Apparently reporters aren’t the only ones interested in Donald Trump’s tax returns.
As MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow announced she had posted Trump’s 2005 federal income tax return on her site, Maddowblog.com, and on DCReport.org, the site run by Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter David Cay Johnston, both crashed presumabily under the influx of web traffic.
On Tuesday afternoon Maddow announced on Twitter that she had obtained Trump’s tax return, adding, “(Seriously)” to emphasize the tweet was not a joke.
The big scoop, which was snagged by Johnston, was broken on Maddow’s MSNBC show.
Johnston explained that someone, possibly Trump himself, mailed what appears to be two pages of President’s Trump 2005 return, which was posted on Maddow’s own site and on DCReport on Tuesday, along with an analysis of those pages.
But soon after the document was posted the sites went down. DCReport went offline just as its founder was speaking with Maddow in a much-hyped special. Maddow’s own site eventually crashed too. Both sites were still experiencing technical difficulties as of the time this report was published.
Maddow acknowledged the site was down as the show was wrapping up. A message at the top right corner of DCReport told visitors: “This page (https://www.dcreport.org/) is currently offline. However, because the site uses Cloudflare’s Always Online™ technology you can continue to surf a snapshot of the site. We will keep checking in the background and, as soon as the site comes back, you will automatically be served the live version.”
BREAKING: We've got Trump tax returns. Tonight, 9pm ET. MSNBC.
(Seriously).
— Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow) March 14, 2017