The order offered no reason for the action, which means the accounting firm of Mazars USA is not forced to offer up the documents, Fox News reported.

The House Oversight Committee had agreed for a temporary stay while House Democrats file arguments. The committee is expected to act by Thursday to file its arguments as to why Trump’s taxes should be released.

The D.C. District Court’s ruling compelling Mazars to release the documents will be in abeyance (suspension) while the Supreme Court decides whether it will hear the case.

House Democrats are claiming that the documents could shed light on possible conflicts of interest for Trump, according to CNN.

Trump’s lawyers filed the appeal last week after a circuit court judge ruled that Mazars had to comply.

“For the first time in our nation’s history, Congress has subpoenaed the personal records of a sitting President from before he was in office,” Jay Sekulow, one of Trump’s lawyers, said in a statement, according to NPR.

“And, for the first time in our nation’s history, a court upheld a congressional subpoena to the President for his personal papers. Those decisions are wrong and should be reversed.”

William S. Consovoy, a lawyer representing Trump, said in his filing to the Supreme Court that the lower court decision had set a dangerous precedent, according to The Washington Post.

Using the lower court’s ruling as a guide, “any committee of Congress can subpoena any personal information from the president; all the committee needs to say is that it’s considering legislation that would force Presidents to disclose that same information,” Consovoy wrote.

“Given the temptation to dig up dirt on political rivals, intrusive subpoenas into the personal lives of presidents will become our new normal in times of divided government — no matter which party is in power. If every committee chairman is going to have this unbounded authority, this Court should be the one to say so,” the filing read.

In the filing before the circuit court, Trump’s lawyers warned that upholding the standard used by the lower could would mean that “Congress is free to investigate every detail of a president’s personal life, with endless subpoenas to his accountants, bankers, lawyers, doctors, family, friends and anyone else with information that a committee finds interesting.”

However, in ruling against the president, Judge David S. Tatel, rejected that argument.

“We conclude that in issuing the challenged subpoena, the committee was engaged in a ‘legitimate legislative investigation,’ rather than an impermissible law-enforcement inquiry,” he wrote.

RELATED: Opposition to Impeachment Inquiry at Highest Level Since Pollster Began Tracking

“It is not at all suspicious that the committee would focus an investigation into presidential financial disclosures on the accuracy and sufficiency of the sitting president’s filings. That the committee began its inquiry at a logical starting point betrays no hidden law-enforcement purpose,” he wrote, noting that the subpoena to produce the records was not aimed at Trump, but his accountant.

The House probe is only one of two investigations seeking Trump’s taxes. The other has been launched by the office of the Manhattan District Attorney.

We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.

Source: https://www.westernjournal.com/justice-roberts-unilaterally-suspends-dc-courts-ruling-make-trump-taxes-available/

The post Justice Roberts Unilaterally Suspends DC Court’s Ruling That Would Make Trump Taxes Available first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Trump’s lawyer Jay Sekulow said he would appeal the case to the Supreme Court. Trump had earlier lost the initial case before a federal district court, and it was since fast-tracked.

“The decision of the Second Circuit will be taken to the Supreme Court,” Sekulow said. “The issue raised in this case goes to the heart of our Republic. The constitutional issues are significant.”

The three-judge panel wrote in their decision that “any presidential immunity from state criminal process does not extend to investigative steps like the grand jury subpoena at issue here,” affirming the lower court’s ruling on that question.

Vance is seeking to obtain eight years of Trump’s tax documents through his account firm, Mazars USA, to evaluate the Trump Organization’s role in the payouts to porn star Stormy Daniels and ex-Playboy model Karen McDougal, as well as the reimbursements made to Trump’s former longtime attorney Michael Cohen, who is now serving a three-year federal prison sentence for a litany of crimes, including campaign finance violations.

Because the tax documents were requested under a grand jury subpoena, it’s unlikely they will become public if turned over. Trump is engaged in a series of legal battles across the country to keep his tax returns private.

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In this case, the president has argued that state authorities cannot investigate a sitting president — even if he were to shoot someone in the middle of 5th Avenue in New York City, and that the immunity provides blanket coverage for his business, family members, and business associates. Last week, one of the three federal judges, Denny Chin, asked Trump attorney William Consovoy if local authorities could investigate Trump for shooting someone in the middle of Manhattan while he’s in office. “No,” Consovoy said.

“This appeal does not require us to consider whether the president is immune from indictment and prosecution while in office, nor to consider whether the President may lawfully be ordered to produce documents for use in a state criminal proceeding,” the judges wrote in Monday’s ruling. “We accordingly do not address those issues. The only question before us is whether a state may lawfully demand production by a third party of the President’s personal financial records for use in a grand jury investigation while the President is in office.”

“With the benefit of the district court’s well‐articulated opinion, we hold that any presidential immunity from state criminal process does not bar the enforcement of such a subpoena,” they continued.

The Constitution does not provide explicit guidance on whether a president can be charged with a crime while in office, though a Nixon-era Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel memo that has proven influential in past investigations involving Trump states a president cannot be charged while in office. That memo does not explicitly cover the act of investigating a sitting president. And Vance, who is a state official, is not bound by that guidance.

The judges said that neither the Nixon-era of Clinton-era memos conclude “that a sitting president may not be investigated.”

“Moreover, the president concedes that his immunity lasts only so long as he holds office and that he could, therefore, be prosecuted after leaving office,” the judges wrote. “There is no obvious reason why a state could not begin to investigate a president during his term and, with the information secured during that search, ultimately determine to prosecute him after he leaves office.”

In the earlier district court ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Victor Marrero called Trump’s claim to immunity from investigation “unqualified and boundless,” writing that the argument was “repugnant to the nation’s governmental structure and constitutional values.”

Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-loses-appeal-new-york-tax-case-must-hand-over-n1076061

The post Trump loses appeal in New York tax case, must hand over returns first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin again delayed a decision on whether to turn over President Trump’s tax returns to Congress, telling House lawmakers late Tuesday that the Treasury and Justice Departments needed until May 6 to assess the legality of the “unprecedented” request.

In a letter to Representative Richard E. Neal, the Democratic chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Mr. Mnuchin said that the Treasury Department “cannot act upon your request unless and until it is determined to be consistent with law.” Mr. Mnuchin said the department expected to make a final decision by May 6 “after receiving the Justice Department’s legal conclusions.”

Earlier Tuesday, Hogan Gidley, a White House spokesman, signaled that Mr. Trump was girding for a protracted fight over his tax returns.

“As I understand it, the president is pretty clear, once he’s out of audit, he’ll think about doing it, but he is not inclined to do so at this time,” Mr. Gidley said on Fox News.

Mr. Trump has used the excuse of an Internal Revenue Service audit since the 2016 presidential campaign as a reason not to release his tax records, though no law prevents a taxpayer from releasing returns while under audit.

This month, Mr. Neal formally requested from the Internal Revenue Service six years’ worth of the president’s personal and business tax returns. The Treasury Department, which oversees the I.R.S., missed the first deadline to provide the returns, and Mr. Mnuchin previously told Mr. Neal in a letter that he needed more time to study the lawfulness of the request.

Mr. Mnuchin, in his most recent letter, appeared to be laying the groundwork for the legal rationale to deny the request, listing several “legal concerns” that have prompted the Treasury Department to consult with the Justice Department. Those included “constitutional limits” on gaining access to private tax returns and the “asserted purpose” for seeking the records.

Mr. Mnuchin made the argument that Mr. Neal’s request represented “exposure for the sake of exposure” of Mr. Trump’s tax returns and said it was different than traditional requests for taxpayer information, which tend to be used for statistical purposes to aid legislation. An appendix to the letter listed numerous examples of Mr. Neal and other Democrats calling for Mr. Trump’s tax returns to be made public.

Mr. Neal issued a terse statement on Tuesday but did not indicate his next move, which could include a subpoena or a lawsuit. The matter could ultimately be decided by the Supreme Court.

“This afternoon, Secretary Mnuchin notified me that once again, the I.R.S. will miss the deadline,” he said. “I plan to consult with counsel about my next steps.”

But other Democratic lawmakers said they were prepared to escalate things quickly.

“They don’t get to pick and choose the laws with which they will comply,” said Representative Lloyd Doggett of Texas. “After so much of their double talk, prompt action must be taken to secure what they have wrongfully refused.”

Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, said that Treasury’s lack of cooperation was an example of the Trump administration’s “lawlessness.”

“Secretary Mnuchin and the White House have blatantly interfered with the I.R.S.’s obligation to provide the president’s tax returns, and action is needed to force this administration to follow the law,” Mr. Wyden said.

Mr. Neal has largely dismissed Mr. Mnuchin’s arguments that the request could violate taxpayer privacy and that it was being done for political purposes, saying that they lacked merit. He gave the Treasury Department until Tuesday to comply and said that failing to do so would be “interpreted as a denial of my request.”

In his letter, Mr. Mnuchin said that the delay was not a failure to comply with the request and that portraying it as such would be “a misinterpretation.”

“The committee’s request has not been denied or granted at this time,” he said.

Last week, in a sign of how much attention Mr. Trump is paying to the proceedings, his personal lawyer urged the Treasury Department not to release the president’s tax returns and accused Democratic lawmakers of having a “radical view of unchecked congressional power.”

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/23/us/politics/trump-taxes.html

The post Trump Tax Returns Won’t Be Released Until May 6 After Another Deadline Is Missed first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin failed to meet a final congressional deadline on Tuesday for turning over President Donald Trump’s tax returns to lawmakers, setting the stage for a possible court battle between Congress and the administration.

The outcome, which was widely expected, could prompt House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal to subpoena Trump’s tax records as the opening salvo to a legal fight that may ultimately have to be settled by the US Supreme Court.

Neal set a final 5 p.m. (2100 GMT) deadline for the Internal Revenue Service and Treasury to provide six years of Trump’s individual and business tax records. But the deadline passed without the panel receiving the documents.

After the deadline lapsed, Mnuchin released a letter to Neal in which he pledged to make “a final decision” on whether to provide Trump’s tax records by May 6. It was the second time the administration had missed a House deadline for the tax returns since Neal requested them on April 3.

“Secretary Mnuchin notified me that once again, the IRS will miss the deadline for my … request. I plan to consult with counsel about my next steps,” Neal said in a statement.

In his letter, Mnuchin said he was still consulting with the Justice Department about Neal’s request, which he termed “unprecedented.”

“The department cannot act upon your request unless and until it is determined to be consistent with the law,” the Treasury secretary told Neal.

PressTV-White House: Dems won’t see Trump tax returns ‘ever’

The White House’s acting chief of staff says Donald Trump can keep withholding his tax returns.

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Democrats want Trump’s returns as part of their investigations of possible conflicts of interest posed by his continued ownership of extensive business interests, even as he serves the public as president.

Republicans have condemned the request as a political “fishing expedition” by Democrats.

Trump broke with a decades-old precedent by refusing to release his tax returns as a presidential candidate in 2016 or since being elected, saying he could not do so while his taxes were being audited.

But his former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, told a House panel in February that he did not believe Trump’s taxes were under audit. Cohen said the president feared that releasing his returns could lead to an audit and IRS tax penalties.

‘Not up to the president’

Earlier on Tuesday, the White House said Trump was unlikely to hand over his tax returns.

“As I understand it, the president’s pretty clear: Once he’s out of audit, he’ll think about doing it, but he’s not inclined to do so at this time,” White House spokesman Hogan Gidley told Fox News in an interview.

“This is not up to the president. We did not ask him,” said a Democratic committee aide, who cited a law saying the Treasury secretary “shall furnish” taxpayer data upon request from an authorized lawmaker.

Neal informed IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig earlier this month that failure to comply with the deadline would be viewed as a denial.

Legal experts said House Democrats could vote to hold Mnuchin or Rettig in contempt of Congress if they ignored a subpoena, as a pretext to suing in federal court to obtain Trump’s returns. Experts say administration officials could ultimately risk financial penalties and even jail time by defying the committee.

As Ways and Means chairman, Neal is the only lawmaker in the House of Representatives authorized to request taxpayer information under federal law. Democrats say they are confident of succeeding in any legal fight over Trump’s tax returns.

Trump has no plans to release tax returns

US President Donald Trump has no plans to release tax returns despite a recent investigation by the New York Times.

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“Secretary Mnuchin is again choosing to violate the law to keep Trump’s records hidden away. This administration’s contempt for rule of law is without peer,” Representative Bill Pascrell, who has been leading the Democratic push for Trump’s tax records, said in a statement on Twitter.

“I stand beside @RepRichardNeal as he continues the crusade to impose plain oversight on this corrupt administration.”

Despite the law’s clarity, Democrats have long acknowledged that the effort would likely result in a legal battle that could end up with the Supreme Court.

“If the IRS does not comply with the request, it is likely that Chairman Neal will subpoena the returns,” Representative Judy Chu, a Democratic member of the Ways and Means Committee, told Reuters.

“If they do not comply with that (subpoena), a legal battle will begin to defend the right of oversight in Congress,” she said.

(Source: Reuters)

Source: https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2019/04/24/594203/US-Treasury-Steven-Mnuchin-congressional-deadline-Donald-Trump-tax-returns-

The post US Treasury misses congressional deadline to hand over Trump tax returns first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.