Mnuchin reveals White House lawyers consulted Treasury on Trump tax returns, despite law meant to li

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: Washington Post

Business
Mnuchin reveals White House lawyers consulted Treasury on Trump tax returns, despite law meant to limit political involvement

By Damian Paletta
April 9 at 10:53 AM

Treasury Department lawyers consulted with the White House general counsel's office about the potential release of President Trump's tax returns before House Democrats formally requested the records, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Tuesday. ... Mnuchin had not previously revealed that the White House was playing any official role in the Treasury Department's decision on releasing Trump's tax returns.

Democrats are asking for six years of Trump's returns, using a federal law that says the treasury secretary "shall follow" the request of House or Senate chairmen in releasing tax return information. The process is designed to be walled off from White House interference, in part because of corruption that took place during the Teapot Dome scandal in the 1920s.

Mnuchin revealed the discussions during a congressional hearing. He said he had not personally spoken with anyone from the White House about the tax returns, but he said that members of his team had done so.

"I believe that the communication between our legal department and the White House general counsel was informational," Mnuchin told a House appropriations subcommittee. "We had obviously read in the press that we were expecting this. I personally wasn't involved in those conversations." ... Mnuchin added that he was never briefed on the content of the discussions.
....

Damian Paletta is White House economic policy reporter for The Washington Post. Before joining The Post, he covered the White House for the Wall Street Journal. Follow https://twitter.com/damianpaletta

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/white-house-treasury-lawyers-discussed-trumps-tax-returns-before-democrats-request-mnuchin-says/2019/04/09/9693618e-5ad2-11e9-842d-7d3ed7eb3957_story.html

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David Fahrenthold Retweeted

https://twitter.com/Fahrenthold

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

1. From Teapot Dome to the Tea Baggers...

... why are they so corrupt, and blind?

[maxsolomon]

4. Because Power corrupts

and the GOP is about imposing the will of the powerful on the majority.

[NewJeffCT]

2. Like they care?

they've hit a few speed bumps along the way, but they're getting their way on almost everything else... Democrats are still trying to play hardball and don't realize that the entire game has changed and it's no longer baseball, it's a full on gangland shootout.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

5. Exactly. Please tell me which of these nominees will not be confirmed:

Trump Announces Judicial Nominations; April 8, 2019

[NewJeffCT]

11. not just that

yes, the initial travel ban was struck down and the second was as well, but the 3rd went to the SCOTUS who basically confirmed it.

[Roy Rolling]

3. Right . . .

Are they cabinet secretaries or are they kitchen cabinets? They discussed what to do if a request came, but when the request is made Mnuchin is like a deer caught in the headlights.

They must've planned to do nothing.

[DirtEdonE]

9. mnuchin bought himself a trophy wife

And word is, he had to sign a backwards pre-nup guaranteeing HER all of HIS wealth - just to get her past that "smile" of his.

I mean, good god, mnuchin looks like a perverted version of Mr. Sardonicus.

Mr. Sardonicus
?w=480&h=259

steven mnuchin
?v=1529452271&w=740&h=493

steve mnuchin's trophy wife (and be honest, what would it take in the real world for someone like steve to realistically get a shot at this?)
?resize=768

[safeinOhio]

10. Like Ann Landers once said,

"If you marry for money, you'll earn every penny of it."

[DirtEdonE]

12. Aha! And she's definitely earning every penny! nt

[murielm99]

16. Ah!

She's the one who said that? She was right.

[DirtEdonE]

17. US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin's fiancee, Louise Linton, was nude in a horror film

US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin's fiancee, Louise Linton, was nude in a horror film, no one was happy!

https://www.ibtimes.co.in/photos-meet-trumps-treasury-secretary-steven-mnuchins-fiancee-louise-linton-who-appeared-nude-716850

[riversedge]

6. Mnuchin is a TrumpSWAMP creature who is NOT to be trusted.

[DirtEdonE]

7. JHFC! We have to go back to Teapot Dome for a starting point???

Exactly how far back into our sordid history is this troglodyte going to take us before we say ENOUGH?

[Firestorm49]

8. If it's a federal law that "Treasury shall follow the request of the Senate or House......"

then who the hell is doing anything about it? Anybody? I guess not. They spit in our face and we just sit there and lick it off.

I’ve never read more about how an administration totally and completely disregards the law. Are we witnessing the creation of a fascist state? (At present, yes). Is there no recourse for flaunting the law? Are Democrats too afraid to go after these egregious violations?

Ridiculous.

[FBaggins]

13. Can't imagine why people find this surprising - or even inappropriate

The author of this piece (I can't see the whole thing), recently tweeted "Congress gave itself the power to obtain White House tax returns without interference after the Teapot Dome scandal"

Has the law been challenged in court before? Can Congress "give itself" that power? It seems obvious to me that the executive branch would want to form their own opinion on the constitutionality of that new power, and lawyers at Treasury would necessarily be involved.

If the target were anyone other than Trump, we would be fighting this on privacy grounds.

[Dave Starsky]

15. Ha ha ha. You're funny. I think not.

You seem to believe that incredibly sleazy behavior is tolerated by "both sides" whenever one side's ox is being gored. If Obama had had a long, established career of scamming people, we'd want to see his tax returns, as well. (whispering...) Oh, THAT'S RIGHT! He PROVIDED them, like every other presidential candidate has for the last forty-something years.

It's hard to test out my theory, though, because there's never before been a more morally bankrupt and corrupt individual than Donald Trump elected as president of the US.

[cstanleytech]

14. So he broke the law? Sounds like he needs to be arrested just

like any other criminal.