BREAKING, Game Over - IRS Memo Shows Dems Are Never Getting Trump's Taxes

BREAKING, Game Over – IRS Memo Shows Dems Are Never Getting Trump’s Taxes

By Carmine Sabia
Published May 21, 2019 at 6:53pm

The Democrats and Rep. Jerry Nadler have a major problem on their hands in their quest to get President Donald Trump’s tax returns.
As The Washington Post reported, and they did their best to make it appear bad for President Trump, all he has to do is claim executive privilege and they become off limits.

A confidential Internal Revenue Service legal memo says tax returns must be given to Congress unless the president takes the rare step of asserting executive privilege, according to a copy of the memo obtained by The Washington Post.

The memo contradicts the Trump administration’s justification for denying lawmakers’ request for President Trump’s tax returns, exposing fissures in the executive branch.

Trump has refused to turn over his tax returns but has not invoked executive privilege. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has instead denied the returns by arguing there is no legislative purpose for demanding them.

But according to the IRS memo, which has not been previously reported, the disclosure of tax returns to the committee “is mandatory, requiring the Secretary to disclose returns, and return information, requested by the tax-writing Chairs.”

The 10-page document says the law “does not allow the Secretary to exercise discretion in disclosing the information provided the statutory conditions are met” and directly rejects the reason Mnuchin has cited for withholding the information.

“[T]he Secretary’s obligation to disclose return and return information would not be affected by the failure of a tax writing committee . . . to state a reason for the request,” it says. It adds that the “only basis the agency’s refusal to comply with a committee’s subpoena would be the invocation of the doctrine of executive privilege.”

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The memo is the first sign of potential dissent within the administration over its approach to the tax returns issue. The IRS said the memo, titled “Congressional Access to Returns and Return Information,” was a draft document written by a lawyer in the Office of Chief Counsel and did not represent the agency’s “official position.” The memo is stamped “DRAFT,” it is not signed, and it does not reference Trump.

The Post could do gymnastics as much as they want but the nuts and bolts of what that says is that if President Trump says the words “executive privilege” it is checkmate, game over.
The fact that it is not the first tack that has been taken is meaningless as, if everything else does not work, he simply needs to say those two words.