Testifying before the House oversight committee on Wednesday, however, Cohen offered a very different explanation. He told Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif.) that he had asked Trump for copies of the audit to help him talk to reporters about it, but was never able to get them.
“Can you give us any insight into the real reason the president has refused to release his tax returns?” Gomez asked Cohen.
“Statements he made to me…what he didn’t want was to have an entire group of think tanks that are tax experts run through his tax return and start ripping it to pieces, and then he’ll end up in an audit and he’ll ultimately have taxable consequences, penalties, and so on,” Cohen explained.
So, Gomez asked, could one presume that, since he was fearing an audit, Trump was not actually under audit at the time?
“I presume that he is not under audit,” Cohen said.
