picnroll
05-12-2020, 08:02 AM
Supreme Court hears arguments on Trump’s tax returns, personal financial records
The Supreme Court on Tuesday will begin considering whether President Trump can shield from disclosure his income tax returns, and keep his private financial records from congressional committees and a New York prosecutor.
The court is hearing three landmark constitutional cases by conference call because of the coronavirus pandemic, making it possible for the public to listen to the justices’ questions in real time.
All three cases involve Trump’s effort to prevent his longtime accounting firm and two banks from handing over his tax and business records to Democratic-led House committees and the Manhattan district attorney. The timing of the hearings means the high court’s rulings will likely land this summer in the midst of the 2020 presidential election campaign.
Trump has lost a series of lower-court decisions, with judges in New York and Washington rejecting the president’s sweeping assertions of executive power and upholding the investigative powers of Congress and local prosecutors.
The president’s private attorneys have argued the congressional subpoenas are politically motivated, unprecedented attacks on the presidency. Local prosecutors, they say, should not be unleashed to launch wide-ranging investigations of a sitting president.
[A listener’s guide to the Supreme Court battle over Trump’s tax returns and business records]
Lawyers for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. (D) warn that Trump’s broad claims of absolute immunity, if upheld by the court, would upend the Constitution’s system of checks and balances and essentially put Trump above the law.
The high court now includes two Trump nominees, Justices Neil M. Gorsuch and Brett M. Kavanaugh. The cases on Tuesday will likely draw questions about other major decisions on presidential power against Richard M. Nixon and Bill Clinton. In those cases, justices the presidents picked for the court voted against them.
The justices on Tuesday will first hear the combined congressional cases — Trump v. Mazars and Trump v. Deutsche Bank – which involve attempts by three different House committees to get the president’s business records from his accounting firm and financial institutions. The congressional subpoenas followed testimony from Trump’s former fixer, attorney Michael Cohen, who told lawmakers that Trump had exaggerated his wealth to seek loans. Two committees subpoenaed Capital One and Deutsche Bank as part of their investigation into Russian money laundering and potential foreign influence involving Trump.
In the third case, Vance is also seeking records from the Mazars firm as part of investigation into whether Trump business records were falsified to cover up a hush-money scheme just before the 2016 election to silence two women — adult-film actress Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal — who alleged that they had affairs with Trump. Trump has denied their claims.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/05/12/trump-taxes-scotus-hearing-live/
Trash better hope the stooges he got appointed to the Supreme Court can save his sorry fat ass and help him hide his tax records or he’s likely to find that fat ass sitting in jail.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday will begin considering whether President Trump can shield from disclosure his income tax returns, and keep his private financial records from congressional committees and a New York prosecutor.
The court is hearing three landmark constitutional cases by conference call because of the coronavirus pandemic, making it possible for the public to listen to the justices’ questions in real time.
All three cases involve Trump’s effort to prevent his longtime accounting firm and two banks from handing over his tax and business records to Democratic-led House committees and the Manhattan district attorney. The timing of the hearings means the high court’s rulings will likely land this summer in the midst of the 2020 presidential election campaign.
Trump has lost a series of lower-court decisions, with judges in New York and Washington rejecting the president’s sweeping assertions of executive power and upholding the investigative powers of Congress and local prosecutors.
The president’s private attorneys have argued the congressional subpoenas are politically motivated, unprecedented attacks on the presidency. Local prosecutors, they say, should not be unleashed to launch wide-ranging investigations of a sitting president.
[A listener’s guide to the Supreme Court battle over Trump’s tax returns and business records]
Lawyers for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. (D) warn that Trump’s broad claims of absolute immunity, if upheld by the court, would upend the Constitution’s system of checks and balances and essentially put Trump above the law.
The high court now includes two Trump nominees, Justices Neil M. Gorsuch and Brett M. Kavanaugh. The cases on Tuesday will likely draw questions about other major decisions on presidential power against Richard M. Nixon and Bill Clinton. In those cases, justices the presidents picked for the court voted against them.
The justices on Tuesday will first hear the combined congressional cases — Trump v. Mazars and Trump v. Deutsche Bank – which involve attempts by three different House committees to get the president’s business records from his accounting firm and financial institutions. The congressional subpoenas followed testimony from Trump’s former fixer, attorney Michael Cohen, who told lawmakers that Trump had exaggerated his wealth to seek loans. Two committees subpoenaed Capital One and Deutsche Bank as part of their investigation into Russian money laundering and potential foreign influence involving Trump.
In the third case, Vance is also seeking records from the Mazars firm as part of investigation into whether Trump business records were falsified to cover up a hush-money scheme just before the 2016 election to silence two women — adult-film actress Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal — who alleged that they had affairs with Trump. Trump has denied their claims.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/05/12/trump-taxes-scotus-hearing-live/
Trash better hope the stooges he got appointed to the Supreme Court can save his sorry fat ass and help him hide his tax records or he’s likely to find that fat ass sitting in jail.