Tag: Trump Treasury Department

White House budget plan has Secret Service back under Treasury

Agency has been under Department of Homeland Security since it moved there after the 9/11 attacks

The president’s fiscal 2021 budget blueprint assumes the transfer of the Secret Service back to its traditional home within the Treasury Department.

The agency, which provides presidential security and has primary jurisdiction over a variety of financial crimes, has operated as part of the Department of Homeland Security since it moved there in the bureaucratic reorganization after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The proposal, which was the subject of media reports last week, was effectively revealed in a footnote to an Office of Management and Budget summary table for fiscal 2021 obtained Sunday by CQ Roll Call. Continue reading.

Investigators interview IRS whistleblower who warned of meddling in audit of Trump or Pence: report

AlterNet logoThe Senate is investigating claims made by an IRS whistleblower who has accused at least one political appointee in the Treasury Department of interfering with an audit of the tax returns of either President Donald Trump or Vice President Mike Pence.

Senate investigators conducted an extensive interview with a whistleblower who claimed that there had been improper political interference with the audit process in recent weeks, according to The Washington Post. Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who are the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, received the whistleblower’s transcribed remarks.

The complaint specifies that at least one political appointee meddled in the process for handling audits for one or both officials. The issue was initially disclosed by the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass., in an August court filing that was part of a larger lawsuit over the release of Trump’s tax returns. Individuals who described the complaint at the time said the whistleblower was a career IRS official. Officials from the Trump administration dismissed the complaint as hearsay. Continue reading.

Mnuchin, The White House Intervene To Secure Opportunity Zone Tax Breaks … To Benefit Wealthy Allies

On Friday, Trump again tried to tout his tax law’s opportunity zone tax break as a boon to low-income and minority communities. In reality, the tax break has only amounted to another handout to wealthy investors, and the Trump administration has even directly intervened to ensure bigger tax breaks for their friends and donors.

Mnuchin personally intervened to secure an opportunity zone tax break for a wealthy investor, fraudster and longtime friend.

New York Times: “Last year, after pressure from Mr. Milken’s business partner and other landowners, the Treasury Department ignored its own guidelines on how to select opportunity zones and made the area eligible for the tax break, according to people involved in the discussions and records reviewed by The Times. The unusual decision was made at the personal instruction of Mr. Mnuchin, according to internal Treasury Department emails. It came shortly after he had spent time with Mr. Milken at an event his institute hosted.” Continue reading “Mnuchin, The White House Intervene To Secure Opportunity Zone Tax Breaks … To Benefit Wealthy Allies”

Scoop: The grandees headed to Saudi Arabia’s “Davos in the Desert”

Axios logoNever mind the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi — there’s money to be made. That’s the clear message sent by the list of grandees scheduled to attend the Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia later this month.

Axios has obtained a “Draft Narrative Program” for the conference, marked “Not Final — Subject to Change.” Any of the names on the program could therefore still pull out. Those names include heads of state, including Narendra Modi of India and Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil.

  • The Trump administration is represented by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Energy Secretary Rick Perry, and White House senior adviser Jared Kushner. Former Treasury undersecretary David Malpass, now the president of the World Bank, is also on the list, as is former White House communications chief Anthony Scaramucci.

View the complete October 23 article by Felix Salmon on the Axios website here.

Tax-return whistleblower in spotlight amid impeachment fight

The Hill logoA whistleblower allegation about possible misconduct in the IRS presidential tax-return audit program is receiving new attention amid House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry into President Trump.

House Democrats are focused on a separate whistleblower complaint that President Trump allegedly urged Ukraine to investigate his political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden. But progressive groups are also banging the drum over the tax complaint, urging leaders to disclose more information and arguing it could be crucial to Democrats’ oversight.

“We’ve been overwhelmed with scandal and secrecy with Trump’s presidency the entire time,” said Maura Quint, executive director of the progressive group Tax March. “I think now we’ve got the Democrats trying to hone in on what’s been going on, and I think the common link that we’ve been seeing is that since before he took office, he’s been trying to hide his tax returns.”

View the complete October 6 article by Naomi Jagoda on The Hill website here.

Conspiracy Theorist Monica Crowley Named To Top Treasury Post

Monica Crowley, President Donald Trump’s pick for the top communications position at the Treasury Department, is a longtime Fox News contributor who has pilloried journalists as “dishonest, hostile, biased, rude fake news” and has endorsed a series of racist conspiracy theories, including about President Barack Obama’s “real father.”

Trump intends to nominate Crowley to be assistant secretary of the Treasury for public affairs, the White House announced Monday night. The position does not require Senate confirmation.

Crowley spent decades in right-wing media — joining Fox in 1998 — after serving as an aide to former President Richard Nixon in the early 1990s. At Fox, she was a C-list voice the network’s hosts regularly booked to provide the casual bigotries, hypocrises, talking points, and lies that fuel the Fox propaganda machine.

View the complete July 17 by Matt Gertz from Media Matters on the National Memo website here.

The Mnuchin myth on Harriet Tubman, exposed

Washington Post logoPRESIDENT TRUMP, who as a candidate in 2016 derided as “pure political correctness” the plan to honor Harriet Tubman by featuring the Underground Railroad’s most celebrated conductor’s image on the front of the $20 bill, can rest easy: Thanks to the intervention of his treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, only likenesses of white men will appear on U.S. paper money for the duration of his presidency.

Mr. Mnuchin’s far-fetched pretext for the delay — that eight more years of technical planning were required to prevent counterfeiting issues in the bill’s new design — is now exposed as risible. As the New York Times reported, the design of the new bill, featuring Tubman, was already quite advanced when Mr. Mnuchin announced the move, apparently fearing an even greater backlash should Mr. Trump cancel the project outright. The treasury secretary’s postponement means the new note will not be complete until after Mr. Trump leaves office, even if he serves a second term. Continue reading “The Mnuchin myth on Harriet Tubman, exposed”

Debt limit may be reached before end of August recess, Mnuchin says

Treasury secretary formally notified Congress of the uncertainty on Friday

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin put his request on paper for Congress to act on the debt ceiling before the August recess, writing to congressional leaders Friday that there’s a chance Treasury could run out of cash in early September.

“Since there is a reasonable uncertainty in projecting government cash flows, it is impossible to identify precisely how long extraordinary measures will last,” Mnuchin wrote in his four-sentence letter, referencing accounting maneuvers Treasury can engage in to carve out room under the $22 trillion debt limit. Continue reading “Debt limit may be reached before end of August recess, Mnuchin says”

House Democrats sue Treasury Department for Trump’s tax returns

Axios logoHouse Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal is filing a lawsuit against the U.S. Treasury Department in an effort to compel the IRS to turn over President Trump’s tax returns.

Why it matters: Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has denied multiple requests for Trump’s tax returns, including a subpoena from the House Ways and Means Committee in May — arguing that the demands “lack a legitimate legislative purpose.” The result of Mnuchin’s defiance is likely to be a protracted court battle.

What they’re saying:

  • The lawsuit argues that a section of the IRS code requires “in mandatory terms that Treasury ‘shall furnish'” the House Ways and Means Committee with “any” tax return information that is requested, and that Trump has denied the request for what the committee believes is the first time ever.
  • In response to Treasury’s argument that the request lacks a “legitimate legislative purpose,” the lawsuit claims that nothing in the relevant IRS code requires an explanation. Even if a reason were required, the lawsuit argues that the committee needs the materials for its investigation into tax laws and policies related to presidential tax returns and tax law compliance by Trump.
  • It also argues that “the committee’s power to conduct oversight and investigations is firmly rooted in Congress’s Article I legislative authority.”

View the complete July 2 article by Zachary Basu on the Axios website here.

To Conceal Trump Taxes, Mnuchin Cites Non-Existent Legal Memo

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is continuing to defy a request from Congress, first issued in April, to provide Trump’s tax returns.

On Tuesday, Justin Sok, senior adviser for Treasury’s Office of Legislative Affairs, insisted that Mnuchin was justified in his stonewalling because of supposed legal advice from the Department of Justice that doesn’t even exist in writing yet — and no one knows when it ever will.

“The Department of Justice intends to memorialize its advice in a published legal opinion as soon as its practicable,” Sok wrote in a letter to Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee. “We will provide a copy of the opinion to you when we receive it.”

View the complete May 31 article by Oliver Willis on the National Memo website here.