April 14, 2019

Kamala Harris Releases 15 Years of Tax Returns

Meanwhile, the White House claimed Congress is not “smart enough” to review Trump’s taxes.

Jack Kurtz/ZUMA Wire

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Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) released 15 years of her tax returns on Sunday morning, the latest in a steady trickle of Democratic presidential candidates to make the financial disclosure.

According to her returns, Harris and her husband lawyer Douglas Emhoff made nearly $1.9 million together in 2018. Harris reported an income of $157,000 from her position as a US senator; she also earned $320,000 from her book. Emhoff’s income was reported at $1.5 million.

The couple paid about $700,000 in federal taxes.

So far, only five Democratic presidential candidates have released their tax history, a long-held custom going back decades among those running for president. Sen. Bernie Sanders, who has been outspoken in his demands for President Donald Trump to release his tax history, is perhaps the most notable exception, though he has promised to finally to do so tomorrow, on Tax Day.

As for Trump, he continues to reject Democrats’ demands to release his returns. On Sunday, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders insisted that Congress was “not smart enough” to review the president’s taxes. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal last week gave the Treasury Department until April 23 to comply with the committee’s request, before it considers issuing a subpoena for the documents.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

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