Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said that the burden of proof is on Mitt Romney to prove that he hasn’t evaded paying his taxes, despite the legal principle that a person accused of a crime is “innocent until proven guilty.”
Reid accused Romney of what amounts to tax fraud, but he doesn’t think he to provide evidence for the charge. “I don’t think the burden should be on me,” Reid told reporters on a conference call, according to the Las Vegas Review Journal. “The burden should be on him. He’s the one I’ve alleged has not paid any taxes. Why didn’t he release his tax returns?”
The Nevada Democrat earned a law degree at George Washington University in 1964 — not so long ago that he should have forgotten that due process protections in the American legal system require the accuser to prove that the accused is guilty for a case to stand. Of course, Reid isn’t filing a formal charge, so there is no impediment to him making such accusations.
“What if he has paid no taxes, like I am saying he hasn’t,” Reid told reporters, before mentioning Romney’s offshore bank accounts. “I mean, gee whiz, rather than ask me why I should do this, that is a story you should be writing.”
Reid claimed to have “several” sources who told him that Romney had avoided paying taxes for at least a decade. He wouldn’t name any of those sources.
