Someone at the IRS acknowledged the law Eh?
I expect they have been fired by now?
That combover looks as phony as he is.
The IRS is now disavowing that this is their official stance on their obligation to turn over returns to the House. They claim it was merely a draft policy porposal,and never signed off by IRS officials. So, Mnuchin and Trump are off the hook once again. Onward to court.
The IRS told the Post that the memo was drafted last fall by a lawyer at the Office of Chief Counsel and ***did not convey the agency's "official position.***" The agency also told the paper that ***IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig and chief counsel Michael Desmond were not aware of the memo*** until the Post requested comment, and that ***it was never shared with the Treasury.***
The ***unsigned***, 10-page document titled "Congressional Access to Returns and Return Information" ***is stamped "DRAFT***" and makes no reference to Trump, according to the Post, which could not confirm who had written and viewed the memo.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/21/politics/wapo-irs-memo-trump-tax-returns/index.htmlThe problem for Mnuchin is that, draft or not, IRS and treasury leaders look as if they have blown off the advice of the former chief counsel who prepared the draft and are making stuff up as they go along with a heavy sprinking of answer shopping. This, along with Judge Mehta’s decision is almost certain to be considered by the judge that settles this case.
It’s simple prevarication.
Executive Privilege isn’t a remotely credible argument. Submitting a tax return isn’t an official duty of the office.
The memo analyzes the import of a privilege claim then concudes: “The entire structure of 6103… might be read to preclude a claim of executive privilege.”
I don’t know about fired but he’s been replaced with someone much more compliant.
Not even close.
The last time the administration tried to ignore a congressional subpoena and the mess ended up in court, the House committee won.
The last time the DOJ wasn’t compromised
Good luck this time
The top cop is on the take
Bet your house and car SCOTUS will not rule in Trump’s favor on the issue?
Well, duh.
Not so sure…unless you are talking about them “believing” they are off the hook…
Yup.
Yes, that’s what I was going to say. There’s absolutely zero argument to be made about Executive Privilege in a discussion about his tax returns before he was he even in the Executive branch.
Can I claim whistleblower dibs on Donnie’s fraudulent tax returns?
I don’t think they will, but I wouldn’t be shocked if they did. I don’t think Gorsuch is some kind of PP toady nor do I think Roberts wants to go down that road. If anything, I expect them to take a hands off approach and kick it back down to the lower courts or uphold their decision.
Also not a matter of national security.
Just a matter of Spankee’s anal security. Hope he’s stocked up on Depends or we’re gonna hafta HAZMAT the WH when he’s out.
(Okay, okay, we’re gonna have to fumigate regardless…)
Compliance over competence sounds about right
If I am not mistaken they were asking for returns from before he was President making Excecutive Privlage mute.
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Well, to the extent that the memo suggests executive privilege could legitimately be asserted to deny Ways & Means a copy of a tax return, it seems … shaky.
Or as @rick put it:
No wonder the memo never saw the light of day.
Well since there’s a legal statute involved that says that the IRS SHALL turn over the documents, the SCOTUS would have to make up some pretext as to why the law is unconstitutional. That’s a steep hill to climb unless of course the fab five really are shills. We’ll see.