With all the discussion on this site about how the Congress has absolute authority over viewing Trump’s tax records, it looks like Trump may be correct and the experts at the Hannity Community may be wrong.
I predicted this would happen and was chastised for it. Now, as I predicted, the release of his Tax Records is going before the full Supreme Court. If this case was so cut and dry as many on this site claimed, they never would have take this case. But they have!
So now, what say you the outcome will be?
I predict that the court will decide that the Congress does not have the authority to demand individual tax returns by specific individuals unless they are doing it for an official purpose.
There is no requirement for a person to release his taxes to run for President. Trump said he would, and lied about it. The issue that he lied is not in dispute. But that is up to the citizenry to hold him accountable at the next election. Not up to the Congress to do it for him.
If the Court upholds the Congress ability to demand returns on any individual, I am fearful on where that will lead.
Congress’ argument is they are doing it for an official purpose as part of their oversight, so that is what will be adjudicated.
This is going to be an interesting one. I am leaning towards Trump winning this round, but Kavanaugh is going to be an interesting player. At first glance he seems to be one that would lean towards favoring President Trump but on the other hand many times has called for Congress to pass statutes clarifying to what degree a President may be investigated.
That latter position could indicate Kavanaugh believes the Constitution and the current status of law does not, in fact, prevent a President from being investigated.
Does the case address whether Congress has the power to investigate anyone in the Executive branch (up to and including the POTUS) or any American in general?
I believe it’s the former…this is about whether Congress in its oversight role needs to be able to look at the President’s tax records in order to effectively do its oversight.
I’ve never advocated against an investigation of Joe Biden.
In fact, since a supposed “investigation” has already been done, I laid out exactly what would give it legitimacy.
It’s your insistence on trying to make complex arguments simple that leads you to believe that since I believe Donald Trump committed an impeachable offense that means I believe Joe Biden is as pure as the driven snow.
The tax records in my opinion will show how Donald says one thing to the government and another to potential lenders. Fraudulent to be sure but something I think would be quite boring to most Americans who probably believe the rich do this kind of stuff all the time (they do).
I’m more interested in his financial records myself.
I am 99% certain they will show the extent to which Trump is compromised…mainly because of the more and more dubious sources to which he has had to resort to get money because legit banks wouldn’t work with him anymore…which is the warning I gave before the election that of course many people here scoffed at.
DISCLAIMER the above were all my opinions and say nothing of my opinions as to how entities are going about trying to access those records. On those attempts I am much more conflicted.
That’s. an important observation, most posters treat this matter as only addressing Congressional oversight, but the court chose to include a criminal investigation from New York.
When Clinton was President, conservatives argued, and won, that a President was not immune from civil suits while in office. Now the same people seem to be arguing that a President should be immune from criminal matters. I am curious how anyone can see immunity not applying in one case but applying in the other. Does a District Attorney have less legal standing than a private citizen?
There is no requirement to release taxes to run for President. You are correct about this. Releasing taxes is a tradition, not a requirement. However, none of these requests for taxes address whether President Trump ran legitimately in 2016 or can run again in 2020, so I don’t see how your argument would apply in this case.
You are worried about the precedent of a Congressional subpoena for tax records. Are you suggesting that tax records be exempt from subpoenas or are you challenging the subpoena power of Congress more generally. To what, exactly, do your fears apply?