Giuliani blew up Trump's usual excuse for withholding his tax returns, saying they have in fact been audited

The statements undermine the president's excuse used since the 2016 election that he won't release his returns because they are being audited.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany repeated that claim as recently as Thursday, Axios reported .
The Supreme Court said that the president's tax documents can be subpoenaed in a landmark ruling on Thursday.
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Rudy Giuliani said that President Donald Trump's tax returns have "by and large" been audited, in a claim that undermines the president's routine excuse for withholding them.

Giuliani was commenting on the Supreme Court's landmark decision on Thursday that the president's financial and tax documents can be subpoenaed.

According to Giuliani, who joined the president's personal legal team in 2018, there is "no reason to believe that there's anything wrong with his tax returns," because they had almost all been audited.

"I mean all these tax returns have been by and large maybe not the last one, but all of them have been audited," he told Fox News Thursday night. "All of them have been either passed on or settled."

The statement appeared to be a defense of the president's tax arrangements. At the same time, however, it was in direct contradiction to Trump's ongoing claim that ongoing audits are his reason not to have released them earlier.

Trump first gave this reasoning during the 2016 election campaign, despite the fact that being under audit should have no effect on a person's ability to make their tax returns public, according to The New York Times .

The claim was nonetheless repeated by the White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany as recently as July 9, Axios reported . "The media's been asking this question for four years, and for four years, the president has said the same thing: His taxes are under audit, and when they're no longer under audit, he will release them," she said.

Business Insider has contacted Giuliani and the White House for comment, but did not immediately receive a reply.