Trump tax returns: House Democrats ready for ultimate fishing expedition by Byron York
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/byron-york-trump-tax-returns-house-dems-ready-for-ultimate-fishing-expedition
Yes, Democrats want to start a new investigation into already-under-investigation Trump-Russia allegations. And yes, they want to investigate Trump associates like Michael Cohen, Roger Stone, and others. But by far the biggest thing Democrats want, now that they have the majority in the House, is to get their hands on the president’s tax returns.
House Democrats want to use a 1924 law that allows any one of three entities — the House Ways & Means Committee, the Senate Finance Committee, or the Joint Committee on Taxation — to demand that the Treasury Department turn over the returns of any individual. Passed in the wake of the Teapot Dome scandal and controversy over the finances of Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon, the law has almost never been used. For the first 50 years of the law’s existence, no one tried to get a president’s returns — although the law played a role in the fight over Richard Nixon’s finances — and in the years since Gerald Ford took office, presidents have voluntarily made their returns public. Until Donald Trump.
So now, Democrats propose that the entity they fully control — the Ways & Means Committee — force Treasury, parent agency of the Internal Revenue Service, to turn over the president’s returns. What do they hope to find? What is remarkable is that even the most aggressive Democrats don’t seem to have a clear idea what they will find in the returns. They’re just sure there must be something bad in there.
The former prosecutor Andrew McCarthy has written of Trump-Russia special counsel Robert Mueller that “Mueller does not have a crime he is investigating. He is investigating in hopes of finding a crime.” That is what Democrats are planning with the president’s tax returns.
“I think overwhelmingly the public wants to see the president’s tax returns,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said recently. “And so they want to know the truth, they want to know the facts and he has nothing to hide.”
“President Trump’s refusal to release his tax returns makes it clear he has something to hide,” said Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, who is a sponsor of the Presidential Tax Transparency Act, which would require presidents and presidential candidates to release their returns.
Of course, Democrats do have some broad ideas about what might be in the returns.
“We want to see if the President of the United States has a conflict of interest that he brought with him or that he created since he got here,” Rep. Bill Pascrell, a member of Ways & Means, said recently. “The only way to do that is to get his tax returns.”
Others think — no surprise — that there’s a Russia connection. Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., a member of the Intelligence Committee, said it is important “for the American people to know to what extent Russia was engaged with then-entrepreneur Donald Trump …. Was there money laundering going on? … That’s why having his tax returns becomes so important.”
Democratic Rep. John Garamendi of California wants the tax returns to see if Trump might have violated the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution. “We have a constitutional responsibility,” Garamendi said. “Did the president receive money from a foreign government? Think Saudi Arabia. Think Kuwait.”
Democratic Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Texas, a senior member of Ways & Means, recently wondered whether Trump “got special tax breaks that some have estimated may amount to over a billion dollars in the tax law that he signed.”
Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters of California, chairwoman of the Financial Services Committee, was more blunt. “We’re gonna get your tax returns,” Waters said recently, addressing Trump. “We’re gonna find out where your money has come from, the way that you have cheated the IRS.”
The tax returns, those and other House Democrats believe, will be a Rosetta Stone to Trump corruption.
There’s no doubt the law gives Ways & Means Chairman Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass., the power to demand the returns. That doesn’t mean Neal would get them right away; the Trump administration would surely raise legal objections that could tie the issue up in court. Perhaps for that reason, Neal has been a voice of caution in the push to see the returns.
There are others, too. Democratic Rep. Ron Kind of Wisconsin, also a Ways & Means member, recently remarked that Mueller and his prosecutors have surely seen the returns and that it would be best for the House to proceed carefully. “I’d suspect that Bob Mueller and his team are looking at that already, and hopefully it’s part of a report that is submitted to us shortly,” Kind said.
That is precisely what worries some Democrats. What if Mueller investigates and does not accuse Trump of any wrongdoing based on the tax returns? Just in case, Democrats propose to perform their own “MRI” of Trump’s finances, based in large part on the tax returns.
“Our priority is to make sure the President of the United States is working in the national interest, that he is not motivated by some pecuniary interest or fear of compromise or actual compromise,” Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said recently. “That’s the length and breadth of it. So in terms of the president’s business, we’re not interested in our committee in whether he’s a tax cheat, or he’s not worth what he says he is, or those issues. What we’re interested in is: Does the president have business dealings with Russia such that it compromises the United States?”
For the Democrats to start the “MRI,” the first step has to be securing the president’s returns.
Trump broke a 40-year tradition by not releasing his tax returns during the campaign or since. Now, there are bills in both House and Senate that would require presidents, and party nominees for the presidency, to release their returns. Perhaps those will become law, and the tradition will become a legal requirement.
But a choice by the Ways & Means committee to force the release of the president’s returns could have serious consequences. For one, it will set a precedent for the House majority, in this case the Democrats, to go after the tax returns of individuals. It is not hard to imagine that coming around to bite Democrats in the future.
“Once you go down this road, it’s a lot like using the intelligence agencies to look into political campaigns,” Republican Rep. Devin Nunes of California, ranking member of the Intelligence Committee, said last month. “Once you go down the road, there’s no turning back, because then it ratchets up. Because at some point, Republicans will be back in power. There are lots of people we could have subpoenaed their tax returns the last few years that would be very interesting.”
It is not hard to foresee the tax return fight setting off an ugly escalation of partisan warfare on the Hill.
At a recent Ways & Means hearing into the issue of acquiring individual returns, Democratic Rep. John Lewis of Georgia summed up the situation, and in the process said perhaps more than he intended. “This is not the end,” Lewis said. “This is just the beginning.”
So now, Democrats propose that the entity they fully control — the Ways & Means Committee — force Treasury, parent agency of the Internal Revenue Service, to turn over the president’s returns. What do they hope to find? What is remarkable is that even the most aggressive Democrats don’t seem to have a clear idea what they will find in the returns. They’re just sure there must be something bad in there.
The former prosecutor Andrew McCarthy has written of Trump-Russia special counsel Robert Mueller that “Mueller does not have a crime he is investigating. He is investigating in hopes of finding a crime.” That is what Democrats are planning with the president’s tax returns.
“I think overwhelmingly the public wants to see the president’s tax returns,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said recently. “And so they want to know the truth, they want to know the facts and he has nothing to hide.”
“President Trump’s refusal to release his tax returns makes it clear he has something to hide,” said Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, who is a sponsor of the Presidential Tax Transparency Act, which would require presidents and presidential candidates to release their returns.
Of course, Democrats do have some broad ideas about what might be in the returns.
“We want to see if the President of the United States has a conflict of interest that he brought with him or that he created since he got here,” Rep. Bill Pascrell, a member of Ways & Means, said recently. “The only way to do that is to get his tax returns.”
Others think — no surprise — that there’s a Russia connection. Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., a member of the Intelligence Committee, said it is important “for the American people to know to what extent Russia was engaged with then-entrepreneur Donald Trump …. Was there money laundering going on? … That’s why having his tax returns becomes so important.”
Democratic Rep. John Garamendi of California wants the tax returns to see if Trump might have violated the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution. “We have a constitutional responsibility,” Garamendi said. “Did the president receive money from a foreign government? Think Saudi Arabia. Think Kuwait.”
Democratic Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Texas, a senior member of Ways & Means, recently wondered whether Trump “got special tax breaks that some have estimated may amount to over a billion dollars in the tax law that he signed.”
Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters of California, chairwoman of the Financial Services Committee, was more blunt. “We’re gonna get your tax returns,” Waters said recently, addressing Trump. “We’re gonna find out where your money has come from, the way that you have cheated the IRS.”
The tax returns, those and other House Democrats believe, will be a Rosetta Stone to Trump corruption.
There’s no doubt the law gives Ways & Means Chairman Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass., the power to demand the returns. That doesn’t mean Neal would get them right away; the Trump administration would surely raise legal objections that could tie the issue up in court. Perhaps for that reason, Neal has been a voice of caution in the push to see the returns.
There are others, too. Democratic Rep. Ron Kind of Wisconsin, also a Ways & Means member, recently remarked that Mueller and his prosecutors have surely seen the returns and that it would be best for the House to proceed carefully. “I’d suspect that Bob Mueller and his team are looking at that already, and hopefully it’s part of a report that is submitted to us shortly,” Kind said.
That is precisely what worries some Democrats. What if Mueller investigates and does not accuse Trump of any wrongdoing based on the tax returns? Just in case, Democrats propose to perform their own “MRI” of Trump’s finances, based in large part on the tax returns.
“Our priority is to make sure the President of the United States is working in the national interest, that he is not motivated by some pecuniary interest or fear of compromise or actual compromise,” Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said recently. “That’s the length and breadth of it. So in terms of the president’s business, we’re not interested in our committee in whether he’s a tax cheat, or he’s not worth what he says he is, or those issues. What we’re interested in is: Does the president have business dealings with Russia such that it compromises the United States?”
For the Democrats to start the “MRI,” the first step has to be securing the president’s returns.
Trump broke a 40-year tradition by not releasing his tax returns during the campaign or since. Now, there are bills in both House and Senate that would require presidents, and party nominees for the presidency, to release their returns. Perhaps those will become law, and the tradition will become a legal requirement.
But a choice by the Ways & Means committee to force the release of the president’s returns could have serious consequences. For one, it will set a precedent for the House majority, in this case the Democrats, to go after the tax returns of individuals. It is not hard to imagine that coming around to bite Democrats in the future.
“Once you go down this road, it’s a lot like using the intelligence agencies to look into political campaigns,” Republican Rep. Devin Nunes of California, ranking member of the Intelligence Committee, said last month. “Once you go down the road, there’s no turning back, because then it ratchets up. Because at some point, Republicans will be back in power. There are lots of people we could have subpoenaed their tax returns the last few years that would be very interesting.”
It is not hard to foresee the tax return fight setting off an ugly escalation of partisan warfare on the Hill.
At a recent Ways & Means hearing into the issue of acquiring individual returns, Democratic Rep. John Lewis of Georgia summed up the situation, and in the process said perhaps more than he intended. “This is not the end,” Lewis said. “This is just the beginning.”
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