The 'Missing Evidence' in Romney's Tax Records

by Joe Conason

TheNationalMemo.com
August 6, 2012

http://www.nationalmemo.com/the-missing-evidence-in-romneys-tax-records/

Harry Reid has provoked outrage among liberals as well as
conservatives, who seem to believe he has violated propriety
by repeating gossip about Mitt Romney's taxes. The Senate
leader says someone connected with Romney told him that the
Republican candidate paid no income taxes for a period of 10
years. Offended by Reid's audacity, commentators on the
right have indicted him for "McCarthyism," while others on
the left have accused him of inventing the whole story.

Evidently the chief complaint against Reid - aside from
aggressiveness unbecoming a Democrat - is that he cited "an
extremely credible source" who he has so far declined to
name. Some journalists have gone so far as to suggest that
Reid must be lying because he won't identify the source.

Despite all this righteous tut-tutting among the great and
the good, in newspapers and magazines as well as on
television, Reid's critics simply have no way of knowing
whether he is telling the truth or not. From the beginning,
Reid himself admitted forthrightly that he has no way of
being absolutely certain whether what he was told is factual
or not, although he believes the person who said it was
being truthful.

Join NationofChange today by making a generous tax-
deductible contribution and take a stand against the status
quo. Many of Reid's critics work for news outlets that rely
on unnamed sources every day, of course, publishing
assertions that range from the mundane to the outlandish. It
is hard to see why an unnamed source quoted by a daily
newspaper or a monthly magazine - or hidden behind a screen
in a TV studio - is more credible than a person whispering
in the ear of a United States Senator.

Article image Indeed, several of the news outlets now
barking at Reid have suffered their own episodes of
scandalous embarrassment owing to the exposure of invented
sources and quotes (see Jayson Blair, Stephen Glass, etc.
etc. etc.). Yet they nevertheless continue to publish quotes
from such unnamed individuals. After all, where else would
Reid have learned that this is acceptable conduct?

Meanwhile, Romney's response is to demand that Reid "put up
or shut up" - that is, reveal the name of his source. But
that would prove nothing. As Reid has pointed out, only the
former Bain executive can demonstrate conclusively that
suspicions about his tax history are unfounded. Although the
irritated Romney retorts that he has "paid a lot of taxes,"
his denial won't suffice as proof either. He could have paid
hefty real estate taxes on his various homes and sales taxes
on his purchases of cars, car elevators, powerboats, and
other luxury goods, among other levies, while paying little
or no federal income tax.

Obviously, it would be simple for Romney to disprove Reid's
statement, which is unlike McCarthyite accusations that
involve someone's personal associations or state of mind.
The necessary evidence is not only within Romney's
possession but is also material that candidates in his
position normally release to the public and that the public
expects to see. It is material that he previously
surrendered to Senator John McCain's campaign staff in 2008,
when they were vetting him for a possible vice presidential
nomination. (For now, they are conspicuously silent on the
Reid controversy.)

There is a legal doctrine that applies to Romney's current
behavior, as Indiana attorney John Sullivan points out - and
it doesn't place the burden of proof on Reid:

At law, if a person in control of evidence refuses to
produce the evidence, then the jury is instructed that there
is a presumption that the evidence would be against the
party failing to produce. It is called the "Missing
Evidence" instruction.

The missing evidence is in Romney's grasp, yet he insists
that he will never produce it. Does anyone need instruction
from a judge to make the correct inference?

Copyright Creators.com

[Joe Conason is the editor-in-chief of The National Memo,
founded in July 2011. He was formerly the executive editor
of the New York Observer, where he wrote a popular political
column for many years. His columns are distributed by
Creators Syndicate and his reporting and writing have
appeared in many publications around the world, including
the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, the
New Republic, theNation, and Harpers. Since November 2006,
he  has served as editor of The Investigative Fund, a
nonprofit journalism center, where he has assigned and
edited dozens of award-winning articles and broadcasts. He
is also the author of two New York Times bestselling books,
The Hunting of the President (2000) and Big Lies: The Right-
Wing Propaganda Machine and How It Distorts the Truth(2003).
Currently he is currently working on a new book about former
President Bill Clinton's life and work since leaving the
White House in 2001. He is a frequent guest on radio and
television, including MSNBC's Morning Joe...]

==========

___________________________________________

Portside aims to provide material of interest to people
on the left that will help them to interpret the world
and to change it.

Submit via email: [log in to unmask]

Submit via the Web: http://portside.org/submittous3

Frequently asked questions: http://portside.org/faq

Sub/Unsub: http://portside.org/subscribe-and-unsubscribe

Search Portside archives: http://portside.org/archive

Contribute to Portside: https://portside.org/donate