Republicans say new Congress is killing fight for Trump's tax information
By: Sarah K. Burris (Raw Story - Celebrating Years of Independent Journalism)
... the party of law and order, LOL...
Congress has been working for years to obtain Donald Trump's tax information, but he has been blocking the effort at every turn in court. In a recent victory for Democrats, the Court of Appeals ruled that the law gives the House Ways and Means Committee the right to see the files. Trump then took it to the Supreme Court, which starts another delay clock.
While some of those files have been obtained by the House since their effort began in July 2019, they haven't obtained all of them. It was then renewed in Dec. 2021. Trump has been trying to run out the clock, hoping that the Republicans would take over and the probe would end.
Wednesday evening, Republicans won the last seat that they needed to take over the House. According to CNBC, they're moving back to protecting Donald Trump, as he looks to run for president for the third time.
The three Republicans vying for the chairmanship, Reps. Jason Smith (R-MO), Vern Buchanan (R-MI) and Adrian Smith (R-NE) all confirmed they would end the fight to protect the former president.
The lame-duck session for Congress is moving forward, but the Supreme Court approved a last-minute stay to hold off handing over the taxes until a decision could be made on whether to force the documents to be handed over. The Court could decide to lift the stay at any moment or to extend it. If they lif it, the Treasury Department could hand over the returns in the final weeks of Congress, before the GOP takes over.
Buchanan, the current No. 2 on the committee said in a statement that he would drop the request.
"Washington should not be in the business of using the IRS as a political tool," he told CNBC."This would establish a dangerous precedent that would make it easier for Congress to target average Americans."
Ironically, his statement comes after a New York Times report revealing Trump used the IRS as a political tool to go after his enemies. The New York Times revealed this summer that two of Trump's foes, James Comey and Andrew McCabe, were targeted by the IRS with the most invasive audit available. Both turned up nothing untoward.
This weekend, former Trump chief of staff, retired Gen. John Kelly, confirmed to the Times that there were many requests by Trump to use the power of the IRS and the Justice Department to go after his political adversaries. He named not only Comey and McCabe but also Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, John Brennan, Hillary Clinton and Jeff Bezos.
Earlier this week, the House Reform and Oversight Committee filed a request by the National Archives for information regarding some details about Trump's White House that coincided with expensive stays in his DC hotel. According to documents obtained by the committee from the hotel, Trump scored over $750,000 from foreign officials and their lobbyists at a time they were doing diplomacy and negotiations with the White House.
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it's now been over 6 years since this bag of shit said he'd release his tax returns...
Just like Nixon.
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Why? We had Clinton's and Biden's for forty years!
Trump said he would release his tax returns as soon as the IRS finished its audit.
/S /BS
The audit is still ongoing. Audit began in 1716.
I thought it was 1619.
So WHY should rank and file citizens follow the law and policies that CONGRESSIONAL REPUBLICANS won't follow? This is bull shit! This is WHITE PRIVILEGE about to be put on full display.
I personally do not care about Trump's tax returns. I already know he is a con-man who lies his way through life.
What I really would like is for the GoP to drop support of Trump so that he will be FORCED out of the way and let us try to pick a GoP and a D candidate for PotUS for 2024. Not Trump or Pence and not Biden or Harris.
I am not going to group corrupt Trump (the thing speaks for itself) and passive/aggressive Pence (pregnant girls and women ought to allow life to come forth from all their pregnancies) with Biden (sympathetic to the plights of all of us) and Harris (the first women of her 'ranking').
Donald Trump is deliberately trying to make an example of the U.S. government by publicly dragging the government into the public square and putting it in stocks for public humiliation. By the same token; if the same was done to him by the government without a proper cause he would consider it an egregious miscarriage of power. Trump is no hero showing us the 'errors' in our system, he is intentionally using right-wing political power as currency to manipulate loopholes left open as 'escape' and 'off-ramps' for good people caught up in our system.
I simply can not compare Trump and Pence to their counterparts, for the latter whom, are only half-way through their terms in office!
Our world is in turmoil and no one man or woman can be 'battle tested' to hold comparably capable foreign countries feet to the fire to do our bidding/s. Certainly, not within two years (if ever). The scale of these problems we face are huge! We need foreign nations to be less 'needy' for a change. And that, sadly, ain't going to be something we can make so.
I mostly agree with you. I think release of trump's tax returns would help force him out of the running. Pence has effectively painted himself into the wimp corner with his own admitted inaction in the past and present.I think trump's ego will make him go 3rd party if the GOP primary is anywhere near close, provided that he's not too busy sitting in a court room, or rectifying a previous court room appearance.
I don't see biden running again, because he knows the chances of leaving the WH feet first increase exponentially at his age. I don't mind harris, considering the high bar of character recently set by the opposition, but anything can happen in 15 months and the fast trackers on the right will be providing a target rich environment of wedge issues as political career builders for those opposed to them. the newest large blocks of swing voters have just been exposed, and the election goes to whoever speaks to them best.
GOP is in self protection mode. It is rife with Russian/Saudi/Chinese money. We've all forgotten about the Butina lady and the NRA, right? Exactly what the GOP needs.
Besides, remember when Don Jr. said they get all the money the Trump's need from Russia? Well, was he lying or telling the truth?
considering trump's past, I'm guessing if there are russian loans, he's not making the payments...
Does not matter whether they're making the payments. What matters is what the Russian loans were for and why were they given.
Correction. It was Eric, the toothy one, that said that about Russian money.