The Courts Are Doing Their Job. Now Congress Must Do Its Own.
The Courts Are Doing Their Job. Now Congress Must Do Its Own.
So much losing. From Reuters :
U.S. President Donald Trump, three of his children and the Trump Organization on Wednesday lost their bid to block Deutsche Bank AG and Capital One Financial Corp from providing financial records to Democratic lawmakers investigating Trump’s businesses. U.S. District Judge Edgardo Ramos ruled at a court hearing in New York that Congress has the legal authority to demand the records, clearing the way for the banks to comply with subpoenas issued to them by two U.S. House of Representatives committees last month.
This is the second time this week that a court has laughed out of itself the contention that Congress has to have a "specific legislative function" in mind when it asks for these records, or that there is some fanciful "privilege" that can be invoked to prevent the president*'s bankers and/or accountants from complying with congressional subpoenas.
The subpoena on Deutsche Bank seeks extensive records of accounts, transactions and investments linked to Trump, his three oldest children, their immediate family members and several Trump Organization entities, as well as records of ties they might have to foreign entities. Deutsche Bank has long been a principal lender for Trump’s real estate business and a 2017 disclosure form showed that Trump had at least $130 million of liabilities to the bank.
The subpoena on Capital One seeks records related to multiple entities tied to the Trump Organization’s hotel business. In March, before issuing their subpoena, Democratic lawmakers asked Capital One for documents concerning potential conflicts of interest tied to Trump’s Washington hotel and other business interests since he became president in January 2017.
All things being equal-and given what's been going on with the federal courts, that's more of a qualifier than it used to be-judges generally get fed up with nonsense arguments such as the ones that the president*'s lawyers keep presenting in various courtrooms for the purpose of keeping the seedy underworld of the president*'s finances concealed. This is especially true when lawyers keep bringing the same bullshit arguments up time after time.
It is possible that, in the course of, you know, doing its job, the judiciary branch of the government is going to take down the White House's defensive strategy brick-by-brick.
The judge said on Wednesday that the committees had the power to issue the subpoenas under Congress’ “broad” power to conduct investigations to further legislation. He also rejected Trump’s argument that they were barred by a federal financial privacy laws, the Right to Financial Privacy Act, saying the law does not apply to congressional investigations.
The problem, of course, is that, for any of us to gain anything from all this legal beagle-ing, Congress has to do its job after the courts do theirs. Everything has to work the way it was designed to work in order to find a solution to an administration* dedicated to making sure nothing really does.
So much losing. From Reuters :
All things being equal-and given what's been going on with the federal courts, that's more of a qualifier than it used to be-judges generally get fed up with nonsense arguments such as the ones that the president*'s lawyers keep presenting in various courtrooms for the purpose of keeping the seedy underworld of the president*'s finances concealed. This is especially true when lawyers keep bringing the same bullshit arguments up time after time.
Trumps financials have nothing to do with his presidency.
It's been forgotten that he submitted a financial statement when he committed to run for president.
The democrats are afraid to impeach him because they know it will fail bigly.
Once he's out of office in 2025, then the left wing nutters can go after him.
Of course they do.
Nonsense
Trumps private business affairs prior to becoming president have NO Constitutional relevance to how he is making policy or carrying out existing laws.
What would fail is if it went to the senate. They have already said they would quash it down quickly.
What is nonsense is ignoring certain aspects and certain disparities. One does not have to look exclusively at past.
After declaring bankruptcies, no bank would deal with him yet he is one of the biggest clients of a bank that was found to have been laundering money.
He also owns a hotel in DC that is being used by dignitaries, donors and party loyal that is going directly into his coffers.
You cannot tell me that if Obama owned a hotel in DC that was being visited by foreign players that the right would not demand it stop.
Everything right in the faces of everyone yet his loyal followers will ignore.
I for one do not like people writing or signing tax law while hiding their own.
Can you say e·mol·u·ments?
I didn't think so
I wouldn’t because I don’t care how much money a president earns from being president, regardless of party.
Sure but it has nothing to do with Trump’s private tax returns or financials before becoming president.
And there is zero evidence he is receiving gifts from foreign powers as president
I thought so. You have nothing because there is nothing
The political witch hunt continues. The Dems in search of a crime they cannot name; but will know once they find it.
The TDDS circus must go on! I am sure the Dems can find enough mud somewhere, somehow, to sling at Trump to make sure whichever candidate emerges victorious from their exploding clown car look good. That is if the liberal nut jobs in the House don't botch it by actually starting impeachment proceedings.
My only real solace is that if the Dems manage to secure the WH; they will face an even more insane Republican congress set on pushing the envelope even further on investigations. If the Republicans take back the House; we might even get a real impeachment (for a change).
[Removed]
As Jefferson and others warned us, the judiciary can and has become a threat to our Republic
Jefferson danger of Judiciary
Nothing in the Constitution has given them [the federal judges] a right to decide for the Executive, more than to the Executive to decide for them. . . . The opinion which gives to the judges the right to decide what laws are constitutional and what not, not only for themselves, in their own sphere of action, but for the Legislature and Executive also in their spheres, would make the Judiciary a despotic branch.” (Letter to Abigail Adams, September 11, 1804
“Our Constitution . . . intending to establish three departments, co-ordinate and independent that they might check and balance one another, it has given—according to this opinion to one of them alone the right to prescribe rules for the government of others; and to that one, too, which is unelected by and independent of the nation. . . . The Constitution, on this hypothesis, is a mere thing of wax in the hands of the judiciary, which they may twist and shape into any form they please.” (Letter to Judge Spencer Roane, Sept. 6, 1819)
What gets me the most is congress could pull up any one of our records yet we have people cheering on elected officials not wanting to do so.
Some are cheering on special privileges for people higher up the food chain.
Not true in general for tax records. There are some exceptions which usually involve a courts approval but in every case that i've heard of, the person being reviewed is aware of what is going on. Like a divorce or being in arrears on a student loan.
The government CAN NOT just pull your tax records for no reason. Not legally anyway. Individual privacy rules absolutely apply to tax records. And for good reason.
So yes, they can pull tax records.