Yes He Can: Obama Absolutely Has The Authority To Release Donald Trump’s Tax Returns

[KamaAina]

http://reverbpress.com/politics/obama-order-trump-tax-returns-released/

Transparency has become the word of the week in the 2016 presidential campaign in light of Hillary Clinton’s bout with pneumonia. After the Democratic nominee fainted leaving a 9/11 memorial service, pundits and opportunistic opponents alike questioned why she didn’t announce her diagnosis earlier and called for the release of her medical records. Clinton quickly obliged. But transparency on the other side of the aisle has not been so easy. Fifteen months after he began his campaign and less than two months before Americans go to the polls, Donald Trump is still yet to release any of his tax returns. Despite calls from both Democrats and past Republican nominees, Trump remains defiant to a long-standing bi-partisan tradition. But there’s one person who could render this whole debate moot. One man has the sole authority to order any of Trump’s tax returns be publicly released: President Barack Obama....

The power of incumbency has a longstanding tradition in electoral politics. Historically, it’s why the party in power holds the second convention. More recently, it allowed George W Bush to tinker with the Terror Alert System during the 2004 campaign. It gave Obama the opportunity to reaffirm leadership during Superstorm Sandy in the final days before the 2012 election. But a sitting President ordering that the IRS to release the tax returns of the opposition party’s nominee would bring that power to a new, and possibly uncomfortable, level. Furthermore, it would feed the GOP narrative that Obama is a president reliant solely on executive power. And though it’s hard to imagine when you look at the changing demographics of America, there could be a day when Republicans control the White House again. This precedent could easily backfire.

Yet this legislative branch has had an opportunity to decided whether or not to compel all nominees to release their returns. Ron Wyden (D-OR) introduced a bill in May that would do just that. And like almost every other bill or nomination to come before this particular Senate, they did absolutely nothing. So in a sense, if Obama did release Trump’s returns, it would follow the trend of acting with executive authority only on matters where congress has failed to act at all.

Perhaps the mere knowledge that the President can order this information made public will be enough to amplify the pressure on Trump, or more importantly, force undecided voters to seriously consider what the alleged billionaire is hiding in his refusal. Either way, it’s one heck of a “trump card” in the President’s deck.

[misterhighwasted]

1. DO IT !!!

One man has the sole authority to order any of Trump’s tax returns be publicly released: President Barack Obama.

DO IT!!!

[Glamrock]

2. OH MY GOD!

This post just gave me an erection!

[alittlelark]

20. Me too ..... and I'm a female !!

[Glamrock]

34. I just sprayed Mountain Dew on the dashboard, my shirt, my pants....

The laughter was worth it tho, thanks!

[AngryAmish]

27. Remind yourself in four hours to call your doctor.

[Glamrock]

35. Shit,

I just officially became middle aged. I'm thinking about having it bronzed while it still works!

[jonno99]

3. As great as that would be - for this instance, it sets a bad precedence - IMHO...nt

[Old and In the Way]

32. The real precedent is not revealing your financials.

If we don't know every thing about a candidate's health - financially and physiologically, then we need a President to do it. We can't allow for Trump to create a precedent where voters can't evaluate a candidate"s fitness to hold office.

[anamandujano]

4. I don't want to get too excited unless we can verify beyond any doubt.

I want to post it somewhere but have to wait until it's verified.

[jehop61]

5. Pres Obama is an honorable man

and he would not set such an awful precedent. He is a student of history and acts according to our Constitution. No way.

[Separation]

8. Absolutely

This would set a horrible president and I can only see horrible things coming from this. Everyone getting a "chubby" from this, well go ahead. But it would be like waking up the next morning only to find out you have a STD.

[randome]

16. He will never take the easy road unless it's also the right road.

[hr][font color="blue"][center]A 90% chance of rain means the same as a 10% chance:
It might rain and it might not.[/center][/font][hr]

[kentuck]

17. What kind of precedent?

Donald Trump is the one setting the precedent.

Every President for the last 50 years has released their tax forms. Trump wants to set a precedent of not releasing his tax forms.

[democrattotheend]

22. I agree. It would also be stupid strategically.

It would shift the story to whether he was playing politics with the release rather than the contents of the returns. It would turn Trump into a victim. Terrible idea.

[Ilsa]

6. I'm worried it could backfire against HRC.

Look, it's private information that she would be perceived to benefit from. People are worried enough about privacy as it is. This could be dangerous, as much as we'd like to see the filings.

[LonePirate]

7. I don't think this is a good idea as it will only strengthen the resolve of RWers.

This would be Exhibit A in their case of big government wielding its powers against American citizens.

The most likely scenario to see his tax returns involves a disgruntled but patriotic IRS employee leaking them even at the risk of termination, prison time and lawsuits.

[safeinOhio]

9. What the hell do you have to lose?

Think of all the crap they have said you are going to do and never did. FEMA camps, take away grand pa's shot gun, instal marshal law, the list is to long. Alex Jones didn't even call this one. October surprise!

[Donald Ian Rankin]

10. Possibly, but only if he wants to put him in the White House.

Can you imagine the (mostly justified) outrage it would cause?

[democrattotheend]

23. Agreed

Bad, bad idea on so many levels.

It might even help Trump so much that it would get the media speculating on whether he actually wanted to tank Hillary because despite their public lovefest they secretly still hate each other.

[rug]

11. Section 6103g of the Internal Revenue Code authorizes release of returns to the President.

It does not authorize the President to in turn release the confidential information to the press.

[pinboy3niner]

12. That's what I see, too, looking at the statutory excerpt

The quoted provisions do not include the authority to make the records public. And how would that square with other privacy laws and the constitutional right to equal protection under the law?

[rug]

13. I think it's there to give the President rapid access in national security concerns.

If he did make the request, he'd have to give a reason. "Because trump sucks", while true, is not a valid reason.

[KamaAina]

24. A short orange finger on the red button is not a national security concern?

[Igel]

19. For many, the failure of Congress to do something means that the President has the authority.

I'd imagine that if Congress fails to raise taxes to 80%, the tsar' could. If Congress fails to declare war or ethnically cleanse Arizona, the tsar' could.

Tsar' nash batyushka.

Zhivi i zdravstvui,
Tsar' nash batyuska!
Raduisya, veselisya, liud,
Zdravomyshliaiushchii liud!

Uzh kaka na nebe soltse,
Slava! Slava!

(Yeah, it's Boris Godunov. Yet some attitudes towards authority never change. They love authority as long as it oppresses those who they dislike.)

[KamaAina]

25. Could the press then file a FOIA request?

[rug]

26. I doubt it. The IRS puts a high priority on confidentiality.

Here's the statute and the allowed exceptions.

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/6103

[KamaAina]

36. But once Obama requested them, they would be White House records.

There you go.

[Yo_Mama]

29. And the last effing thing we need is a court case and a legal shaming of the Democratic

party over this.

[onenote]

14. What a horribly bad idea

Even assuming it could be done legally, which is extremely doubtful (the President isn't a dictator who get to do whatever he or she wants -- that's the whole argument against Trump's view of the office), the backlash would be extraordinary if the President just demanded to see the returns, let alone release them to the public.

It isn't a trump card. It's a non-starter.

[kentuck]

15. He should make him think he is going to do it...

Just to blow his mind.

[Lee-Lee]

18. If he did the headlines would be more about the President "abusing" his power than what was in them

It would probably be the best possible way for them to get out for the Trump campaign, because it would give a distraction away from whatever is in them, and would feed right into the RW talking points about the IRS being abused by Democrats against cons. Heck, this article itself will feed into that narrative.

Horrible idea when you look at it from a strategic point of view.

[democrattotheend]

21. Bad idea

If he does that the media will focus on whether he was "playing politics" by releasing them rather than on what is in them.

The media is starting to hit him harder for failing to disclose them. Unless and until he does, Hillary and her campaign should keep hitting him on it and talking about what he might be hiding. She can also do what lawyers are permitted to do in court and argue a negative inference from his failure to produce them, challenging him to prove that he paid his fair share of taxes and actually gave as much as he claimed to charity.

I would much rather have him never release them and have voters wonder what he is hiding than have the media spend days talking about whether it was appropriate for the president to release them.

[Yo_Mama]

28. He has no legal authority to do it - all of this is covered by statute.

I don't know where someone got this idea, but tax information is generally, and strictly, confidential.

[Crabby Appleton]

33. You are correct

At the very top of 26 USC 6103

(a) General rule

Returns and return information shall be confidential, and except as authorized by this title—
(1) no officer or employee of the United States,

...

shall disclose any return or return information obtained by him in any manner in connection with his service as such an officer or an employee or otherwise or under the provisions of this section. For purposes of this subsection, the term “officer or employee” includes a former officer or employee.

The President can obtain the info in a tax return but can't disclose it.

[Yo_Mama]

38. It can generally only be disclosed to officials and law enforcement

With grounds, and certainly not to the public.

That is a crime under the statutes.

[vi5]

30. How about instead...

..we get people with the HRC campaign out there on every news show, every day, hammering Trump on this?

How about we run ad after ad about how he won't release his tax returns and ask what he's hiding?

Why do we always go to the most convoluted and ill-informed ideas rather than doing what is easy, simple, and to the point? And more importantly.....what campaigns are SUPPOSED to be doing?

[EL34x4]

31. Horrible idea.

Truth is, the people who want to see Trump's tax returns the most have no intentions of voting for him whether he releases them or not.

Trump's supporters don't care about his tax returns and many of them see Trump's refusal to release them as a middle finger to a bureaucracy they already loath.

There's nobody out there saying, "I'd like to vote for Trump if only he'd release his tax returns." Additionally, there's nobody saying, "I was going to vote for Trump until I saw his tax returns."

Democrats have nothing to gain if president Obama forced the release of Trump's tax returns. Sure, this might make people already in Hillary's camp happy but it won't earn her any new votes and it might very well backfire, hardening the reserve of her opposition.

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

37. I'd settle for info on whether or not he's being audited.

If he's not being audited, that would reveal the big lie.