Apparently, in late February, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham sent President Trump a letter asking him to spell out his financial ties to Russia. The White House responded.
Trump’s lawyers push back on Russia ties in letter by CNBC.com on Scribd
This is the nugget that is getting attention:
BREAKING: Trump lawyer: Tax returns from past 10 years show no "income of any type from Russian sources," with few exceptions.
— The Associated Press (@AP) May 12, 2017
And Twitter, of course, is having a field day with it. Visit #withfewexceptions and enjoy.
To the actual questions, the exceptions are clearly laid out in the letter.
I disagree with my good friend Erick Erickson that the fact that Trump made money from investments in Russia will have any impact because of the disclosure. What it does is subject Trump to a lot more ridicule. You can bet “with few exceptions” is going to be a catchphrase on television and the internet for weeks and months to come. It also calls into question the basic competence of the people working around him. That letter didn’t go directly to Graham. It went through the White House. I’m amazed that a press shop didn’t look at this with an eye to anything that could be made to look inappropriate or silly. When I was a Pentagon staff officer the guidance we worked under for reports was “If it could be a headline in the Washington Post, take it out.” It is hard for me to imagine how “with few exceptions, as the beginning of a sentence, made it through the review.
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