White House to Democrats seeking Trump tax returns - 'Never'

By Doina Chiacu

 

FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump addresses the Republican Jewish Coalition 2019 Annual Leadership Meeting in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S., April 6, 2019. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump's tax returns will never be handed over to Democratic lawmakers, White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney said on Sunday, defying an effort in Congress to learn more about the real estate mogul's personal finances.

 

Asked on "Fox News Sunday" if congressional Democrats will succeed in obtaining the Republican president's tax returns, Mulvaney said: "No, never. Nor should they."

 

He dismissed an effort to obtain the returns, launched on Wednesday by U.S. House of Representatives tax committee Chairman Richard Neal, as a political ploy from Democrats who will never stop attacking Trump.

 

“Democrats are demanding that the IRS turn over the documents. That is not going to happen, and they know it. This is a political stunt,” Mulvaney said.

 

Democrats countered that Neal's request to the Treasury Department for Trump's returns is grounded in law and a needed inquiry, given Trump's refusal to disclose his tax records and to divest himself of his business interests.

 

"This is a legitimate authority that the Congress has. This president, by the way, is the least transparent president that we've had in half a century," Democratic Representative Dan Kildee, a tax committee member, told ABC's "This Week."

 

Democratic Representative Ben Ray Lujan noted that presidents for decades have voluntarily released their income tax returns. "This is not political, as our Republican colleagues are making it out to be," he told "Fox News Sunday."

 

An attorney for Trump on Friday blasted House Democrats' request for six years of Trump's personal and business returns as "a misguided attempt" to politicize the tax laws, accusing lawmakers of harassment and interference in IRS audits.

 

In a statement that mapped out the legal battlefield ahead, Trump lawyer William Consovoy said the request filed by Neal flouts "constitutional constraints."

 

Republican Senator Mitt Romney urged Trump to release his tax returns as promised but criticized Democratic efforts to force the issue through legislative action as "moronic."

 

"The courts are not going to say that you can compel a person running for office to release their tax returns," he said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

 

One of many investigations targeting Trump on Capitol Hill and in the U.S. court system, the House Democrats' probe into the president's tax returns could pull back the curtain on his business empire and his reputation as a dealmaker.

 

As a presidential candidate in 2016, Trump broke with a decades-old practice of making his tax returns public and continues to refuse to release them as president, while retaining ownership in many enterprises, ranging from golf courses and hotels and other properties.

 

If Congress takes the administration to court over Trump’s taxes then little case law would be available to help guide judges, legal experts said, both because the statute cited by Neal to obtain the returns has hardly ever been contested, and because most document disputes between the legislative and executive branches of government are resolved by negotiation.

 

The losing party could appeal, ultimately to the U.S. Supreme Court. If litigation extends into 2021, a judge could also force a newly elected Congress to start the process over, said Ross Garber, an attorney who specializes in political investigations.

 

(Reporting by Doina Chiacu and Kevin Drawbaugh; Additional reporting by Dan Levine in San Francisco; Editing by Phil Berlowitz and Lisa Shumaker)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-04-08

This will go to the Supreme Court, at which time we will see if the US government truly has been purchased.

So the pretence (Trump Campaign lie) that it’s just a matter of an audit preventing the release of Trump’s tax returns is over.

 

Now replaced by the lie that Trump

has any day in the release of his tax returns.

 

 

The Russia, Russia, Russia sound bite will now become Taxes, Taxes, Taxes...infinitum from the same boring news outlets and TV posters...never a mention of how to make the country and people of the US more prosperous, more safe, and better educated. 

Why is that?

Can congress compel any citizen to make their tax returns public or is this something special for the president?

4 minutes ago, Puchaiyank said:

The Russia, Russia, Russia sound bite will now become Taxes, Taxes, Taxes...infinitum from the same boring news outlets and TV posters...never a mention of how to make the country and people of the US more prosperous, more safe, and better educated. 

Why is that?

The country more prosperous : National debt accelerating.

 

The country safer: Botched N. Korea fiasco.

 

The country better educated: De Voss stripping funds from public schools.

 

3 minutes ago, Puchaiyank said:

The Russia, Russia, Russia sound bite will now become Taxes, Taxes, Taxes...infinitum from the same boring news outlets and TV posters...never a mention of how to make the country and people of the US more prosperous, more safe, and better educated. 

Why is that?

There have been a half dozen close Trump aides in trouble with the law (indicted,  convicted and/or jailed). Trump has PUBLICLY sided with Russia over the warnings of US security forces, had private meetings with Russian oligarchs, and hides ANY information that WOULD exonerate him. This is the behavior of a guilty man.

2 minutes ago, quandow said:

There have been a half dozen close Trump aides in trouble with the law (indicted,  convicted and/or jailed). Trump has PUBLICLY sided with Russia over the warnings of US security forces, had private meetings with Russian oligarchs, and hides ANY information that WOULD exonerate him. This is the behavior of a guilty man.

Sure, and much much more. Yet, the guy has redefined the concept of the Teflon President, as it was ascribed to Reagan, in that nothing could stick to the guy. In Reagan's case, he was a likeable, effective and Statesman-like President with charm and polish.

 

In Trump's case he is a crass, divisive, and low-class POS.

 

Why is Trump so teflon? Go figure...

12 minutes ago, suzannegoh said:

Can congress compel any citizen to make their tax returns public or is this something special for the president?

It’s an investigation, so they can ask for anyone’s returns.  What is Donny boy afraid of?  He said he would release them anyway.  Cohen said he’s been ripping off the taxpayers for decades, and his father as well.  The southern district will be asking for them as well, as he is from NY, and his businesses are in NY.  They want his business records too???? 

 

Edited April 8, 20197 yr by Redline

34 minutes ago, Puchaiyank said:

The Russia, Russia, Russia sound bite will now become Taxes, Taxes, Taxes...infinitum from the same boring news outlets and TV posters...never a mention of how to make the country and people of the US more prosperous, more safe, and better educated. 

Why is that?

I disagree it will be added to the general malfeasance of this totally un fit mentally ill man

So, the White House is now openly saying it is above the law.

JFK & FDR never released their tax returns.

Trump needs to continue to tell those people looking for any earthly reason to find dirt on him to pound some more sand.

As someone viewing this from the outside, to me, Trump withholding his tax returns looks highly suspicious, it not outright illegal.

Edited April 8, 20197 yr by Katipo

Trump not releasing his tax returns was the ultimate "cheese in the maze" troll.  The haters keep going after his tax returns and he keeps spinning them up.  In the meantime he continues to do things like appoint conservative justices at a record pace and the liberals are powerless, in part because they waste their energy looking for the cheese in the maze.

Edited April 8, 20197 yr by Kelsall

***Breaking News***

Trump applies for a retirement visa in Thailand and is told he must have 800k Baht!

????

I think if you’re in high office then both your past and earnings should be transparent. Trump badly loses on his past business activities and little wonder he’s trying to hide behind privacy laws.

2 minutes ago, Kelsall said:

Trump not releasing his tax returns was the ultimate "cheese in the maze" troll.  The haters keep going after his tax returns and he keeps spinning them up.  In the meantime he continues to do things like appoint conservative justices at a record pace and the liberals are powerless, in part because they waster their energy looking for the cheese in the maze.  Trump 2020 is assured.

You are right that he is largely advancing the conservative agenda, even though he is not a conservative really, just using the platform for his own agenda. And, some could argue and many pundits have argued that he has redefined the American conservative, or Republican and that his base and his pandering to that base is now the new American conservative reality.

 

Traditional Republicans will also keep supporting him as long as he advances the Republican agenda by doing things like appointing conservative Justices, so in that sense, until and unless there is some compelling revelation, I would have to agree with you. He can be re-elected, because traditional conservatives do not have a reason to abandon him and because Democrats don't have a clue how to field anyone competitive.

2 minutes ago, keemapoot said:

You are right that he is largely advancing the conservative agenda, even though he is not a conservative really, just using the platform for his own agenda. And, some could argue and many pundits have argued that he has redefined the American conservative, or Republican and that his base and his pandering to that base is now the new American conservative reality.

 

Traditional Republicans will also keep supporting him as long as he advances the Republican agenda by doing things like appointing conservative Justices, so in that sense, until and unless there is some compelling revelation, I would have to agree with you. He can be re-elected, because traditional conservatives do not have a reason to abandon him and because Democrats don't have a clue how to field anyone competitive.

When Trump is taken down, he’ll take the GOP with him.

Just now, Chomper Higgot said:

When Trump is taken down, he’ll take the GOP with him.

If the Mueller Report did not take him down, there is not much left that will do so. However, I agree let's wait to see if we can get past the hack job Barr (Fred Flintstone in a suit) has done to the report. Not sure we can. Tax returns will show what we all suspect, that he is poorer than he claims, but that is not a crime, and that he and his organizations have huge conflicts of interest and that his son in law is setting things up for the family to be one of the richest in history through the ultimate insider dealing. That kind of crime takes many years to make a case, and in the meantime unless there is something big, we are all stuck with this big dork.

But he promised to release his returns, along with many other things, during election. Remember?

"...never a mention of how to make the country and people of the US more prosperous, more safe, and better educated. 

Why is that?"

Showing Trump and his gang of incompetent and dangerous crew the door would be a good step towards meeting your goals

12 minutes ago, keemapoot said:

If the Mueller Report did not take him down, there is not much left that will do so. However, I agree let's wait to see if we can get past the hack job Barr (Fred Flintstone in a suit) has done to the report. Not sure we can. Tax returns will show what we all suspect, that he is poorer than he claims, but that is not a crime, and that he and his organizations have huge conflicts of interest and that his son in law is setting things up for the family to be one of the richest in history through the ultimate insider dealing. That kind of crime takes many years to make a case, and in the meantime unless there is something big, we are all stuck with this big dork.

It’s a tad early to write off the Mueller report.

 

We’ve not yet seen it.

 

But rest assured, Trump and the Republicans would not fight so hard to keep it secret if it were good news for Trump and the GOP.

Why, pray tell, not? 

2 minutes ago, Chomper Higgot said:

It’s a tad early to write off the Mueller report.

 

We’ve not yet seen it.

 

But rest assured, Trump and the Republicans would not fight so hard to keep it secret if it were good news for Trump and the GOP.

Yeah, the thing that baffles me is William (Fred Flintstone) Barr. he is a long time associate and friend with Mueller, and a former Bush Atty. Gen., so he seems to have deep roots in traditional conservatism. I'm not sure why he is so protective of such a deeply defective man like Trump, unless it is out of allegiance to the GOP, and to belief that traditional conservatives will take back control of the party. Perhaps he views his job to keep government in the hands of the GOP as long as possible until Trump is no longer President and things get back to normal.

49 minutes ago, Kelsall said:

Trump not releasing his tax returns was the ultimate "cheese in the maze" troll.

There have been a half dozen close Trump aides in trouble with the law (indicted,  convicted and/or jailed). 37 people/entities so far in legal trouble as Mueller successfully navigated this "maze." Trump PUBLICLY sided with Russia over the warnings of US security forces, had private meetings with Russian oligarchs, and hides ANY information that WOULD exonerate him if he were innocent. This is the behavior of a guilty man.

Edited April 8, 20197 yr by quandow

27 minutes ago, keemapoot said:

Yeah, the thing that baffles me is William (Fred Flintstone) Barr.

 

That thing he wrote about the president being above the law smacks of the kind of neo-fascism Steve Bannon travels the world trying to foster.

 

 

1 hour ago, ballpoint said:

So, the White House is now openly saying it is above the law.

Finally admitting it after all these years although just common knowledge to the rest of us.

I would think Americans here would be more concerned about the civil liberties issues involved as opposed to glorifying another attempt to bend the laws to get Trump.

 

3 hours ago, keemapoot said:

Sure, and much much more. Yet, the guy has redefined the concept of the Teflon President, as it was ascribed to Reagan, in that nothing could stick to the guy. In Reagan's case, he was a likeable, effective and Statesman-like President with charm and polish.

 

In Trump's case he is a crass, divisive, and low-class POS.

 

Why is Trump so teflon? Go figure...

LOL. No matter how Reagan presented himself he was a bad man, should have been impeached and in jail for the rest of his life with cell mate North.

 

Re the OP

2 hours ago, Emdog said:

But he promised to release his returns, along with many other things, during election. Remember?

"...never a mention of how to make the country and people of the US more prosperous, more safe, and better educated. 

Why is that?"

Showing Trump and his gang of incompetent and dangerous crew the door would be a good step towards meeting your goals

He also promised to put her in jail, and I don't hear any Dems complaining that he didn't.

Seems it depends on which side of the aisle one sits as to what promises are important.

 

I don't get it. The Trump haters have been telling us for 2 years that Trump is a liar, yet seem surprised and astounded that he wouldn't tell the truth about this. LOL.

2 hours ago, keemapoot said:

You are right that he is largely advancing the conservative agenda, even though he is not a conservative really, just using the platform for his own agenda. And, some could argue and many pundits have argued that he has redefined the American conservative, or Republican and that his base and his pandering to that base is now the new American conservative reality.

 

Traditional Republicans will also keep supporting him as long as he advances the Republican agenda by doing things like appointing conservative Justices, so in that sense, until and unless there is some compelling revelation, I would have to agree with you. He can be re-elected, because traditional conservatives do not have a reason to abandon him and because Democrats don't have a clue how to field anyone competitive.

Conservatives like private enterprise, don't like socialism, don't like unfettered illegal immigration, don't want terrorists or drugs entering the US, want conservatives on the SCOTUS, support owning guns, support religion.

What's he doing against any of that?

What is wrong with these people?  This is self destructive behavior.  While China is working harmoniously toward world economic domination these idiots via the Democrats and mainstream media are pitting Americans against Americans.  And on top of it they are trying to get rid of their own leader.  China is laughing... they couldn't have created a better scenario for themselves.

Edited April 8, 20197 yr by tlandtday