Alma Adams Introduces the TRUST in Elections Act

Press Release

Today, Congresswoman Alma Adams (NC-12) introduced the Tax Returns Unveiled to Secure Transparency (TRUST) in Elections Act. This legislation would require all Presidential and Vice-Presidential candidates to release the ten previous years of their tax returns to the Office of Government Ethics, who would publicly release them, within 30 days of becoming a candidate.

"One of the many lessons we learned from Donald Trump's disastrous presidency is that what we don't know can hurt us," said Congresswoman Adams. "The American people have a right to know whether or not a candidate for President or Vice President of the United States has unethical foreign entanglements, compromising debts that can be leveraged against their administration, or worse. Donald Trump's refusal to release his tax returns was a tacit admission of wrongdoing, but the American people had no way to hold him accountable. The TRUST in Elections Act will make sure any Democratic, Republican, independent, or third party candidate for President or Vice President discloses their tax returns and possible conflicts of interest."

"We the people deserve to know if the leader of the free world has business dealings anywhere else in the world. The TRUST in Elections Act makes sure that our President and Vice President are working for us -- not anybody else," concluded Adams.

"Following four years of former President Donald Trump breaking ethical norms, the American public is hungry for normalcy," said Lisa Gilbert, Executive Vice President at Public Citizen. "Trump's refusal to disclose his tax info throughout his tenure in office, despite decades of precedent set by his predecessors, makes it clear that future presidential and vice-presidential candidates and office holders must be required by law to disclose this information."

"Presidential candidates releasing their tax returns is a commonsense transparency standard so that Americans can judge for themselves any financial conflicts of interest a president might have," said Bob Phillips, Executive Director of Common Cause North Carolina. "We commend Congresswoman Adams for introducing the TRUST in Elections Act to let Americans decide whether future presidents are making decisions that are self-interested or in the interest of American taxpayers."

Congresswoman Alma Adams represents North Carolina's 12th Congressional District (Charlotte, Mecklenburg County, Cornelius, Davidson, Huntersville, Matthews, Mint Hill, Pineville).

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