Discussion: READ: DOJ Releases Opinion Justifying Refusal To Give Trump's Tax Returns

2 Likes

That dog won’t hunt.

26 Likes

“bad faith”? That’s hysterical. If bad faith were a determining factor, everything Republicans do would be illegal.

73 Likes

Why hasn’t Neal requested Trump’s taxes from NY state, which enacted legislation several weeks ago to give Trump’s taxes to Neal upon his request? Will someone please provide a non-laughable explanation for that piece of political malpractice?

24 Likes

IANAL…but this “explanation” is, itself, a pretext.

19 Likes

So, without evidence, it’s okay for the Treasury Secretary to utilize mindreading to decide to disobey a lawful request from Congress. Can it just be the Secretary’s own natural clairvoyance, and if so – how does the Secretary show the rest of us how that works? If not, does that mean that subsequent (i.e. Democratically appointed) Secretaries will have to show some kind of certificate of completion of a course of work that entailed study of mindreading before they can choose to defy Congress? I hope the courts will clarify this for us for future use.

64 Likes

Well, that settles it. The AG says he don’t have to give them up so the “fuck you” applies.

17 Likes

Cuz we don’t wanna.

Love,
Stevie

23 Likes

Is the OLC hiring third graders now?

13 Likes

The statute requires no reason…good, bad, pretextual or genuine. It simply says that the returns SHALL be produced upon request. Period.

The little shit who wrote the opinion is just trying to make sure he gets as rich as possible as his reward for being a team player when he leaves the gov’t.

Yeah, torture memos.

71 Likes

In a response to this opinion House Democratic leadership rushed to the nearest microphone to declare that nothing can be done, but that they’ll get right on passing more irrelevant legislation that will never see the light of day.

11 Likes

Total Bullshit. POTUS and his Qadaffi-like family cum government is conflicted up the wazoo. His tax filings are central to overseeing whether his policy decisions are benefiting his interest or ours.
Pretty basic. Oversight without transparency is meaningless as a practical matter.
This brief is laughable.

38 Likes

ONeal is at the federal level, and requesting the returns for reasons of reviewing fed tax laws.

State tax returns are between the payer and the state

3 Likes

Nailed it.

44 Likes

Well, the state specifically passed a law to make them available to Congress. And as @sniffit said, the 1934 law clearly and unambiguously gives Congress the right to examine anyone’s returns. Full stop.

16 Likes

NY state requires you to include the same information you included in your Federal filing in the State filing… So, that explanation doesn’t check out, even if we assumed there wasn’t anything of value in the State tax filing, which, of course, would be a ludicrous assumption to make.

2 Likes

Like how Ross asked DOJ to submit a request for census data “Pretextual” or a different kind?

Because SCOTUS doesn’t appear to have any problems with that right now.

6 Likes

What’s going to be your excuse now Chairman ?

"Are You Kidding Me?’ Frustration Grows as Powerful House Democrat Refuses to Accept New York Offer of Trump Tax Returns

“As numerous tax experts and members of Congress have already laid out, there is no reason for Chairman Neal to hesitate to use this law once it is enacted.”
by
Jake Johnson, staff writer"

9 Likes

DOJ has lost its legal compass.

In April it argued that the citizenship question should remain in the Census because the Census Bureau has the legal power to ask it, if if their motives were transparently partisan.

Today it argues that Congress should not get the President’s tax returns because their motives are partisan, even though they have the legal power to get them for no reason at all.

Anybody looking for a fair shake should get out now…

29 Likes

Lock them up. (Take that, Hannity.)

1 Like