RUSH: Okay, here’s Springfield, Illinois. Todd, you’re next. I really appreciate your patience, sir. Hi.

CALLER: Hey, Rush. On the subject of the Democrats demanding the president’s tax records — and I wanted to ask you this because I imagine it’s something you’ve probably had firsthand experience with — I would assume with the president’s businesses, his wealth, his income, that he’s probably under perpetual audit from the state of New York and the IRS. So if the government was doing its job and he was doing something nefarious, wouldn’t they have already caught him?

RUSH: Theoretically, yeah. But then who would know? See, one of the things about the IRS and tax returns is that there is an implied — actually a stated — promise that all of that remains confidential unless criminal activity occurs and that criminal activity is charged. That’s when people find out about it. Your point is there hasn’t been any criminal activity charged with Trump or his tax returns, so it must mean that they passed the smell test.

CALLER: Yeah.

RUSH: I think it’s a logical conclusion to make. Look, I don’t know if Trump is under perpetual audit. I know of people who… I’ll tell you this. I’ll tell you back — and I don’t think I’m speaking out of school here. Back in the days when the syndication partner of this program was Clear Channel, the offices were down there in San Antonio, and that’s where Mark Mays got the Harry Reid letter — Harry Reid demanding that he make me apologize for this “phony soldier” business.

I said, “Can I have that letter?” and Mark Mays, the CEO at the time, gave it to me, and I auctioned that letter off on eBay and raised a bunch of money as a prime example of government overreach trying to silence (via corporate pressure) an American citizen. Me! Well, anyway, when I went down there — and I had numerous meetings with the Clear Channel people. There was a corner office, and every now and then somebody would walk into that office and come out and then report to Mark Mays.

I said, “What’s in that office? There’s a lot of activity.”

“It’s the IRS.”

“The IRS? What are they doing here?”

He said, “Oh, they’re here every day. They have a permanent office here.”

“You mean the IRS has a permanent office here?”

“Yeah. I mean, tax returns, our taxes, it’s a daily exam. It’s not uncommon. The IRS has offices in practically every corporation like this.”

I did not know this. I thought these massive corporations had their tax accounts and lawyers prepare their gigantic returns and send ’em in every April like everybody else does. But it’s such a massive job keeping up with corporate financial that the IRS has employees in offices actually on the grounds of American companies. I’m sure it’s something that was not exclusive to Clear Channel.

Where I’m going with this is, I wouldn’t be surprised if in something the size of the Trump Organization, there was something similar. I don’t know that to be the case, and I don’t know that somebody like Trump is under constant audit. I’ve known three people who are. I’ve known three people in my life who get audited every year and know they’re gonna get audited every year, and it’s not because they’ve been caught. It’s not because of that.

It’s because of the way their finances are arranged. It’s the deductions that they take and the returns they submit have a bunch of red flags. The computer just spots red flags and they get audited every year — and they know it, and it’s part of their life. Now, the IRS is not supposed tell anybody. They’re not supposed to divulge one thing on any individual or corporate tax return — and can you imagine the temptation?

Let’s say you work at the IRS and you’re making a government salary, whatever it is (75 to a hundred thousand dollars), and let’s say you’re reading People magazine, the list of highest paid Hollywood actors, and it’s got… Pick an actor. They made $100 million last year. So you go look up their return, if you can, and find out, “Is that really true?” and you learn whether it is or not. Now, I also don’t know what kind of freedom within the bureau, the IRS bureau, that employees have.

I imagine that you can’t. I imagine your average employee cannot go look up any American’s tax return. But somebody in there can. You’ve gotta have department heads, presidents, vice pre, whatever the corporate structure is within the IRS, somebody’s gotta be able to go in there. And so the media is constantly reporting what people earn, and somebody in the IRS can go look at their returns and see if the media’s right.

Let’s say that People magazine reports, oh, I don’t know, Alec Baldwin with an annual income of, say, $75 million, and that’s been published, and they go in there and learn that Alec Baldwin is making $180,000 a year. The temptation – “This stuff about Alec Baldwin, there’s no way. He’s out there, they’re claiming he’s paid $80 million. There’s no way. He made 175.”

Imagine the pressure they’re under. And how many IRS employees do you think are reached out to by various media organizations. “Hey, here’s an extra couple of tickets to the Met ball if you can tell us what so-and-so’s tax returns…” And somehow over all of these years there haven’t been too many breaches.

The IRS controversies that we have encountered, such as Lois Lerner’s not granting tax-exempt status to legitimate conservative fundraising organizations, but releasing people’s tax returns, you really don’t see it. I can’t think of one. I’m not saying it hasn’t happened, but I can’t think of any individual’s tax return being released. And during this Trump tax controversy where the Democrats are making hay out of this and Trump’s not paying his taxes and Trump won’t release it, Trump’s lying about his net worth, Trump’s lying about his income, can you imagine the pressure being applied to IRS employees by media and others? And yet nobody knows.

But the caller has good point here. If there had been any criminality over the years involving Trump’s tax returns, Trump would be charged and everybody would have heard about it or know about it.

I think that the Democrats are pursuing Trump’s tax returns just because Trump won’t release them. And it’s like the Russia collusion scandal. They are convinced that Trump’s cheating. They are convinced that Trump is not as rich as he says. They are convinced that Trump is not paying his fair share. They just want to find evidence of it. And it’s like anything else. When they find out the truth, it’s not gonna be anything like they think it is, but it won’t stop them from making something up about it.