Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/11/04/trump-must-turn-over-his-taxes.html
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Wake me up when the Supreme Court issues a ruling on this. Trump’s lawyers will just keep allow appealing and kicking the can down the road.
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And what happens if/when the SC affirms this ruling and Trump says “nope, not doing it” and orders the FBI to seize the records in question from the accountants to prevent them being turned over?
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He’s hoping Ruth will pass while we wait so he can capture the bench.
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So, if one part of the tripartite government refuses to acknowledge the authority of the other two, it’s no longer [the US’s version of] democracy, is it?
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He already theoretically has a 5:4 majority, but the rule-of-law conservatives on the bench are undoubtedly annoyed at his antics and aren’t a sure vote.
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This is a serious issue for the republic. The supreme court might make the right decision or kick the can down the road. If it doesn’t go in the republics favor we need to be prepared for it and take appropriate action.
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DON’T SAY THIS OUT LOUD. Lalalalalalalalala, not listening.
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To put it in the infantile way Donnie thinks: It’s not illegal if you don’t get caught. OTOH, not getting caught doesn’t means it legal.
So up here, in my part of the country (Westchester county, NY), it’s well known that he ripped off the county to get a tax break for the park subsequently named for him, in exchange for which he was supposed to pay for the upkeep and, hahaha, no, not a penny was forthcoming from Crooked Donnie. Then there’s the property in Ossining with the shifting valuation.
For me, that would be enough probable cause to expect Donnie’s tax returns to be stuffed with illegal acts. Gotta be, I dunno, kind of naive at best to think otherwise. Or a Trump toady.
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“The issue raised in this case goes to the heart of our Republic. The constitutional issues are significant,” said Sekulow in a statement.
I actually agree with the idiot Sekulow. The Supreme Court clearly establishing (hopefully) that no one is above the law does go to the heart of the Republic
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except he’s figured out he can now break the law at will, even preemptively without penalty
so doesn’t matter what any court rules, he’s just running out the clock and will declare a national emergency to either prevent the next election or discard the result if he doesn’t like it
and everyone else will mysteriously jump infront of the oncoming car for him, it’s just the most bizare thing, like they feel the republican party will lose power without him
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I predict they will punt on the issue and uphold the Appeals court decision. Defending Trump’s criminal nonsense is not part of the Conservative Wing’s agenda.
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Even then, separation of federal and state purview on this is cut and dry. They would have to tie themselves into higher dimensional knots to justify what state tax returns are under federal jurisdiction for state related criminal investigations.
Like there’s zero chance the conservative judges are gonna touch this case. They’ll refer it back to the appeals court at best for reexamination. At worse, they rule in favor of the states and narrow the scope of the usage (i.e. federal investigators can’t use their findings which I can’t see how that would work either).
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I can’t get my head around all the legal theorizing here, so I’m just going to enjoy that trump had a bad day.
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Is it really about “him” turning over the forms. Or the Accounting Firm turning over the forms.
I accidentally forgot my neutral shield at work when i saw this today and fist pumped laughing with glee, in ecstasy like Sally from the movie When Harry met Sally, much to the confusion of my Trump drugged idiot coworkers.
Throw this bastard under the wheels of the IRS and let them run over this filthy rotten bastard with their accountants
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I don’t think that follows really. There might be a case in preventing a state tax authority from turning returns over directly, perhaps because the federal government already has tax documents it should have access to. But once things are in the hands of a district attorney/law enforcement I don’t believe there’s anything barring the sharing of that evidence between Federal, State, and Local authorities. That sort of thing is pretty routine. And most routine FBI/DOJ investigations these days rely on a task force model that’s entirely based around doing so. Particularly once those tax returns get entered as evidence in a court room, they’re now a public record.
There isn’t neccisarily a jurisdictional problem at all. As a federal investigation wouldn’t neccisarily be looking into those state crimes. But federal ones, and looking to share evidence that pertains to that federal case. Which again is routine and happens every day.
But more importantly I don’t think there’s anyway the courts can block Congress from getting at them. Congressional investigations, particularly that whole impeachment thing, operate differently. And since NY State does not have an active interest in withholding anything from Congress. They’d likely just hand them over. I’m pretty sure state authorities have said they can and they will.
The cat would kinda be out of the bag with Trump filing suite over it after the fact, as a 3rd party. If they wanted to keep it in federal courts he might have pull with, they’d have to find something in federal law that blocks Congress from requesting or receiving state documents. I don’t think that something exists. And anything that might be based in State law… I don’t think NY’s elected supreme court justices are about to validate any of Trump’s crazy balls legal theories.
I think if these things make it to the Manhattan District Attorney, then Congress will have them in hand before Trump can do anything about it. At which point he’s making a mess trying to prevent them from using them in certain ways, while the details leak.
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Since it would be the New York office of the FBI, I’m thinking it would involve flipping him the bird and telling him, “We’re not your personal goon squad. The number for ICE is 555-414-4411”
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