POLITICO
Administration rejects subpoena for Trump’s tax returns, upping stakes in battle with Democrats
The decision was no surprise, with Mnuchin indicating earlier this week that he expected the dispute to be settled by the courts.
By BRIAN FALER
05/17/2019 04:08 PM EDT
Updated 05/17/2019 05:32 PM EDT
Donald Trump
Republicans say Democrats just want to search President Donald Trump’s taxes for things they can use to embarrass him politically.
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The Trump administration on Friday rejected House Democrats’ subpoena for the president’s tax returns, pushing the two sides closer to a major court fight.
In a letter to House Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal (D-Mass.), who issued the subpoena last week, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin reiterated what he told Neal in earlier letters: The administration does not believe Democrats have a “legitimate legislative” reason for seeking the tax filings.
“For the same reasons, we are unable to provide the requested information in response to the committee’s subpoena,” he said.
The decision was no surprise, with Mnuchin indicating earlier this week that he expected the dispute to be settled by the courts. Also, the administration is defying subpoenas from Democrats on several other fronts.
The announcement shifts the focus back to the House, where Democrats intend to try to enforce their subpoena.
They have not said exactly how they intend to do that — that will be up to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). She could have the entire chamber vote to authorize the House general counsel, Douglas Letter, to file suit against the administration. Another potential, and likely faster, option would be to have a group of House leaders known as the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group vote to authorize the suit, though there are questions about whether that is allowable under the chamber’s rules.
Either way, a Democratic aide said, it will likely be weeks before a suit is filed in court.
“Given the Treasury Secretary’s failure to comply today, I am consulting with counsel on how best to enforce the subpoenas moving forward,” Neal said in a statement Friday, noting that a subpoena was also issued to IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig.
“Issuance of these subpoenas should not have been necessary,” he said. “The law provides clear statutory authority for the Chair of the Ways and Means Committee to request and receive access to tax returns and return information.”
Neal has been demanding six years worth of Trump’s personal tax records, along with those of several of his businesses, since early April.
Democrats, complaining Trump has thumbed his nose at a decades-old tradition of presidents voluntarily releasing their tax filings, are trying to seize his records by relying on a 1924 law allowing the heads of Congress’s tax committees to examine anyone’s confidential tax information.
Republicans say Democrats just want to search Trump’s taxes for things they can use to embarrass him politically. They are pointing to court decisions in which judges have said lawmakers’ investigations must have some purpose related to their official duties as policymakers.
The administration is likely to try to drag out any court fight in hopes of pushing the issue beyond the 2020 elections. By then, Republicans may retake the House, allowing them to quash the suit. Trump could be in his second term by then, when the issue will be less important, or he could be voted out of office next year.
TAX
What we know — and don’t know — about Trump’s taxes
By TOBY ECKERT
A case would likely begin in federal court in Washington, D.C. If the administration loses there, it could appeal to the D.C. Circuit Court and, from there, to the Supreme Court.
Although a legal fight is likely to be lengthy, it’s conceivable that delaying could prove a bad strategy for the administration if it is forced to turn over the documents just ahead of next year’s elections.
It also would not be unusual if a judge were reluctant to decide such a politically charged case, and instead pushed the two sides to compromise.
The House has only sued the executive branch a handful of times in its history.
“In the last 20 years, there have been maybe five suits, and, prior to that time, there had been none,” said Michael Stern, a former senior counsel in the House’s Office of General Counsel.
“It is obviously something that is happening much more frequently now, but it is still, historically, extremely rare,” he said.
Democrats have other options when it comes to trying to enforce their subpoena, though they are generally considered less appealing.
They could vote to hold Mnuchin in criminal contempt, though that would ultimately be referred to the Justice Department, which is unlikely to prosecute him.
There is an "inherent contempt” option where lawmakers could have the House’s Sergeant at Arms arrest Mnuchin, though that is improbable, not least because he has Secret Service protection.
They could try to attach riders to the annual budget bill funding Treasury that dock Mnuchin’s salary, though they’d need Republicans to agree to go along with that. Democrats could also impeach Mnuchin and Rettig.
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What threatens democracy? Legendary Navy SEAL warns of Trump’s attacks on US institutions
SUSAN PAGE | USA TODAY | 12 hours ago
Admiral McRaven is the man who got Osama bin Laden and Captain Phillips. He wants you to make your bed… and take your shoes off at airport security.
USA TODAY
AUSTIN — Once the longest-serving Navy SEAL on active duty, Admiral William McRaven played a key role in thousands of dangerous missions abroad, including commanding the one that cost Osama bin Laden his life.
Now retired, McRaven warns that the greatest threat to American democracy he’s seen during his decades in national security comes not from a rogue regime or a terrorist group but from the caustic rhetoric of President Donald Trump.
“An attack on the press or an attack on the Department of Justice, or to imply that there are dirty cops at the FBI or to ignore the intelligence community, I think, really undermines our institutions,” McRaven told USA TODAY in an interview about his memoir, Sea Stories: My Life in Special Operations, out Tuesday. “And that makes me fearful of the future direction of the nation.”
McRaven: Trump’s media attacks ‘greatest threat to our democracy’
Five years after retiring as commander of U.S. Special Operations, McRaven retains the ramrod bearing and the reserve of a career officer with more than 37 years in uniform. In his new book, being published by Grand Central Publishing, he also reflects the military tradition of expressing nothing but regard for the presidents he served in top jobs, George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
His account of daredevil missions — to intercept Somali pirates, free American missionaries held hostage in the Philippines, interrogate Saddam Hussein and recover long-frozen military remains in British Columbia — ends with his final salute in dress whites in 2014.
Donald Trump’s name doesn’t appear in the 335-page memoir.
William H. McRaven, a retired Navy admiral, was commander of the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command from 2011 to 2014.
ERICH SCHLEGEL, FOR USA TODAY
But in 2017, during a stint as chancellor of the University of Texas, McRaven began raising objections to Trump’s attacks on the press in an address that also called on journalists to hold themselves accountable for accuracy and fairness. Last year, he wrote an open letterprotesting the president’s decision to revoke the security clearance of a frequent critic, former CIA director John Brennan, and asking that his own security clearance be revoked as well.
That brought a rebuke from the president — he dismissed McRavenas a “Hillary Clinton fan” who should have caught bin Laden faster — and blowback from some of his former military colleagues, who argued it was inappropriate for him to publicly criticize the commander in chief.
“It has been an unwritten rule that senior military officers don’t come out against the president, and I think that’s a good unwritten rule,” McRaven said. “But I’ve got to look myself in the mirror and make sure I’m doing what I think is the right thing.”
Who is James Comey?: Ex FBI director called Trump a ‘chronic liar.’ What his politics mean for the FBI
His concerns about Trump’s attacks on democratic institutions have only deepened, he said, noting the president’s increasingly defiant response to congressional investigations.
“When the lawmakers of this nation ask for a person to testify or ask for certain documents, I think sooner or later, the White House needs to comply, as does the military or anybody else that’s being subpoenaed to provide information,” he said.
At stake, in his view, is faith in the foundations of democracy.
“If the American people feel like they can’t trust those institutions, then what do they turn to?” he asked. “Our institutions really have got to be able to survive whoever’s in the White House.”
He said he doesn’t plan to play a role in the 2020 presidential campaign but added that he’s “learned never to say ‘never.’”
Legendary Navy SEAL has served his country for decades
Climbing the walls
When the Navy SEALS were established in 1962, McRaven was 6 years old and to all appearances already in training for the special operations force.
His father was a Spitfire combat pilot in World War II who was then assigned to the military arm of NATO, based in France. The youngster would terrify his older sister by scaling from window to window on the outside of their three-story chateau, or by climbing down the well in the backyard. When their father was assigned to Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, McRaven became a regular visitor to the Wilford Hall Air Force Hospital emergency room to have gashes stitched up and broken bones set in the aftermath of adventures.
At the University of Texas, he graduated with a bachelors degree from the journalism school, but only because he saw the subject as easier to ace than his previous majors, in pre-med and then accounting, where his grades were so borderline that they might have made it difficult for him to get the Navy commission he wanted.
He joined the elite SEALS (an abbreviation for Sea, Air and Land teams), was pushed out of SEAL Team Six when he complained about a lack of military discipline, then thrived. He would hold command at every level. Finally, in 2011, he designed and executed the special-ops raid in Pakistan that led to the death of bin Laden a decade after the 9/11 terror attacks on New York and Washington.
Osama bin Laden’s son: Hamza emerging as new al-Qaeda leader
In some ways, he said, the experiences of his long career seemed to be in preparation for Operation Neptune’s Spear.
“I was at the top of my game,” he said, having run Special Operations longer than anyone else. “I had seen thousands of missions. I knew the personalities of the people involved. I knew how to do this mission. I knew how to command this mission, because my life had brought me to that point.” The mission succeeded even though one of the stealth helicopters crash-landed during the assault and had to be abandoned.
When the other Black Hawk helicopter carrying the body of the man they believed to be bin Laden returned to the Jalalabad airfield in Afghanistan, McRaven went to the hangar to confirm his identify. He unzipped the rubberized bag, pulled out the body and stretched it to its full length. He looked like bin Laden, but McRaven wanted to double-check before he informed President Obama.
“Son, how tall are you?” he asked one of the SEALS, who told him he was 6’2". “Good,” McRaven said. “Lie down next to the body.” Bin Laden was reported to be 6’4", and unorthodox way of measuring the corpse indicated it was him.
In the office of his home, in a leafy area of Austin, McRaven has a plaque that Obama presented him a few days later. On it is mounted a bright yellow 25-foot metal tape measure. “If we can afford a $60 million helicopter,” the inscription reads, “I think we can afford a tape measure.”
‘Which time was that?’
McRaven already is a best-selling author. His 2014 commencement address detailing 10 principles he followed as a Navy SEAL was published in 2017 as a self-help volume titled Make Your Bed. (The title of Chapter One: “Start Your Day with a Task Completed.”) It has sold more than a million copies.
In his new book, being published by Grand Central Publishing, retired Admiral William McRaven reflects on the military tradition of expressing nothing but regard for the presidents he served in top jobs, George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
GRAND CENTRAL PUBLISHING
He was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia in 2010, when he was on duty in Afghanistan. He managed the symptoms of the blood cancer for years but hit “a perfect storm of bad health” in 2017 that forced him to retire as chancellor of the University of Texas the next spring. Exposure to Agent Orange and other toxic chemicals has been tied to the disease.
“I’ve been exposed to so many things over the course of my career,” McRaven, now 63, said. “I used to dive under nuclear submarines and nuclear-powered aircraft carriers. You’re diving in waters that are hardly crystal-clear.”
But he expressed no regrets. “I wouldn’t change it for anything.”
It was dangerous duty from the start.
Asked in the USA TODAY interview to describe more details about “that time when you were sure you were going to die,” McRaven replied, brow furrowed, “Which time was that?”
President Donald Trump went after retired four star Admiral William McRaven after he criticized Trump for undermining the media. Veuer’s Sam Berman has the full story
Constitutional crisis approach?
The US treasury secretary of treasury, Steve Mnuchin, in Washington DC.
Show caption
Trump tax returns: Steven Mnuchin refuses to comply with subpoena
House Democrat demands six years of tax returns and expects to take matter to court as early as next week
Julia Carrie Wong and agencies
@juliacarriew
Fri 17 May 2019 22.00 EDT
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The US treasury secretary defied a House subpoena for Donald Trump’s tax returns on Friday, setting up another potential court battle between the executive and legislative branches of the federal government.
Steven Mnuchin said in a letter that the subpoena from the House ways and means committee chairman, Richard Neal, a Democrat, was “unprecedented” and “lacks a legitimate legislative purpose”.
When Neal issued the subpoena on 10 May, he noted in a letter that the Internal Revenue Service had an “unambiguous legal obligation” to comply with his committee’s requests for information, noting that such a request “never has been denied”.
Mnuchin’s rejection of the subpoena had been expected. Earlier on Friday, Neal had said: “We will likely proceed to court as quickly as next week.”
Asked if he might seek to hold Mnuchin in contempt of Congress for his refusal to supply the tax returns, Neal said: “I don’t see that right now as an option. I think that the better option for us is to proceed with a court case.”
Democrats are seeking Trump’s tax returns under a 1924 law that directs the IRS to furnish such information when requested to the chairs of Congress’ tax-writing committees.
“The law, by its terms, does not allow for discretion as to whether to comply with a request for tax returns and return information,” Neal said in a statement after Mnuchin’s decision was announced. “Given the Treasury Secretary’s failure to comply today, I am consulting with counsel on how best to enforce the subpoenas moving forward.”
With the exception of Trump, every president since Richard Nixon has made his tax returns public.
#ConstitutionalCrisis? Trump’s battle with Congress comes to a head
In a tweet on 10 May, Trump said that he had won the presidency in 2016 “partially based on no Tax Returns while I am under audit (which I still am), and the voters didn’t care. Now the Radical Left Democrats want to again relitigate the matter. Make it part of the 2020 Election!”
When he issued the subpoena last week, Neal said he was seeking six years of Trump’s personal and business tax returns to aid a committee investigation into whether the IRS was doing its job properly to audit a sitting president and whether the law governing such audits needed to be strengthened.
In his letter Friday saying he would not comply with the subpoena, Mnuchin said he had consulted with the justice department and had been advised that he was not authorized to turn over the tax returns because Neal’s request did not represent a legitimate congressional purpose.
The fight with Congress over Trump’s tax returns is one of a number of battles House Democrats are having with the administration over the release of information. The House judiciary committee has voted to hold the attorney general, William Barr, in contempt and is fighting to obtain an unredacted report prepared by the special counsel Robert Mueller on Russian interference in the 2016 election.
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U.S.
EX-FEDERAL PROSECUTOR SAYS TRUMP’S ‘TREASON’ TWEET ‘TERRIFIES ME’: ‘NOTHING SEEMS INCONCEIVABLE ANYMORE’
By Jason Le Miere On 5/17/19 at 12:16 PM EDT
President Donald Trump salutes as he walks from Marine One after arriving from a one-night trip to New York, on the South Lawn of the White House, on May 17. A former federal prosecutor reacted with alarm to Trump tweeting that those investigating his campaign for president were guilty of “treason” and should face “long jail sentences.”
U.S. DONALD TRUMP RUSSIA INVESTIGATION
One former federal prosecutor has reacted with alarm to President Donald Trump tweeting Friday morning that those involved in investigating his campaign for president were guilty of “treason” and should face “long jail sentences.”
Mimi Rocah, a former assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York, tweeted that Trump’s latest broadside at those responsible for what he claims was “spying” on his campaign “terrifies” her.
“First I was outraged at these kinds of tweets-how could a POTUS talk like this?” Rocah, now an analyst for MSNBC and NBC News, wrote. “After a while, I rolled my eyes & shrugged them off as meaningless & repetitive nonsense. Now, especially because of Barr, this gives me chills & terrifies me. Nothing seems inconceivable anymore.”
Rocah wasn’t alone in her alarm among legal experts.
“‘Treason’ is defined very narrowly in the Constitution, so his tweet is meaningless legally,” wrote former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti. “But the message is clear nonetheless. Barr is not only failing to stand up to this dangerous rhetoric—he’s stoking it.”
The comments came in response to Trump’s latest missive against the Russia investigation,
“My Campaign for President was conclusively spied on,” Trump exclaimed. “Nothing like this has ever happened in American Politics. A really bad situation. TREASON means long jail sentences, and this was TREASON!”
Despite special counsel Robert Mueller’s report being released a month ago and clearing the Trump campaign of a conspiracy with Russia, the president has shown no signs of letting the issue die. While Republican leaders have urged the country to move on, despite Mueller not exonerating Trump on obstruction of justice, Trump has focused his attention on the source of the investigation.
Trump has long called for the investigators to be investigated and complained of “spying” on his campaign. In William Barr, Trump has found an attorney general willing to heed his calls.
Barr, who was confirmed as the replacement for Jeff Sessions in February, caused a stir among Democrats when he said during congressional testimony last month that he believes “spying” did occur on the Trump’s 2016 campaign. The comment led to accusations from Democrats that Barr was acting more like the president’s personal attorney than the nation’s highest-ranking law enforcement official.
Despite that assessment subsequently being rejected by FBI Director Christopher Wray, Barr earlier this week appointed a U.S. attorney to investigate the origins of the Russia investigation.
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