A CNN panel on Monday reacted to White House adviser Mick Mulvaney’s statement that Democrats would never see Trump’s taxes.
Said Mulvaney on FOX News Sunday: “They’re not going to get these taxes. … Nor should they. Keep in mind, that’s a issue that was already litigated during the election—voters knew the president could have given his tax returns, they knew that he didn’t, and they elected him anyway.”
Said Trump biographer David Cay Johnston: “Donald Trump knows his tax returns will take away the public image he has created. They will show he has far less wealth. … The law is clear. It says that the Treasury secretary or IRS shall turn these over. Congress has been doing this for 80 years. There’s never been a case where they didn’t turn it over. It is not for public consumption, it is turned over to the chairman for the use of the committee in closed-door session. So this argument that Mick Mulvaney put forward boils down to one thing. This is the first step toward a Trump dictatorship by asserting the president is above the law and does not have to comply with the language ‘shall’ which is mandatory.”
In related news, New York lawmakers are making an attempt to get Trump’s state taxes.
The NYT reports: “Albany lawmakers are seeking state tax returns, not the federal ones at the heart of the current standoff in Washington. But a tax return from New York — the president’s home state, and the headquarters of his business empire — could likely contain much of the same financial information as a federal return.Under a bill that is scheduled to be introduced this week, the commissioner of the New York Department of Taxation and Financewould be permitted to release any state tax return requested by leaders of three congressional committees for any “specific and legitimate legislative purpose.”
