SHOULD HOUSE DEMOCRATS RELEASE TRUMP’S TAXES?

Filed in National by on December 7, 2022

Yes.

The substantive question of whether a president’s or presidential candidate’s tax returns ought to be public is extremely easy to answer: Of course they should be, as a matter of law. The idea that Donald Trump has an interest in keeping his finances private that trumps (sorry) the public’s interest in learning the details of his endless financial peculations is beyond absurd. Whatever rationale Democrats stitched together for the purposes of litigation is just irrelevant to the more basic issue of whether the public needs to know the ins and outs of Trump’s grifting, legal and otherwise. Yes it does, and the sooner the better.

About the Author ()

Jason330 is a deep cover double agent working for the GOP. Don't tell anybody.

Comments (5)

Trackback URL | Comments RSS Feed

  1. jason330 says:
    December 8, 2022 at 7:33 am

    Also they aren’t “Trump’s Taxes” the documents are property of the people of the United States.

  2. bamboozer says:
    December 8, 2022 at 11:11 am

    Release Trump’s taxes, then codify the release of all presidential candidates taxes into law. Pretty damn sure the “honor system” has failed at this point

  3. jason330 says:
    December 8, 2022 at 2:32 pm

    The framers never anticipated anyone so devoid of honor getting to the Presidency.

  4. jason330 says:
    December 9, 2022 at 9:51 am

    What am I going to like the most about Trump’s final demise? Probably his penury. A very close second will be seeing courts treat him as a normal American citizen and not some kind of fucking King.

    The disparities of how rich people and their fancy lawyers are treated versus someone who is 5 minutes late for a probation meeting…

    “Prosecutors have urged a federal judge to hold Donald Trump’s office in contempt of court for failing to fully comply with a May subpoena to return all classified documents in his possession, according to people familiar with the matter — a sign of how contentious the private talks have become over whether the former president still holds any secret papers.”

  5. jason330 says:
    December 9, 2022 at 2:12 pm

    This, from http://upyernoz.blogspot.com all sounds about right. Trump used the courts to stall and run out the clock. The tax returns are a dead issue. The only thing to do is pass a law that forces future Trump’s to show them in advance.

    Can States require them for ballot access? Allow all the Blue states to require them. I’d be fine with that.

    Trump’s Tax Returns
    While I’m glad that the House finally got their hands on them (they should have gotten them in April 2019, when, by law (see 26 U.S.C. §6103(f)(1)), they were entitled to copies upon the House Committee’s written request, but Trump managed to tie up the request in Court for almost 3 years), I don’t know what they will do with them. The original request was for oversight and to look into Trump’s conflict of interest when he was still in office. But with Trump out of office, it is too late for that. And with the Democratic-controlled committee disbanding next month when the Republicans take over, there isn’t really time for much else.

    The law the House used to get the tax returns doesn’t let them make the contents of the return public. Rather it specifies the returns can only be reviewed “when sitting in closed executive session” unless they get permission of the taxpayer (i.e. Trump) to make the contents of the return more public, and there is zero chance that Trump would do that. I guess if they see evidence of a clear crime, they can refer the matter to the DOJ before the clock runs out on this Congress. But given how the statute is worded, I don’t think the House can hand over the returns with the criminal referral. The DOJ would have to make their own request for tax records, which Trump might be able to tie up in new litigation for a few more years.

    I guess the House’s effort made a nice precedent that might help in the future. But it isn’t going to do much to “get Trump” right now.

«
»