House Speaker Nancy Pelosi reiterated in a meeting with top Democrats earlier this week that she doesn’t want to see President Donald Trump impeached — she wants him behind bars.

“I don’t want to see him impeached. I want to see him in prison,” confirmed multiple Democrat sources, described by Politico as people familiar with Tuesday night’s meeting.

She clashed with House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., over whether to launch impeachment hearings while meeting with him and top Democrats who are pursuing investigations.

Nadler reportedly pushed Pelosi to allow his committee, for the second time in recent weeks, to start an impeachment inquiry against Trump, but Pelosi once again refused his demands.

The sources told Politico that Pelosi wants Trump to be defeated in the 2020 election, and after that to face prosecution. She continues to argue that there must be public support and strong bipartisan backing before impeachment proceedings can begin.

Pelosi spokeswoman Ashley Etienne said the speaker and the committee chairmen had a “productive meeting” and “agreed to keep all options on the table and continue to move forward with an aggressive hearing and legislative strategy, as early as next week, to address the president’s corruption and abuses of power uncovered in the [Mueller] report.”

House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif.; Oversight Chairman Elijah Cummings, D-Md.; Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass.; and Foreign Affairs Chairman Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., were at the meeting but Financial Services Chairwoman Maxine Waters, D-Calif., who has often called for Trump’s impeachment, was not there.

Schiff and Neal both reportedly argued that if an impeachment inquiry was opened, then Democrats should be ready to impeach the president, and Cummings sided with Pelosi.

Source: https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/pelosi-trump-nadler-impeachment/2019/06/06/id/919165/

The post Pelosi: I Want to See Trump ‘In Prison’ 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.

It’s clear that Democratic leaders have been misleading the American people for months by assuring them that Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report will be the determining factor as they consider any impeachment inquiry.

The post David Bossie: Anti-Trump Democrats practice politics of personal destruction against president first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.