Dear Mr. Trump,

What are you trying to hide? Why don’t you voluntarily release your tax returns, as other presidential candidates have done? If you did nothing wrong, you don’t have anything to hide.

If, on the other hand, your tax returns disclose your financial indebtedness to foreign governments – Saudi Arabia, for example — or the dictators or such foreign governments – Vladimir Putin, for example; if, on the other hand, disclosure reveals that you’ve been acting, not on behalf of the people of the United States, but on behalf of your own pecuniary interest; if, on the other hand, disclosure returns reveals that you have repeatedly lied about your financial ties to other countries and their dictators, then for sure we see what you are trying to hide.

Your game of hiding is coming to an end. Under Title 26 (the Internal Revenue Code), Section 6103(f), the House Ways and Means Committee has the right to look at any individual’s tax returns. The Secretary of the Treasury must “furnish such committee with any return or return information [requested],” subject only to the stipulation that, if the information can be associated with a particular taxpayer, the information should be provided in closed session.

So it’s all going to come out. Yes, we’ve heard that you’re gearing up a “ferocious” legal battle to fight such a request, but you will lose. The president is subject to the law, just like the rest of us. You are not above the law, and you are not the law yourself.

So spare us all the agony of waiting for litigation to resolve the issue. Release the returns now.

Very truly yours,

Bruce J. Berger