Tag: what is Trump hiding?

Supreme Court grants Trump request to temporarily shield Mueller grand jury materials

The Hill logoThe Supreme Court on Friday granted a Trump administration request to temporarily shield redacted grand jury materials related to former special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe from the Democratic-led House.

The order, signed by Chief Justice John Roberts, halts the disclosure of secret grand jury transcripts and exhibits that Democratic lawmakers had initially requested as part of the House impeachment inquiry into President Trump.

The move pushes back a lower court’s disclosure order on the materials, which was set to take effect Monday, while the justices consider the administration’s request for a longer delay.  Continue reading.

Trump administration asks Supreme Court to stop release of Mueller material

Washington Post logoThe Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to temporarily block a ruling that requires the Justice Department to give Congress certain secret grand jury material from Robert S. Mueller III’s special counsel investigation.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in March cleared the way for Congress to access secret evidence from Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election in one of a set of separation-of-powers lawsuits between House Democrats and the Trump administration.

Solicitor General Noel Francisco told the Supreme Court on Thursday that if it does not put the order on hold, “the government will have to disclose those materials on May 11, 2020, which would irrevocably lift their secrecy and possibly frustrate the government’s ability to seek further review.” Continue reading.

Trump’s Shady Accountants Facing Supreme Court Test Over His Tax Records

On May 12, after a six-week delay caused by the pandemic, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in the epic battle by congressional committees and New York prosecutors to pry loose eight years of President Donald Trump’s tax returns.

Much about the case is without precedent. Oral arguments will be publicly broadcast on live audio. The nine justices and opposing lawyers will debate the issues remotely, from their offices and homes. And the central question is extraordinary: Is the president of the United States immune from congressional — and even criminal — investigation?

Next week’s arguments concern whether Trump’s accounting firm, Mazars USA, must hand over his tax returns and other records to a House committee and the Manhattan district attorney, which have separately subpoenaed them. (There will also be arguments on congressional subpoenas to two of Trump’s banks.) Trump, who promised while running for president to make his tax returns public, has sued to block the documents’ release. The questions apply beyond this case. Trump has repeatedly resisted congressional scrutiny, most recently by vowing to ignore oversight requirements included in the trillion-dollar pandemic-bailout legislation. “I’ll be the oversight,” he declared. Continue reading.

Trump lets slip the real reason he’s not letting Dr. Fauci testify before the House

AlterNet logoWhen the House Appropriations Committee revealed last week that the White House was blocking Dr. Anthony Facui from testifying before the congressional chamber, many were outraged that the administration was undermining a key avenue of oversight. But the White House pushed back, arguing that the timing wasn’t right given the ongoing crisis.

“While the Trump Administration continues its whole-of-government response to COVID-19, including safely opening up America again and expediting vaccine development, it is counter-productive to have the very individuals involved in those efforts appearing at Congressional hearings,” said White House Deputy Press Secretary Judd Deere. “We are committed to working with Congress to offer testimony at the appropriate time.”

But on Tuesday, President Donald Trump dropped the pretense and made the truth quite clear. He doesn’t want Fauci testifying in the House because Democrats control the chamber. Continue reading.

White House prohibits coronavirus task force members from testifying before Congress in May

The Hill logoWhite House coronavirus task force members are prohibited from testifying before Congress this month under new guidance issued by the Trump administration Monday.

Task force members and key deputies have been instructed not to accept invitations to participate in congressional hearings in May, while other agencies responding to the pandemic are being advised to limit the number of hearings they attend.

Top administration officials argue the coronavirus task force and the primary agencies responding to the pandemic need to focus their attention and resources on response efforts, and that having them testify could use up critical hours. Continue reading.

Trump administration’s ‘serial IG purges’ fuel calls for anti-corruption provisions in next COVID-19 package

AlterNet logoSen. Richard Blumenthal pointed on Sunday to President Donald Trump’s intention to oust another inspector general—this time of a Department of Health and Human Services watchdog—to bolster his call for the next coronavirus legislative relief package to include measures to “forestall fraud and favoritism.”

Blumenthal (D-Conn.), along with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Reps. John Sarbanes (D-Md.) and Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), unveiled the details of their proposal to congressional leadership on Friday, urging them to “include strong oversight, accountability, and anti-corruption provisions in any upcoming legislation to provide economic aid, relief, recovery, or stimulus in response to COVID-19 in order to safeguard taxpayer funds and to bolster Americans’ faith in government to respond to this crisis.”

Blumenthal also gave a rundown of the provisions Saturday on Twitter: Continue reading.

House panel: White House blocks Fauci testimony on coronavirus

Axios logoThe Trump administration has blocked Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, from testifying on the coronavirus pandemic.

Why it matters: Fauci has often given Americans a reality check on the administration’s response to the coronavirus and has garnered bipartisan credibility for his straight-forward approach to the crisis.

  • The Washington Post first reported that the administration rejected the House committee’s request for Fauci’s testimony, quoting a spokesman for the House Appropriations Committee.

Flashback: Fauci testified in March that America’s system of making coronavirus tests available is not set up in a way it needs to be.

  • Fauci and Deborah Birx, the White House’s coronavirus response coordinator, are set to “take a back seat” to the White House messaging on coronavirus, a White House official told Axios’ Jonathan Swan this week.

Justices ask if House-Trump subpoena showdown is appropriate for courts

A non-ruling would mean the president and the House could both stand to lose

The Supreme Court made a request Monday that hinted the justices might want to back out of the legal showdown over President Donald Trump’s effort to stop congressional subpoenas for his tax and financial records.

With oral arguments set for May 12 on the issue, the Supreme Court asked House attorneys and Trump’s personal attorneys to file briefs about whether the dispute is better left for politicians than the courts — known as the “political question doctrine.”

“It reads like an invitation to make up a way out for the Court,” Georgetown University Law Center professor Joshua Geltzer tweeted. “Let’s hope it’s not.” Continue reading.

Trump’s IG firings prompt questions of whether more are coming

The Hill logoPresident Trump’s recent shakeup of federal watchdogs has questions swirling over whether more inspectors general across the government may be on the chopping block in the coming days.

In less than a week, Trump fired, removed or publicly berated inspectors general across multiple federal agencies, including the oversight official who was tasked last week with overseeing the massive $2.2 trillion coronavirus stimulus package.

Oversight experts and Democrats have protested the president’s inspector general (IG) reorganization, while some of the president’s allies are pushing for further review of current watchdogs. 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.