Democrats want to use an obscure law to obtain Trump's tax returns - Polidicks

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/democrats-want-use-obscure-law-grab-donald-trump-s-tax-n949286 WASHINGTON — Soon after the Democrats take control of the House next year, Rep. Richard Neal, who will be the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, expects to send a letter to Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin requesting copies of Donald Trump's returns. He doesn't expect to get them.At least, not right away. A 1924 federal law — 26 U.S. Code § 6103 — mandates that the Treasury secretary "shall furnish" the tax returns of any individual for private review by the chairmen of the House and Senate tax committees. Committee sources could find no evidence that it had ever been used to obtain somebody's tax return. But they say the law, which was passed to monitor conflicts of interest in the executive branch, is clear. Neal, of Springfield, Massachusetts, has said he intends to use the law to seek Trump's tax returns, because he believes it's wrong that Trump is the first president in 40 years not to have made his returns public. But Neal has said he also expects that the Treasury Department — and perhaps Trump himself — will put up a ferocious legal fight. "I assume that there would be a court case that would go on for a period of time," Neal told reporters recently. If and when he does get them, Neal and the Democrats plan to make the returns public, Congressional sources told NBC News. They believe they can do so by committee vote in a closed session. Prosecutors can get tax returns through a judge's order, as long as they convince the judge that the returns are relevant to their investigations. They can go back 10 or even 20 years, if the investigation demands it. But unlike Congress, prosecutors who get tax returns are bound by strict secrecy rules. They can't make them public unless they become evidence in a trial.

But they say the law, which was passed to monitor conflicts of interest in the executive branch, is clear. Those guys in 1924 sure were clairvoyant.

Okay, I guess? I don't really see what the point of getting them this far into his presidency will matter. Even if there is something damning in them, it'll be a drop of water to an ocean to what the Democrats could use against him in 2020. If this were still very early in his presidency, I'd be excited but now it already feels like yesterday's news.

no they were dealing with a republican president who was corrupt and profiting off of the federal government I don't think Nael plans on making them public though but merely obtaining them would let them make a case for impeachment.

Thats exactly how Trump and Co want you to feel though. Just because its not as important as everything else going on doesnt mean it's not important at all. He shouldnt be excused from not showing his taxes just because its been a couple of years since he was elected.

Yeah but he isn't legally obligated to present them and honestly I don't see how his tax returns could possibly be a "breaking point" for any election in the future.

Yes and as we've seen with Trump's entire presidency so far, established precedent means shit all. He ignores it every chance he gets proving it needs to be law. And it isn't intended to be a breaking point. You seemed to be totally missing the point of Chronitonity's post. It's one more thing to add on to the pile of shit Trump is guilty of thus adding even more pressure for the Republicans to get off their corrupt asses and throw in their support when it comes time to throw Trump into the prison cell he belongs in. This isn't trivial??? Tax crimes are pretty major in fact.

Why would tax crimes be on a tax return? If such crimes were filed by the IRS he would have long been arrested for tax evasion lmao.

How could you possibly miss what I meant so badly? He'd obviously have falsified his tax returns. And this would be something that can be proven. His tax returns are a major piece of evidence when it comes to falsifying tax returns, no?

You realize that Trump has been under numerous audits, including one during the election (which iirc was one of the excuses he used to not release them)? If Trump successfully falsified his tax returns, then there is a larger problem of the IRS completely and wholly failing to do what is virtually its only purpose.

And I'm sure an IRS audit is as in-depth as a criminal investigation, right?

Perhaps to someone with at least three brain cells, but I think two years of a Trump presidency has shown that he is totally incapable of covering up criminal activities.

I don't know if you haven't noticed but he's kinda surrounded by people who aren't as incompetent as he is. Granted you have 2-3 brainless idiots like Sarah Sanders for every one competent asshole but the guy has a lot of shady connections and makes use of them whenever he can. His issue is that in the context of the presidency it shines too much light on those shady individuals so they're not willing to back him up here.

America runs its government like the Russians ran Chernobyl; set up many safety features to prevent disaster from happening and then disable those safety features when it's convenient for us with no regard for the consequences. 2016 is our Chernobyl

And rubbing a few more would job your memory about how the IRS is so severely underfunded right now.

"just don't even try lmao"

Isn't any law not having to do with murder rape drugs alcohol vehicles or other obvious things kind of obscure

I'm pretty sure that the so-called 'audit' is just bullshit Trump made up so he doesn't have to release his tax returns.

cough cough the irs has never swept anything under the r-oh whats this, scientology has tax free status? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_status_of_Scientology_in_the_United_States hmm the irs is probably infallible!

No, it was confirmed several times early in the election that he actually was in the middle of an audit. https://www.cnn.com/2016/03/30/politics/donald-trump-tax-audit-letter/index.html

To which the IRS came out and stated that he was full of shit when her claimed he couldn't release his returns because of the audit.

I never said he couldn't release his returns because of an audit. It's the excuse he used, but I never said it was a valid one? And beside the point, he legally doesn't have to have any excuse to not release them because it's not a requirement of office.

You're rather badly missing the context of Dan's post: This is focusing primarily on Trump's refusal to release his returns and not so much the audit while admitting the audit could very easily be Trump being full of shit since he lies like most of us breathe. To quote myself: Again: It does not matter if it's not legally required. It is established precedent. ALL presidents have done this for decades. It has been established precedent since Nixon. It didn't get put into law because people expected that after the precedent was set, the president would always comply. You're basically just splitting hair here going "but TECHNICALLY he didn't do anything wrong!!!!!" and kinda looking extremely dense in the process.

Technically a dog could be senator, doesn't mean we should let it happen

Not to mention that he himself said he'd release his tax returns if he won. He won, no tax returns. So there's literally all this buildup (both precedent and his promise, not that the latter ever counts for anything) and STILL no tax returns from a man who's been said to have incredibly shady financial connections.

I mean considering the quality of a lot of American senators that would probably be an improvement overall.

Nixon's real troubles started when a congressional audit determined he had been under reporting his income for years to the IRS. In Trump's case we do not know where his income is coming from and it makes a very strong case against emoluments to find out if he is in fact receiving income from foreign governments and not seeking congressional approval to keep it.

For emoluments innit?

case about emoluments really. there's not any great history to say how a president has to act when recieving gifts or income, or whether trump's businesses even qualify. The founders probably never anticipated someone so slimey getting in, nor could they have envisioned the massive reach of one's personal fortune back then. I believe that he should be reporting his earnings to congress as an emolument, the WH believes otherwise, and there's no requirement he report it