Tag: Trump stonewalling

New York Senate Passes Bill Allowing Release Of Trump’s State Taxes

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin broke the law to keep Congress from seeing Trump’s federal tax returns — but Trump’s state tax returns from New York could soon be available to Congress thanks to a bill making its way through the New York Legislature.

The New York state Senate passed a bill on Wednesday allowing state tax returns to be handed over to Congress upon request.

The New York Times reports that the bill would allow the commissioner of the New York Department of Taxation and Finance to release any state tax return if requested for a “specific and legitimate legislative purpose” by one of three congressional committees: House Ways and Means, Senate Finance, or the Joint Committee on Taxation.

View the complete May 8 article by Dan Desai Martin on the National Memo website here.

Trump Lawyers Use Faked Quotes To Block Bank Subpoenas

Trump took another shameful step Monday night in his quest to obstruct legitimate congressional oversight, suing both Deutsche Bank and Capital One to try to prevent the two banks from complying with subpoenas for Trump’s financial records.

The lawsuit to block subpoenas issued by the House Financial Services Committee and the House Intelligence Committee — filed on behalf of Trump; his adult children Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump, and Eric Trump; and several of his businesses — is whiny and riddled with fake quotes that Trump’s lawyers attribute to House Democrats.

Trump’s legal team claims the subpoenas were “issued to harass President Donald J. Trump, to rummage through every aspect of his personal finances, his businesses, and the private information of the President and his family, and to ferret about for any material that might be used to cause him political damage.”

View the complete April 30 article by Emily Singer on the National Memo website here.

Fines? Jail time? Democrats leave all options on the table for enforcing subpoenas

As administration stonewalls Congress, Democrats consider using historical ‘inherent contempt’ power

Administration officials could face fines or jail time for ignoring congressional subpoenas, as House Democrats say they’re seriously considering reviving a congressional power that has not been used since the 1930s.

President Donald Trump has publicly urged administration officials not to comply with congressional subpoenas, and some have started heeding the advice. House Democrats have made no formal decisions about how to respond to the Trump administration’s stonewalling of their oversight investigations, but one option on the table is the historical process of “inherent contempt.”

“There is no tool in our toolbox that we should not explore,” Oversight and Reform Chairman Elijah E. Cummings said Tuesday.

View the complete May 1 article by Lindsey McPherson on The Roll Call website here.

House panel moves to hold former White House official in contempt after he obeys Trump administration’s instruction not to testify

The House Oversight Committee moved Tuesday to hold a former White House personnel security director in contempt of Congress for failing to appear at a hearing investigating alleged lapses in White House security clearance procedures.

Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.), chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said he would consult with the House counsel and members of the panel about scheduling a vote on contempt for former White House personnel security director Carl Kline. At the instruction of the White House, Kline failed to show up for scheduled testimony on security clearances.

The move marks a dramatic escalation of tensions between Congress and the Trump White House, which is increasingly resisting requests for information from Capitol Hill.

“The White House and Mr. Kline now stand in open defiance of a duly authorized congressional subpoena with no assertion of any privilege of any kind by President Trump,” Cummings said in a statement. “Based on these actions, it appears that the President believes that the Constitution does not apply to his White House, that he may order officials at will to violate their legal obligations, and that he may obstruct attempts by Congress to conduct oversight.”

View the complete April 23 article by Tom Hamburger on The Washington Post website here.