To get Trump's tax returns, Democrats just need to send a letter

[octoberlib]

There were widespread expectations when the Democrats took control of the House that an early, if not the first, order of business would be to go after President Trump’s tax returns.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said this month that the House would pursue the returns, something she noted Americans overwhelmingly support. But she added, “We have to be very, very careful as we go forward. It’s not an issue of just sending a letter. You have to do it in a very careful way."

Actually, it is more or less an issue of just sending a letter. Pelosi, and House Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal (D-Mass.), are being unduly skittish.Neal has declined even to offer a timeline of when he would seek the returns. He has suggested that the request will provoke a “long and arduous” court case, analogous to the subpoena battles that Congress in recent years has waged to at best checkered results.

But there is a critical difference in the legal authorities governing a request for tax returns and a general congressional subpoena.The law that permits Neal, as head of Ways and Means, to receive Trump’s returns is simple and clear: 26 U.S.C. §6103(f) specifies that “upon written request from the chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means of the House of Representatives … the Secretary [of the Treasury] shall furnish such committee with any return or return information specified in such request.” The return is furnished in closed executive session.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/02/20/get-trumps-tax-returns-democrats-just-need-send-letter/?utm_term=.b129986eab71

[mr_lebowski]

1. Ummm ... sure. Until the Treasury Secretary says Go F*** Yourself ... then what? (nt)

[Merlot]

2. Exactly. There will be legal fights and it will get taken all the way to

the supreme court. It will be dragged out and ugly. Democrats will need to show cause. I think they're waiting for something in one of the investigations that will tie trumpft to money laundering, conflict of interest, or being beholden to russian bank interests.

[mart48]

3. "Democrats will need to show cause." Is that in the law?

[Merlot]

6. The democrats need to show a good reason for requesting his taxes

based on more than the tradition that past presidents have released their taxes. I don't know exactly what that good reason will be, am guessing Pelosi does.

[mart48]

7. OK you've claimed twice they'll need a good reason. Do you have anything to back that up?

[Hortensis]

4. If only the author were in charge, then all would be well.

[Jarqui]

5. Like when they arrest his son, Trump will blow a gasket when they go for his tax returns

I'm sure they know the law and regulations.

Cohen's prison sentence got extended. They've delayed sentencing of others.

Something is about to happen and I guess they're trying to deal with one big eruption from Trump ...

[bluestarone]

8. Whatever the DEMS. plan, is, it's good for me

If your going to do something, DO IT RIGHT!!!

[ThoughtCriminal]

9. If the process is going to be "long and arduous"

then the sooner it gets started, the better.

[Autumn]

10. Exactly. nt

[bluecollar2]

11. Or they could just declare "a national emergency"... n/t