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Trump's accounting firm must hand over 8 years of tax returns, court rules


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NEW YORK, Nov 4 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump's
longtime accounting firm must hand over eight years of his taxreturns to New York prosecutors, a U.S. appeals court ruledMonday in the latest setback for Trump in his tenacious effortsto keep his finances secret.

The ruling by a unanimous three-judge panel of the New
York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals backed the abilityof prosecutors to enforce a subpoena for the returns againstaccounting firm Mazars LLP. Jay Sekulow, a lawyer for Trump,said the Republican president will appeal the ruling to the U.S.Supreme Court, whose 5-4 conservative majority includes twojustices appointed by Trump.

The office of Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, a
Democrat, is seeking the returns as part of a criminalinvestigation into Trump and his family real estate business.The scope of that probe is not publicly known.

The 2nd Circuit did not decide whether Trump is immune from
being charged with a state crime while in office, as thepresident has argued. However, it found that even if he is, theimmunity could not stop Vance from getting the returns from athird party, or from prosecuting him once he leaves office.

It would "exact a heavy toll on our criminal justice system
to prohibit a state from even investigating potential crimescommitted by him for potential later prosecution," 2nd CircuitChief Judge Robert Katzmann wrote in the ruling.

Vance's office has agreed not to enforce the subpoena while
Trump petitions the Supreme Court. Under the agreement, Trumphas 10 calendar days to file the petition.

Trump, who built a real estate empire with his New
York-based business before becoming president, separately facesan impeachment inquiry in the Democratic-led U.S. House ofRepresentatives.

BREAKING TRADITION

Trump has refused to make his tax returns public, breaking
with a decades-old tradition of U.S. presidential candidatesreleasing their returns during campaigns and presidentsdisclosing them while in office. More broadly, Trump has foughtefforts by Democrats in Congress and others to obtaininformation about his finances and a range of other matters.

In a similar dispute, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in
May refused to release Trump's tax returns to a House committee,saying the request was not based on "a legitimate legislativepurpose." The House then sued the Treasury Department and theInternal Revenue Service in July to try to get access to the taxrecords. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of ColumbiaCircuit on Oct. 11 ruled in favor of the House bid to obtainTrump's financial records from Mazars.

In August, Vance subpoenaed Trump's personal and corporate
tax returns from 2011 to 2018, and other records from MazarsUSA, the president's longtime accounting firm. Trump suedVance's office in Manhattan federal court to try to block thesubpoena, arguing that as a sitting president, he cannot besubject to criminal investigation.

On Oct. 7, U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero threw out
Trump's lawsuit, calling his claim of immunity "repugnant to thenation's governmental structure and constitutional values." Theruling prompted Trump's appeal to the 2nd Circuit.

Arguing before the appeals court on Oct. 23, a lawyer for
Trump made the claim of immunity more explicit, saying stateauthorities would be powerless to act against the president evenif he shot someone on the street unless he were removed fromoffice first.

Katzmann wrote in Monday's order that the extent of the
president's immunity was irrelevant to the case.

"The subpoena at issue is directed not to the President, but
to his accountants; compliance does not require the President todo anything at all," Katzmann wrote.

Katzmann was appointed to the court by former President Bill
Clinton, a Democrat. The other two judges on the panel,Christopher Droney and Denny Chin, both appointed by formerPresident Barack Obama, Trump's predecessor and also a Democrat.

A spokesman for Vance declined to comment on the ruling.

Trump filed his own lawsuit in July seeking to block the
House Ways and Means Committee from invoking a New York law thatallows it to request his state tax returns. That case remainspending.

The House impeachment inquiry focuses on the president's
request in a July phone call for Ukrainian President VolodymyrZelenskiy to investigate a domestic political rival, Joe Biden,the former vice president and a top contender for the 2020Democratic presidential nomination to face Trump.

https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/1-york-prosecutors-trump-tax-154745633.html

 

Seems I read somewhere, something about the courts taking down some evil people.

B/A

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  • 2 weeks later...
1 minute ago, bostonangler said:

 

I guess we'll what the Supreme Court says... That's where this headed...

 

 

Just thought you'd like to know.

Clint Eastwood
 
🇺🇸
@ClintEastwoodLA
I AM NOT Clint Eastwood.
 
 
Just another guy duping Trump worshippers.
B/A

Doesn't everybody remember Trump saying how "unfair" it was for the IRS

to audit him every year for the past 10 years in a speech in 2015 or 2016?

 

He followed up by saying that he knows others how were way richer than him and they never get audited.

 

He ended by saying he has to think of it as "just part of doing business...."

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5 minutes ago, bigwave said:

Doesn't everybody remember Trump saying how "unfair" it was for the IRS

to audit him every year for the past 10 years in a speech in 2015 or 2016?

 

He followed up by saying that he knows others how were way richer than him and they never get audited.

 

He ended by saying he has to think of it as "just part of doing business...."

 

I think there is evidence of tax fraud from some of his state filings. He has properties and incomes from those properties claimed at a lower value than he has on listings of his assets... So we'll see if he is telling the truth on his tax filings as compared to his other documents.

 

But I do agree cheating on taxes and everything else now seems to be accepted in America... People cheat on their spouses and that's okay. People cheat at sports and that's okay.. People cheat on their exams.. Again okay.. The American way, has lost it's way. JMHO

 

B/A 

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The Supreme Court put a hold on this........

 

They will have a ruling on this later.......the only way the Supreme Court makes them available is if someone can convince them there is just cause.......something done that was illegal.....

If this is just another fishing expedition......this never happens....

 

Remember.   The US tax code is 70,000+ pages long.......Trump has accountants do the work.....he would'nt be held personally responsible for mistakes these professional accountants made.....

 

Just another side show by the left.......get over it......Trump is the President...    CL

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54 minutes ago, bostonangler said:

I think there is evidence

Please you folks have been Obstruction since day one, Assuming this an that. Nothing but a bunch of sore Losers. Don't you think that if anything was wrong on Trump taxes, would have already been leaked? Your just showing more of the Glowing Hate...

 

58 minutes ago, bostonangler said:

But I do agree cheating

   that Trump and the American people that vote for a duly elected POTUS has been denied for 3 solid years a Constitutional Right do what Trump was elected to do, without Obstruction. 

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IRS whistleblower case advances as Senate staff looks at whether political appointee meddled with audit of Trump or Pence

Senate aides spoke to the whistleblower, and follow-up interviews are expected.

Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, appears on Capitol Hill in February. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP) (Jacquelyn Martin/AP) Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, appears on Capitol Hill in February. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP) (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)
By 
Jeff Stein and 
November 18, 2019 at 12:58 p.m. EST

Two senators are looking into a whistleblower’s allegations that at least one political appointee at the Treasury Department may have tried to interfere with an audit of President Trump or Vice President Pence, according to two people with knowledge of the matter, a sign that lawmakers are moving to investigate the complaint lodged by a senior staffer at the Internal Revenue Service.

Staff members for Sens. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ron Wyden (Ore.), the chairman and ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, met with the IRS whistleblower earlier this month, those people said. Follow-up interviews are expected to further explore the whistleblower’s allegations.

It could not be learned to what extent the senators consider the whistleblower a credible source. Trump administration officials have previously played down the complaint’s significance and suggested that it is politically motivated.

In May, the Treasury Department refused a statutory and subpoena request for President Trump’s tax returns. Now, it’s unclear whether Democrats will get them. (JM Rieger/The Washington Post)

The whistleblower, a career IRS official, initially filed a complaint in July, reporting that he was told that at least one Treasury political appointee attempted to improperly interfere with the annual audit of the president’s or vice president’s tax returns. In recent weeks, the whistleblower filed additional documentation related to the original complaint, which was given to congressional officials in July, the two people said. These people spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the complaint, which pertains to a confidential IRS audit that cannot be disclosed under federal law.

The contents of the additional information provided by the whistleblower were not known.

The IRS whistleblower complaint was first disclosed in an August court filing by Rep. Richard E. Neal (D-Mass.), the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. It raises the prospect that Trump administration officials at Treasury tried to improperly interfere with the IRS audit process. That process is supposed to be walled off from political interference.

 
 
 

Neal made the disclosure in court filings as part of his battle with the Trump administration over the president’s tax returns, which the Treasury Department has refused to furnish. At the time, Neal said the whistleblower complaint raises “serious and urgent concerns” about the integrity of the IRS audit process. A person close to Neal, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that the office’s position on the complaint is unchanged and that its investigation is ongoing.

The Treasury inspector general has opened a review of the Treasury Department’s handling of House Democrats’ request for Trump’s tax returns. Asked whether that review would look at the IRS whistleblower’s complaint, Rich Delmar, the acting inspector general, said in an email that “the inquiry is ongoing, and will take into account that aspects of the underlying matter are the subject of litigation.” The whistleblower also previously told The Washington Post that he had sent his complaint to Grassley, Neal and the Treasury Department inspector general for tax administration, a separate watchdog at Treasury.

Spokespeople for Grassley and Wyden declined to confirm their meeting with the whistleblower, citing strict federal privacy laws related to taxpayer information. The White House, the Treasury Department and the Treasury Department inspector general for tax administration also declined to comment.

 

In a statement in October, Grassley appeared to criticize Neal for not doing enough to verify the complaint before disclosing details about it, saying in a statement, “Talking about the existence of a complaint before taking the time to speak with the whistleblower or follow up on the whistleblower’s complaint is irresponsible.”

Wyden also demanded a Senate investigation of the whistleblower’s complaint in early October, writing on Twitter, “A bipartisan committee effort to get to the bottom of this should have been started months ago.”

Congressional investigations of the IRS whistleblower came as a separate whistleblower surfaced claims that Trump withheld military funding and other support for the newly elected president of Ukraine in exchange for an announcement that Ukraine was investigating former vice president Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden. Those claims have set off a House impeachment inquiry that began public hearings last week.

 
 
 

The IRS whistleblower deals with a more technical but still potentially controversial topic: the handling of the annual tax audits of the president and vice president. The initial IRS complaint, filed by a career IRS official, relays concerns from another IRS official that at least one Treasury Department political appointee tried to improperly interfere with the annual tax audit of Trump or Pence.

There has been extreme focus on Trump’s tax returns and less scrutiny of Pence, but the presidential audit program applies to both offices. It could not be learned which audit was the subject of the complaint. It is a violation of federal law to reveal details about the status of taxpayer information.

“Obviously, it’s serious anytime an allegation of this nature is leveled. That said, it has to be substantiated and there has to be an understanding of what contact took place,” said Mark Everson, who served as the IRS commissioner during the George W. Bush administration.

 
 
 

Trump has faced demands to release his tax returns since the 2016 presidential election, when he broke with decades of precedent by refusing to release them. He has claimed that he is under audit and that it would be improper to release the returns while that is the case.

On Thursday, Trump’s private attorneys asked the Supreme Court to intervene to block a New York prosecutor’s attempts to obtain the president’s tax returns.

Trump also faces an ongoing lawsuit from the House Ways and Means Committee, which has demanded access to his returns, as well as investigations by other House panels.

Democrats have argued that the Treasury Department is obligated to turn over Trump’s tax returns under a 1924 law that explicitly gives the House and Senate tax panels access to tax records. If that is proved true, the IRS whistleblower complaint could deepen concerns that the Trump administration has sought to exempt the president from long-standing rules governing taxpayer information.

 

Tax experts have expressed alarm that a political appointee at the Treasury Department would ask IRS career employees about any individual’s private audit.

“Historically, tax administration is solely the domain of the IRS,” said John Koskinen, a former IRS commissioner who served in the Obama and Trump administrations. “It’s an important policy that the administration of the tax code is nonpartisan, treat everybody fairly, and not have any outside interference.”

But little information about the whistleblower’s complaints have been made public, in part because of federal law limiting disclosure of information regarding confidential IRS audits. Even those who have spoken with the whistleblower have revealed very little.

“I am aware of public reports of a whistleblower complaint related to the mandatory audit program of the president and vice president,” Wyden said in a statement. “Because any discussion of this matter may implicate section 6103 privacy requirements or whistleblower protections, I cannot comment further on the matter.”

 

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26 minutes ago, bostonangler said:

This is from the CPA Accounting Institute..  But I'm sure some will not believe what is right in front of their face.

 

https://www.ais-cpa.com/tax-fraud-by-the-numbers-the-trump-timeline/

 

Trump’s Tax Fraud Timeline

Trump-Tax-Fraud-Timeline-Infographic1.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

B/A

Now that's from a real "official and legit" operation......

Do a background on your source......

CL

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2 minutes ago, coorslite21 said:

Now that's from a real "official and legit" operation......

Do a background on your source......

CL

 

Hey at least it isn't some twitter twit making up stories about a coup, food poisonings, pizza gate, Sand Hook is fake, that any day now there are big arrests coming down or any of the stupid **** people are led to believe. I think it is easy to believe wealthy people cheat and use loop holes all the time. I just think Trump worshippers refuse to believe anything true and choose to believe fantasy.

 

B/A

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12 hours ago, coorslite21 said:

The Supreme Court put a hold on this........

 

They will have a ruling on this later.......the only way the Supreme Court makes them available is if someone can convince them there is just cause.......something done that was illegal.....

If this is just another fishing expedition......this never happens....

 

Remember.   The US tax code is 70,000+ pages long.......Trump has accountants do the work.....he would'nt be held personally responsible for mistakes these professional accountants made.....

 

Just another side show by the left.......get over it......Trump is the President...    CL

 

They put a hold on it to get familiar with the many different items as you say, but I still think it will be interesting how they interpret this in the end... I just find it intriguing.

 

B/A

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Just now, bostonangler said:

 

They put a hold on it to get familiar with the many different items as you say, but I still think it will be interesting how they interpret this in the end... I just find it intriguing.

 

B/A

 

We'll see.....by law Congress can't just request Trumps returns to have a look to see if anything  is out of place....or they can find some dirt......can't do that for you or I either.......

 

The IRS can audit.....and according to Trump they have been for 10 years........you would think if they had found something they would have acted...    CL

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10 minutes ago, bostonangler said:

 

Hey at least it isn't some twitter twit making up stories about a coup, food poisonings, pizza gate, Sand Hook is fake, that any day now there are big arrests coming down or any of the stupid **** people are led to believe. I think it is easy to believe wealthy people cheat and use loop holes all the time. I just think Trump worshippers refuse to believe anything true and choose to believe fantasy.

 

B/A

 

Perhaps you are right on some of this.....there will be a release of the IG report.....Horowitz....Huber......Barr......FISA abuse......you can call that a conspiracy theory if you wish.....?

 

There is a pedophile issue in government.....Epstien was added to the body count to cover that up.....another conspiracy.....?

 

The left....and others......have been trying to remove Trump since day 1......another conspiracy.....unless you just open your eyes....?

 

So sure......many idiotic conspiracy theorys out there...?

 

Here's a crazy one.....this gets Trump canned for sure.....in 2005 he spent $30 million USD of his money to purchase IQD.....that's alot of IQD....

 

Say there is a revalue at 1-1....the rest is "left" to your imagination..

( semi pun intended)

CL

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