Democrats win the House and announce they’ll pull Donald Trump’s tax returns
The Democrats have won majority control of the House of Representatives tonight, meaning they’re about to take control of every House committee. As Palmer Report explained earlier this evening, this means the Democrats now have the ability to launch every investigation into Donald Trump they see fit, and they have unilateral subpoena power. Now we have confirmation that the Democrats are going after arguably the biggest prize of all.
House Democrats have informed MSNBC – as reported on air tonight – that they’re planning to request Donald Trump’s tax returns from the Treasury Department. This means that not only are the Democrats taking the most aggressive tack possible, they’re wasting no time throwing down the gauntlet. They won’t be able to pull the trigger until they officially take control in early January, but they’re already spelling out their intentions. So how will this play out?
The House has the clear legal right to pull Donald Trump’s tax returns, and by default the Treasury Department has no legal right to deny the request. In other words, if Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin tries to refuse the request and this goes before a judge, House Democrats will have the legal upper hand. Mnuchin would have to come up with an extraordinary legal argument to convince a judge to go the other way. If the judge rules with House Democrats as expected, they could then hold Mnuchin and/or other Treasury officials in contempt of Congress.
In other words, Donald Trump has a real problem. House Democrats hold all the leverage, and they’ve made clear they’re going to move against Trump as aggressively as the Resistance has been hoping. Trump just tweeted “Tremendous success tonight. Thank you to all!” But this is shaping up to be the worst night of his life.
