Trump Sues to Stop House From Getting His New York State Tax Returns
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Trump Sues to Stop House From Getting His New York State Tax Returns
Andrew Harris and Laura Davison 15 hours ago
(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump sued to block the Democrat-led U.S. House Ways and Means Committee from obtaining his tax records from New York state, in the latest attempt to keep his personal financial information out of public view.
In the lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Washington federal court, Trump is attempting to fend off committee chairman Richard Neal’s potential request for the documents under New York’s TRUST Act, which compels the state’s tax department to comply with the House committee’s records requests. The president is suing as a private citizen.
“Chairman Neal is facing intense pressure from his fellow Democrats to invoke the TRUST Act and obtain the president’s state tax returns,” Trump said in the complaint. “Succumbing to this pressure, the chairman recently announced that he does not oppose using the TRUST Act and that House counsel was ‘reviewing’ it now.”
Obtaining Trump’s New York state tax returns would be just a partial political win for Democrats, who are hoping to learn more about the president’s finances ahead of the 2020 elections. State tax returns show much of the same information as federal returns about income and tax breaks but don’t provide much information on out-of-state income or charitable contributions.
Trump also sued New York Attorney General Letitia James. The aim, according to the complaint, is to prevent the state from acting on the recently passed law.
Presidential candidates aren’t required to disclose their tax information, but every elected president since Richard Nixon has done so.
“President Trump has spent his career hiding behind lawsuits,” James said in a statement. “The TRUST Act will shine a light on the president’s finances and finally offer transparency to millions of Americans yearning to know the truth.”
The lawsuit comes three weeks after the House committee led by the Massachusetts Democrat sued to force the U.S. Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service to hand over Trump’s tax records from the past six years. That suit was filed after Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin rebuffed earlier requests for that information.
The real purpose of that initial request was exposure of Trump’s private tax information, according to the new complaint. “The State of New York shares this ‘animating purpose’ and is eager to help the committee expose the president’s private tax information,” Trump claims.
Trump’s lawyer Jay Sekulow said in a statement that the intent of the lawsuit was to “end presidential harassment,” adding the actions taken by the House and New York officials “are nothing more than political retribution.”
The TRUST Act was signed into law by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo this month. Both he and James are Democrats.
Neal’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokeswoman for James, Kelly Donnelly, said she couldn’t immediately comment on the complaint.
Neal hasn’t committed to asking New York state for the returns.
“The House counsel is reviewing all of that right now,” he said earlier this month. “They still have some legitimate concerns about it. That comes from House counsel, not me.”
Asking for the New York tax returns could undercut the Massachusetts congressman’s effort to get the federal tax returns, because he said he needs them to determine whether the Internal Revenue Service is properly doing its job in annually auditing presidents and vice-presidents.
Judge Named by Trump
The earlier suit was assigned to U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden, whom Trump nominated to serve on the trial-level court in the nation’s capital in 2017. In a separate filing with the court on Tuesday, the president’s lawyers designated their new lawsuit as related to that earlier case, meaning it too may be assigned to McFadden.
Last month, the judge rejected a suit filed by the House of Representatives challenging the president’s plan to fund his southern U.S. border wall with about $6.1 billion Congress had allocated for other purposes. McFadden concluded he lacked jurisdiction to consider the interbranch dispute.
The president’s attorneys William Consovoy and Patrick Strawbridge are leading federal lawsuits to block the release of his financial records to two other House committees.
The lawyers are repeating earlier arguments that congressional committees can’t investigate private individuals without a legitimate legislative purpose. The president’s attorneys also assert that the U.S. Constitution’s guarantees of freedom of speech and association protect their client from politically motivated discrimination or retaliation.
The TRUST Act should be struck down on that basis, they said.
“Ultimately, this issue was litigated in the 2016 election,” according to the complaint. “Voters heard the criticisms” from Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, “and they elected President Trump anyway. Democrats in Congress and across the country, however, have only become more eager to disclose the President’s tax returns for political gain.”
The case is Trump v. Committee on Ways and Means, U.S. House of Representatives, 19-cv-2173, U.S. District Court, District of Columbia (Washington).
(Updates with news of separate filing under Judge Named by Trump.)
To contact the reporters on this story: Andrew Harris in Washington at aharris16@bloomberg.net;Laura Davison in Washington at ldavison4@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net, Joe Schneider, Peter Jeffrey
For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com
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Two faced liar did what? After he spouted on the campaign trail he would release his taxes. Then he spouted he would release his taxes but he was being audited. Then it went to his advisors wouldn't let him and the audit thing came up again. Now it is out and out no, I will not be transparent, I will not release my taxes the way every past President has done, I will sue and will not release my taxes.
An honest person doesn't behave this way, and knowing that several of his campaign appointees are in jail doesn't help the case that he is transparent or honest.
That I'm aware of there is absolutely no legal precedent anywhere that says the president is required to disclose his persona state or federal tax returns to the House or Congress. This nothing more than a hateful vindictive with hunt by the Democrats. They have not been able to get the President on anything else so they are tryingbthis.
I'm not a tax code person, but 26 U.S. Code § 6103 does outline where under the request of congress, anyone's tax records must be disclosed.
But they have to have a good reason, and political grandstanding is not one of them.
What... the president being possibly compromised by a adversarial foreign country isn't enough?
Hell, people in the military can't get or maintain a security clearance if they have too much personal debt... How would you feel if you found out that Trump had secured loans through Russian banks?
Trump's foreign ties and financial issues would preclude him from getting a clearance in the civilian sector as well.
Funny how "the most transparent President ever" keeps breaking his promises, and his supporters don't care. If he had nothing to hide, why wouldn't he release them, as the other Presidents have done?
These 'enablers' of this president are disgusting. Donald lies every day to us, and they see it, and cover for him. Disgusting. Now you can readily see why they found President Obama unworthy of their affection and approval. It is clear they wanted a morally bankrupt, criminally-minded leader to rule over them.
It says the committee shall be given, or words to that effect. There is no argument or other consideration in the statute. Donald Trump is such an all-purpose ass and so are some conservatives who associate themselves with letting this coward president steam-roll our systems, which we have as safe-guards to protect all of us. Basically, Donald wants to make the whole country about battles, fences, and mind-wars.
The other presidents and those who considered running for the high office were not stupid shlongs to offer up their tax returns - they respected law, order, appearances and so they graciously supplied what was asked of them or simply knew they could not measure up and stepped out of the 'flow' for a more suitable person to move up.
Here comes this SUPER-GRADE COWARD who can't even supply the basic tax form that a 'regular' wealthy citizen will gladly, and people accuse Congress-any side of the House- of 'grandstanding'?!
If Congress is grandstanding by asking for the returns through the routine other congresses use, then. . . what the heaven is Donald doing - tell me already?
Disgusting! Shame! Unpatriotic. Unhelpful.
You are absolutely wrong. There are no restrictions limiting when they can access the tax returns or whose they can access.
Wrong the House has every right to your tax returns as well as Trumps. Oh yea of little knowledge
Good grief, what part of that do you consider educational? Did you bother reading past it, did you do any research of your own, or did you stop "educating" yourself when some stranger on the internet said something you liked?
Donald Trump is a big ass phony. Time to start calling this weak-kneed coward out from behind his conservative firewall! Come out, Donald - You coward! Some conservatives hold a coward president in high esteem. Go figure!
What a Pussy
Of course, no insult to any woman. Women are quite courageous as a group. Donald Trump is a coward.
Aimed - as this legislation is - at the president, it is unconstitutional on its face. There are two basic eligibility requirements for the office of president. 1) Be a natural born citizen of the U.S. and 2) Be at least the age of 35.
There is nothing in the Constitution about tax returns or financial records to be eligible for president. Absent a constitutional amendment, neither Congress nor any state legislature has the authority to require such records from someone solely on the ground that he is, or wants to be, president.
There is existing legislation allowing the examination of records, but it requires (as any law does) a legitimate legislative purpose. "People wanna see" is not such a purpose.
We also have the 4th Amendment protecting all persons from unreasonable search and seizure, and this includes personal documents. And yes, the 4th Amendment applies to the president.
If you think you're finding evidence of a crime in those documents, then the president is protected by the 5th Amendment as well. He cannot be compelled to incriminate himself. You need articulable and specific probable cause that a crime has been committed to demand those records. Your belief that he is "up to something" is insufficient.
These laws apply to everyone, including people you don't like.
Why are you quoting the 'basics"? Did you quote the basics during the Obama presidency? If some conservatives only considered the basics for Barack H. Obama, then why the heaven did Donald lie for eight years over "birtherism"?
Do you know how maddenly no-nothing that sounds after all the years of applied law, policy, and statutes? You might as well, call us say, Al Capone (crime boss, gangster, tax evader) and apologize to him that he was not considered for a run at the office of president! Incidentally, it was tax evasion which sent Capone to jail and his undoing.
Trump is a coward, a phony, a fake. And those cheering him on- enablers. Neither deserve respect, which is to be earned not pissed away.
I don't know why I wouldn't.
Huh?
Yep. Prompted along by things like probable cause, legal warrants, physical evidence, and witnesses.
None of that entitles you to go leafing through his tax returns.
We are not "leafing through Donald's returns" because he is a coward, a phony, a fake. . . Wait a minute, did you just agree with me that Donald is a 'hot mess'? About time!
Anyway, bad old Al did not accidentally ascend to the presidency before his returns were 'arrested.'
House leadership committee chair is looking to perform his due diligence in accordance with committee policy. You can PRETEND to not understand that, even as you enable a coward president to use you as cover to squelch on participating in the proper working of government. Funny, how ready you are to call other good servants in the eyes of this country bad names, while supporting an obvious abuser of everything you SAY you hold dear.
There is a word for that: HYPOCRISY!
If you do not have any respect for the shared rules of governing then what the heaven are in this discussion for anyway? Nobody is going to let you claim 'special dispensation" and install fake rules as you go along down the primrose path.
Unless you can say specifically what evidence you will find - and of what crime - in those documents, it's "fishing." That's not probable cause. It's not a reasonable search. You're making a character judgment and presuming criminal guilt thereby. That's not how our system works.
Of course he is. That doesn't mean I think everything he does or says is racist, criminal, etc.
Who have I ever called a bad name?
He is? When and where is Trump going through someone's records in violation of the Constitution?
I think the word to describe what you have just written is FANTASY. Or CONFUSION. You are not describing me.
I have no idea what any of that means. No part of that makes sense.
Own your president; the COWARD! That's all!
What does that even mean?
'Tongue-tied." Finally.
I doubt Capone cared very much at the end. It was not his taxes that sealed his fate. The tertiary syphilis turning his brain into swiss cheese was.
Yep!
Do you ever pay attention to the real constitution and not your made up one Go here and learn: 5.1
And it all started with the Democrats suing to get the President to release something there is no legal obligation to release.
Don't you [[deleted]] think Obama had Trumps taxes checked out before he left office? Don't you [[deleted]] think that if there was something there, Obama would have had it leaked?
Who are you calling an idiot? Can you prove that Obama gave a hoot about Trump's taxes? Prove that democrats petitioned for Trump's tax records during Obama's administration.
No other president had to to be sued or even coaxed to show multiple years of their returns. You don't want see a single year of this COWARD's tax returns. You bought the lie. You needed to buy the lie, because Donald gave you no other choice! You've been swerved on!
Not only did Donald not share his returns as a candidate, he has not shared his returns in office, and now he is suing to never share his returns. You need to not enabling this spoiled rotten COWARD because he is making you sound questionable.
Not happy that you are calling me an idiot, but I retort anyway:
1) Why would Obama want to look at trump's taxes?
2) He couldn't have seen them because he had no access to them.
3) Would it not have been easier for trump to release his fucking tax returns like he said he was going to and avoid all the bullshit?
.
Trump said weeks after he said he was running for POTUS that there were things in his taxes that would cause him to lose the election. Gee, wonder what it was and, why is he trying so hard to hide it?
The only people hiding things are people with something to hide. Not a difficult concept.
And, who are the enablers? It takes an idiot to not call out old pants on in the morning like everybody else Donald!
21 hours and not one mod has bothered to do anything about that comment. Sad.
Well, it really does not bother me, because I know what I am and it not a Trump enabler.
[deleted.] But someone else does it? Meh, no biggie.
If the shoe fits...
[Deleted]
Wow!
You can tell the Leftist Democrats have hit rock bottom!
Trump's old tax returns?
Jeez, have you tried digging thru his garbage yet? Maybe ask his maid if there are any skid marks in his underwear?
Maybe Mueller can research his last 666 golf score cards, interview his friends, see if he ever failed to count a stroke....
Laughable doesn't do this justice!
Why would Congress want to see anybody's funky skid-marked underwear? OBM? What's special about skid-marks-except may be to a medical specialist? Is this in tax statues some where you care to point to? Go on, point.
Well how about this: If regular every day citizens have to go through extensive background checks to get a job or buy a house or rent an apartment or buy a car or open a bank account or apply for a credit card, then damn skippy a presidential candidate should, at the very least, be held to the same standard.
Do you believe anyone moves into a Trump property without disclosing their finances, sources of income and tax records? I purchased a co-op apartment in NYC a few years ago and they demanded EVERYTHING including three years tax returns...
So you're just another enabler cause you want to stick it to the dems.....
This is about national security. If you really are what you say you are, a Marine, then you know to your core that Country comes up there by God and Corps, and well ahead of party. I care that the peoples voices are being overshadowed by the Russians. I care that we maintain the three co-equal branches of government. I care about what our Constitution says we are.
"Intercepted"? They hacked into the system to get them, (just hours after trump asked them to, but I am sure that's just a coincidence...[eye roll]), that's ILLEGAL. You are literally blaming Hillary for someone stealing her emails? Are you fucking kidding me? Here is a new one for you, how about you blame the fucking criminals?
Hillary deleted her emails months before the Trump rally where he asked Russia to find them and turn them over to the FBI (who was looking for them).
She deleted them after they were subpoenaed. No one stole them (or has been identified as having stolen them)
But...but...but Hillary! Her Emails! Benghazi! Your go to deflections.
Trump is in the WH. That is the most critical security risk that needs to be assessed. That an hardening our voting system. But hey.... you're complicit. How are you doing on your Russian language course BTW?
Prove she deleted them. Do not make kool aid fueled accusations if you can't provide proof.
That speaks for most of the Trump supporters. All mouth and no proof.
Easy, you have a very short memory
Judicial Watch obtained the emails after filing a Freedom Of Information Act lawsuit in 2015, seeking “All emails sent and received by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in her official capacity as Secretary of State, as well as all emails by other State Department employees to Secretary Clinton regarding her non-'state.gov' email address.”
Judicial Watch said the case is now closed and the FBI in total was only able to recover or find approximately 5,000 of the 33,000 government emails that an employee managing Clinton's server deleted.
Hillary claimed she deleted prior to the subpoena-that was a lie
“It turned out that Keilar’s assumption was accurate. The 31,830 personal emails that Keilar asked about were deleted “sometime between March 25-31, 2015,” according to the FBI. That was about three weeks after Clinton received a House subpoena on March 4, 2015.”
Ouch. I guess Factcheck puts a little crimp in the liberal revisionist story. Just who is the one making the koolade fueled comments?
We sure dodged a bullet keeping that Hillaryious corrupt bitch Hillary out of the White House.
Naughty. As it turned out your mockery of Hillary's name comes from the Russians. Watch the video @14.1.2. "Get Smarter Here."
Bullshit. It came from myself.
I get triggered snowflakes always trying to correct my spelling and I find it Hillaryious.
Yeah (dryly), if you say so. Maybe Russia is following your lead. "Impossible" things are happening ♪ everrryyy ♪ddayy!
[Deleted]
Good things come to all that wait..
For "the most transparent president in history", trump sure seems to have a lot to hide.
This has nothing to do with the seed, but my cat is sitting next to my monitor and is totally transfixed by your av.
I am glad your cat likes it.. LOL
MUST SEE! Psychographics ARE HOW Trump won the 2016 election using Cambridge Analytical data sets. Important: This specific video is about Cambridge Analytical and Ted Cruz. I will get to Trump's use at another time. What does "persuaderables" mean?
Check this out. Many people are being 'played' and they do not even know it through FaceBook, Instagram, Google, Etc.
(Note: You can speed this up using the wheel symbol.)
Cambridge Analytica - The Power of Big Data and Psychographics
What nonsense. Trump won because for real Americans, Hillary was a terrible candidate with radical views.
It is why Trump will be re-elected. The Democrats insist on running radical leftists
Untrue. More to come. . . .
MUST SEE VIDEO @ 6:50 in the video below: 'Defeat Crooked Hillary.' "This is part of a campaign by Cambridge Analytical called, 'Defeat Crooked Hillary.' The brand was 'Defeat Crooked Hillary' - 'Crooked Hillary' and the zeros, the "OO" of crooked were a pair of handcuffs. And then we made creative - hundreds of kinds of creatives and put them online. The concept of 'crooked Hillary' was promoted widely on social media. Facebook, Google, and Youtube. Cambridge Analytical boasts the online videos was watched 30 million times and times over, but users were unaware they came from the Trump Campaign, because they were made by an independent organization called, 'Make America Number 1' which is funded by the (Robert) Mercer family. . . ."
"Sometimes you can use proxy organizations which are already there [online]. You feed them. They are civil, society organizations, like charities or activists groups and we [Cambridge Analytical] use them, feed them, the material and they do the work. We just put information into the bloodstream of the internet and then watch it grow—give it a little push, overtime, to watch it take shape. And so this stuff infiltrates the online community and expands. But, with no branding, so it is unattributable, untrackable."
>>>>>
Also please listen starting at 14:17 to the end of video to hear these people explain how THE CANDIDATE is delberately left out of the loop of their activities. Also, how a secret email server which erases emails after two hours!
I am considering making an article out of this as well.
Trump won because the members of the EC are morons.
What is "EC"?
A meaningless post. You are typical of most on the left who live in denial of the reality of the election
except for far left states and cities, most Americans reject the radical views of the Democrats
Add to that fact, that Hillary’s undesirable ratings were as bad as Trump. So enough moderates and independents swung to Trump to give him an easy electoral college victory
also your statement about the EC shows you don’t even understand how it works (which is unfortunately true of the majority of American voters)
It must suck to not be able to make a cogent rebuttal
Thank you, Texan. Of course, that is correct! I spaced it out! See? When we try as people - great things happen!
Er' do specify my statement about the Electoral College? Please proceed. . . . ( Let's see how petty this gets!
)
Watch the video @ 14.1.2 or just 'grow away.'
Define: "far left states and cities" and "most," please. And, take your time with it.
Cambridge Analytical on behalf of the Robert Mercer family and Donald Trump "did it" to Hillary Clinton and her 'fault,' as the case may be, is she did not see it coming!
Trump won because 110,000 people in three different States decided the election even though millions more Americans preferred Hillary over Trump and hadn't bought in to the Russian bot lies.
Millions more real Americans voted for Hillary than for Trump, and 10 million more Americans voted for Democrats in 2018 than for Republicans, so the odds of Trump winning in 2020 is an extreme long shot. His win in 2016 was an anomaly with virtually no chance of a repeat, but you guys go ahead and keep telling yourselves whatever gets you wet for old tiny hands limp dick.
Hilliary Clinton got swerved by the Mercer family,Cambridge Analytical, and The Internet Research Agency (Russians)! Democrats be on the look out this time around.
BTW, Trump won't admit to the Russians being involved in the win of 2016, because he would have to SANCTION a presidential level investigation - something the coward will not open his mouth to say, or move his pen to sign! It is a different (an other) form of obstructionism.
Check out the Netflix movie "The Great Hack". It pretty much delves deep into how those groups used Facebook and other sources data points to target millions of Americans with individually created propaganda. All these idiots think they just started liking Trump on their own but they were all led by the virtual nose to feed from his filthy trough.
Exactly! Emphatically. Indeed it is from the 'Great Hack' that I am pulling links and information (above). No shame in admitting it. I want people to know - we were had! We all knew something was wrong; happening too fast; we just could not (NewsVine) figure out from where it was 'hailing.' Hillary Clinton was 'crashing' and 'rising' at the same time and it simply did not make sense that so many people had at odds positions about the same person! Cambridge Analytical was manipulating people's social media data and deploying 'psychographics' against her. There was so much noise around Hillary in 2016!
And, we have to be wise-r this time around. Trump slipped in using people's online personas to make them (and others) "persuadeables (a term of art used for people who are possible 'datapoint' switches in candidates looked at by Cambridge Analytical.) Now I understand (I have a link) the Mercer Family is pulling back from the 2020 Trump candidate as they dislike the exposure they have wrought for themselves. Still. . . .
Excellent documentary! I wish I can reproduce it here!
STOP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Damnit, I am only half way through it... LOL
(just joking with ya..)
[Deleted]
you should try making one sometime
Source: [for all Congressman Neal information.]