Trump Asked That Confirmation of I.R.S. Counsel Be a Priority
Source: New York Times
President Trump earlier this year asked Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, to prioritize a confirmation vote for his nominee to be the chief counsel of the Internal Revenue Service, indicating that it was a higher priority than voting on the nomination of William P. Barr as attorney general, a person familiar with the conversation said.
White House aides insisted for months that the confirmation of the nominee, Michael J. Desmond, a tax lawyer from Santa Barbara, Calif., was a top priority after passage of the tax bill in 2017.
But the request by Mr. Trump, made to Mr. McConnell on Feb. 5, raised questions about whether the president had other motivations. For months, the president has seethed over vows by congressional Democrats that they would move to obtain his tax returns from the I.R.S. And this week, the House Ways and Means Committee chairman, Representative Richard E. Neal, Democrat of Massachusetts, formally asked the I.R.S. for six years of the returns, using an obscure provision in the tax code to do so.
In July, when Mr. Desmond was first being considered by the Senate Finance Committee, Bloomberg reported that he had briefly advised the Trump Organization on tax issues before Mr. Trump took office. James Wilkinson, a spokesman for Mr. Desmond, told Bloomberg that Mr. Desmond had helped with a discrete reporting matter for a subsidiary company that was resolved with no tax impact.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/04/us/politics/trump-michael-desmond-irs.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share
global1
(25,241 posts)in the tax code to get at his returns and he wanted to get his man in place to prevent this?
Thomas Hurt
(13,903 posts)Someone who would not have any trouble covering up for Donnie.
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,673 posts)for a job nobody knows anything about, do you?
Kurt V.
(5,624 posts)has kept this in check. Decades of ceding power by congress and here we are.
hlthe2b
(102,225 posts)The letter goes to the Commissioner. I suppose either Desmond or Mnuchen could advise Rettig not to comply, but then that simply becomes a court matter. It also seems to suggest that Desmond is willing to ignore legal precedence (which may well be the case), but I'm not sure that is a given.
empedocles
(15,751 posts)PSPS
(13,590 posts)watoos
(7,142 posts)the former IRS commissioner under Obama was on Lawrence O'Donnell and he said that Treasury Secretary Mnuchin would make the decision to hand over the taxes.
not fooled
(5,801 posts)if it's up to red don's fellow financial criminal mnuchin.
The fix is in.
Evolve Dammit
(16,723 posts)GemDigger
(4,305 posts)We see what you're doing there President Lawless and Disorder.
Kablooie
(18,625 posts)It could be that illegal activities could be unearthed but more likely it shows that Trump only has $13 to his name.
demmiblue
(36,841 posts)Firestorm49
(4,032 posts)After planting the stooge Barr in a position to try to save his sorry ass, now he wants to put his plant at the IRS to attempt to protect his fraudulent tax returns.
How this idiot ever made it into th3 White House is a crime in and of itself.