. And you know, there’s no basis to it.”

The Washington Post has some theories about why he hasn’t released his tax returns, besides the Russian connection they list,

3. He did not pay any taxes. The scant evidence we have on Trump's approach to taxation gives this theory credence. A 1981 report by New Jersey gambling regulators showed that Trump did not pay any taxes at all for two years in the 1970s. How? Because as a developer he was able to report negative income. (Here's a good explanation of how he could do that

4. He has mob ties. The idea that Trump has links to organized crime has been kicking around for decades. But they've come much more to the fore since he began running for president. Ted Cruz, during a late February interview on "Meet the Press," brought the accusation into the presidential race: "There have been multiple media reports about Donald's business dealings with the mob, with the mafia. Maybe his taxes show those business dealings are a lot more extensive than has been reported."

They also list that possibly he doesn’t donate to charities or maybe he is not as rich as he says he is.

Also without his tax returns we do not know if there are any conflict of interest or anyone who could use his debt as leverage if he is elected as president.

There are a lot of unanswered questions that could be answered with the release of his tax returns. It has been four decades since the last presidential nominee who didn’t release their tax returns, care to guess who that was? It was President Ford.

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Update 2:00PM:

I just found this on MSNBC as if it can't get weirder than it is now...

Donald Trump calls for Russia to help elect him president
By Steve Benen
07/27/16

There’s a temptation among some to believe Americans have seen it all before. No matter of ridiculous politics can get, no matter how outlandish an election, no matter how severe the dysfunction, there are those who will tell you there’s nothing politically new under the sun.

Those people are wrong. We’ve never seen anything like this.

Donald Trump on Wednesday asked Russia to help find the missing emails from Hillary Clinton’s private server.

“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” Trump proposed from a podium at his Doral Resort. “I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.” 

The Republican presidential hopeful added that he doesn’t believe Russia was responsible for hacking DNC materials – there’s overwhelming evidence that suggests Trump is wrong – but the GOP candidate said that if Russia did steal Democratic documents, he “hopes” the Russians have Clinton’s emails.

Let’s be very clear about what happened this morning. The Republican candidate for president held a press conference in which he urged Vladimir Putin’s espionage services to help sabotage the American election and put Trump in the White House.
[...]
Also consider what we’re learning about Trump’s perspective on intelligence. As far as he’s concerned, there’s nothing wrong with urging an unfriendly foreign state to commit a cybercrime against an American for political purposes. If Trump heads the U.S. executive branch, and has some authority over the CIA and NSA, is anyone prepared to argue that he’ll be restrained and responsible?