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Federal Appeals court rules Congress can obtain Trump’s tax returns

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2 years ago

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On Tuesday, a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit concluded that the House of Representatives had the constitutional right to request the IRS release former president Donald Trump’s taxes.

To better oversee the IRS’ policy of auditing sitting presidents, lawmakers on the influential House Ways and Means Committee have a legitimate cause to get the returns, according to Judge David B. Sentelle of the DC Circuit Court of Appeals.

Sentelle, who was appointed by Reagan, argued in a letter that lawmakers’ needs outweighed Trump’s reservations about the release of his personal financial information.

Sentelle said in his 33-page judgment that “This is certainly inconvenient, but not to the extent that it represents an unconstitutional burden violating the separation of powers,” “Congressional investigations sometimes expose the private information of the entities, organizations, and individuals that they investigate. This does not make them overly burdensome. It is the nature of the investigative and legislative processes.”

The court also did not budge on the argument that if Congress were allowed to obtain Trump’s returns, it would irreparably fracture the relationship between two key branches of government, making future presidents vulnerable to intimidation by lawmakers who could threaten to make their financial dealings public.

The judge noted, “While it is possible that Congress may attempt to threaten the sitting President with an invasive request after
leaving office, every President takes office knowing that he will be subject to the same laws as all other citizens upon leaving office,” the judge wrote. “This is a feature of our democratic republic, not a bug.”

Although Democratic Rep. Richard Neal, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, has suggested that certain information might be made public in a comprehensive report to the House, the order does not mean that Trump’s returns would be made public. The committee stated its expectation to get the “requested tax returns and audit files immediately” following the appeals court verdict.

In April of this year, Neal made an initial request to the IRS for six years of Trump’s tax returns as part of a larger probe of the agency’s auditing practices. Trump has refused on multiple occasions to provide his tax returns to the public, claiming an audit is still continuing.

In light of its suspicion that Neal’s request was merely a “pretext” for the panel’s “true purpose” of conducting a “fishing expedition” into Trump’s finances, the Treasury Department subsequently consulted the Office of Legal Counsel of the Department of Justice to determine whether it should release the documents to Congress.

In May 2019, the OLC stated that it agreed with the Treasury’s finding and that the committee’s investigation of Trump’s tax returns served no valid legislative purpose. Neal’s plea was subsequently turned down by the Treasury Department.

After the Ways and Means Committee sued to execute its subpoena for Trump’s taxes, Neal submitted another letter request in June 2021, this time requesting data from 2015 through 2020.

In July 2021, the Treasury Department once again contacted the OLC for guidance on the matter, and a top OLC official wrote that the committee’s investigation covers “a plainly legitimate area for congressional inquiry and possible legislation” and that the committee should be granted access to Trump’s tax returns.

On Monday, FBI officers executed a search warrant at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago golf club in south Florida, and on Tuesday, the appeals court upheld that warrant.

According to reports, the order concerned 15 boxes of paperwork that Trump transported from the White House to his Florida estate after he left office. In February, the National Archives and Records Administration formally requested that the Department of Justice determine whether or not Trump had broken the law in his treatment of the papers, some of which bore a “classified” designation.

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ISTHATPORKS TAKE:

Donald Trump. Another dart coming at him. Dominoes keep falling. If he escapes out of any one of these sun blitsers coming at him he must be Whodini. We don't think that's gonna happen though. For some people, the pork is so strong it just takes time but the thing to understand is no one is more powerful than time. So, anybody reading this will learn through Trump's public life experience if you haven't figured it out already that no one can bogart their way traveling in one direction in life. Sometimes you have to go through the left door or right door or backdoor but you can't keep going through the front door in every aspect of life. Being or thinking you're smart is not enough sometimes, you have to be wise. Trump is proving that he is not wise. WHOLE LOTTA PORK IN THAT!

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Nancy Pelosi’s husband ‘violently attacked’ by assailant hunting for her.

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October 28, 2022

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On Oct. 28 (UPI) — Her office sent a statement on Friday saying that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul Pelosi, had been attacked by a home invader.

At a press conference held by the San Francisco Police Department, the suspect, 42-year-old David Depape, was named as the attacker. According to Sgt. William Scott, when police arrived, they saw Depape with a hammer and Paul Pelosi, 82, holding onto it.

Then, Depape took the hammer from Paul Pelosi and started hitting him with it until police arrived and took him into custody.

According to reports from CNN, NBC, and the New York Times, citing unnamed law enforcement officials, the assailant entered the couple’s San Francisco home early on Friday morning looking for the Speaker.

After being arrested, Depape was taken into custody and lodged in the San Francisco County Jail on “many other felony” counts, including attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, elder abuse, burglary, and more.

“Where is Nancy? Where is Nancy,” the assailant asked Paul Pelosi, according to the sources.

Pelosi’s husband, Paul, was “violently assaulted,” according to a statement released by Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., through spokesman Drew Hammill.

“The attacker is currently in police custody, and the circumstances surrounding the attack are being probed. Mr. Pelosi has been hospitalized and is receiving top-notch care; he is anticipated to make a full recovery “the report indicated.

According to Hammill, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi was not in the Bay Area at the time.

The Speaker and her family “request privacy at this time” and “express gratitude to the first responders and medical personnel involved.”

Forensics in San Francisco At 2:27 a.m. PDT, according to Sergeant Adam Lobsinger, police were called to the Pelosi home. Paul Pelosi was rushed to the hospital, and the suspect was taken into jail.

Vice President Joe Biden issued the following statement through White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre:

“The president is praying for Paul Pelosi and for Speaker Pelosi’s whole family. This morning he called Speaker Pelosi to express his support after this horrible attack. He is also very glad that a full recovery is expected. The president continues to condemn all violence and asks that the family’s desire for privacy be respected.”

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Kari Lake Won’t Say If She’ll Accept Arizona Election Results If She Loses

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October 16, 2022

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If she loses to Democrat Katie Hobbs in Arizona on November 8, Republican gubernatorial contender Kari Lake has declined to declare if she will accept defeat.

Lake refused to accept the election results many times when asked by CNN’s “State of the Union” moderator Dana Bash on Sunday. Lake insisted that she was going to win the election.

Lake declared,  “I’m going to win the election, and I will accept that result,” simultaneously saying that Hobbs was a racist.

Bash questioned Lake, “If you lose, will you accept that?” throughout the conversation.

Lake repeated, “I’m going to win the election, and I will accept that results.”

Originally, on October 12, Arizona PBS was going to have a televised discussion between Lake and Hobbs, but Hobbs bowed out, claiming that Lake was “just interested in making a spectacle” and labeling Lake a “conspiracy theorist.”

“Kari Lake has made it clear time and time again that she’s not interested in having substantive, in depth conversations about the issues that matter to Arizonians,” Hobbs told Bash on Sunday’s CNN broadcast. “She only wants a scenario where she can control the dialogue, and she’s refused to sit down in a one-on-one lengthy conversation to really clarify with Arizonians where she is on the issues.”

After the Arizona Citizens Clean Election Commission, which had collaborated with PBS to host the debate, backed out, Arizona PBS had planned to interview Lake this Wednesday instead of holding the debate.

Lake has worked with Fox News before. At present, Hobbs is Arizona’s Secretary of State. On Thursday, a Fox 10 Phoenix/InsiderAdvantage survey showed that Lake had a four-point lead over Hobbs in the campaign for governor.

In addition to having the endorsement of the former president, Trump ally and Republican Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga), Lake also has the backing of MyPillow CEO and conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell.

She also helps promote Trump’s false allegations that significant voter fraud occurred in the 2020 election, despite the fact that the Justice Department has found no evidence to support such accusations.

According to Lake, both Trump and Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, have “BDE,” or “big dick energy.”

DeSantis, she continued, “has BDE;” she didn’t know if the audience was familiar with the term. Does anyone have any idea what that means? Ask your kids about it later.”

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Affidavit: Trump residence search triggered by classified records, obstruction

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August 27, 2022

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  On Friday, the Justice Department issued a partially redacted search warrant affidavit detailing the reasons FBI investigators visited the Florida property of former President Donald Trump this month.

As part of an ongoing criminal investigation into whether or not Trump illegally removed White House records before he left office in 2021, a search was done. In order to safeguard witnesses and the legitimacy of the inquiry, U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart mandated the release of the affidavit while allowing for redactions.

Probable cause is stated for both the existence of classified materials at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, and for the existence of “evidence of obstruction” there.

The statement also said there was reasonable suspicion that “evidence, contraband, fruits of crime, or other goods illegally possessed” would be located at Trump’s residence.

After leaving office, presidents are obligated to provide the National Archives with a large quantity of paperwork. Since last year, the National Archives and Records Administration has been pestering Trump to return documents that belong in the archives.

On Friday, an affidavit was made public claiming that federal officials suspected Trump was hiding secret materials after reviewing several boxes of Trump’s donated records to the archives. Several of the papers contained the “HSC” marks that denote top secret information.

According to the affidavit, the National Archives sent the case to the FBI in February. The FBI wanted to know who took the documents from the White House without permission, how they got there, and if Mar-a-Lago was a legitimate storage facility.

There are many potential violations of federal law listed in the affidavit, including a law that makes it illegal to steal materials relevant to national defense and not return them to the United States government. Any person who violates 18 U.S.C. 793 (e) is subject to a 10-year prison sentence and penalties.

The affidavit also refers to 18 U.S.C. 1519, which provides that anybody who obstructs justice may be subject to a fine and/or imprisonment of up to 20 years.

According to the affidavit, the government made numerous attempts to obtain the files months before the search was conducted.

On June 8th, the government addressed a letter to Trump’s legal team reiterating that “Mar-a-Lago does not have a safe place permitted for the preservation of sensitive material.” All White House items and the secure location where they are being housed were requested in the letter.

The New York Times, CNN, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal, among others, had requested that Reinhart unseal the search papers in the interest of openness and transparency.

The Justice Department persuaded Reinhart, he said on Thursday, that certain parts of the affidavit should remain sealed because their release would reveal “(1) the identities of witnesses, law enforcement agents, and uncharged parties, (2) the investigation’s strategy direction, scope, sources, and methods, and (3) grand jury information.”

According to Reinhart’s analysis, the government proved its case that the withheld information is little and necessary to safeguard the operation.

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