GOP lawmaker renews call for Trump to release tax returns after Putin summit

Rep. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.) is renewing his call for President Trump to release his tax returns after the president’s controversial press conference with Russian leader Vladimir Putin this week.

Sanford told The Washington Post’s Robert Costa on Tuesday that he doesn’t know if Putin has any compromising information on Trump, but said he wants more information about Trump’s finances in light of the president’s comments while standing alongside Putin the previous day.

Rep. Mark Sanford (R-SC) says the president should release his tax returns in order to clear things up this week. Tells Post “I don’t know” if Russia has anything on the president and wants more answers on the president’s finances

— Robert Costa (@costareports) July 17, 2018

Trump’s remarks during a joint press conference with Putin in Helsinki were widely panned by U.S. lawmakers, with many Republicans and Democrats condemning his comments siding with Putin’s denial of Russian interference in the 2016 election over the conclusions of his own U.S. intelligence advisers.

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Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) blasted Trump’s press conference as “one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory,” while a former Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee called Trump’s actions “shocking.”

Trump was the first presidential candidate in decades to not disclose his tax returns, citing an IRS audit, though the agency has said that taxpayers can release their own information at any time. The president has suggested that he may not release them until he leaves office.

Democratic lawmakers have failed in multiple attempts to pass measures forcing Trump to release them.

Sanford, who has been critical of Trump throughout his presidency, has urged the president to release his tax returns in the past.

Last year, the South Carolina Republican endorsed a Democratic effort to obtain Trump’s tax returns through the House and Senate committees with oversight of the IRS. Sanford also penned a New York Times op-ed ahead of the election calling for Trump to release them.

Trump and Sanford have recently butted heads after Trump attacked him and endorsed his opponent hours before Sanford’s GOP primary last month.

Sanford was defeated by state Rep. Katie Arrington, who portrayed the congressman as a traitor to Trump.