Trump refusal to release tax returns costs vet charities $6.2 M
By Peter Lance October 19th, 2016. Peter James Kieran, a decorated Marine Special Ops veteran who served in Afghanistan, now studying at Columbia University, came up with an extraordinary campaign to fund 1o veterans’ non-profits by shaming Donald Trump into releasing his tax returns.
Utilizing crowd pac.com the campaign generated pledges of $6,252.10 by the start of tonight’s third presidential debate. That figure included $1.2 million from individual donors and a $5 million pledge from Linked-in founder/billionare Reid Hoffman.
The funding campaign was brilliant in its simplicity. Since Trump has made a number of campaign boasts about his charitable contributions to veterans — including that infamous press conference when he dodged the Iowa primary debate — 26 year old Kieran created this online mechanism for those who support veterans causes as well as transparency in candidates for commander-in-chief to pledge any amount above $10.00 to be paid only if and when the GOP nominee came clean about his tax returns by tonight.
But as of the deadline Trump continued to refuse. So that extraordinary amount of money pledged for the ten worthy veteran’s organization below will not be donated. Read Peter Kieran’s statement above:
The charities that would directly benefit in the ten-way split of the proceeds include The Pat Tillman Foundation, Hope For Warriors, Hire Heroes USA, Team Rubicon, Children of Fall Patriots, Student Veterans of America, the Yellow Ribbon Fund, the Travis Manion Foundation, the Special Operations Warrior Foundation and No One Left Behind, all Federal charities. 
Kieran, the youngest Marine ever to serve as a Raider with MARSOC, the Marine Corps Special Ops Command, had already raised $500,000 in pledges by September 29th and as of October 4th the number sat at just over $6.2 million, with the goal of $8 million. It was a real possibility by the third debate if, Trump put his tax returns where his rhetoric in support of veterans has been. Kieran, who is also founder of The Ivy League Veterans’ Council, wrote this about his campaign in a September 18th piece for taskandpurpose.com:
“For over 40 years, every presidential hopeful has released his or her tax returns; this is the baseline standard. Tax returns are a significant mechanism of transparency showing how a person makes their money, who and where it comes from, what organizations they are affiliated with, and who they give money to. More importantly, it is a way for our highest office seekers to build trust with the American public.
“As a billionaire with financial dealings around the world, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump should make public any positions that would pose a conflict of interest and risk the national security of Americans. Tax returns reveal that information.
“Every election cycle, candidates spend billions of dollars in advertising, but none of that money goes to the issues I care about. I decided to change that by challenging the status quo. I started a campaign to raise moneythat will be donated to 10 different veterans groups if Trump releases his tax returns. The premise of the campaign is simple. As voters we are entitled to the best possible information to make our decisions. Mike Pence, Hillary Clinton, and Tim Kaine have all released 10 years of tax returns to the American public. So all things equal, I think Trump should too.”
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