The Supreme Court handed down two decisions yesterday about Trump’s finances – one involving subpoenas from the US House of Representative and the other involving subpoenas from the State of New York. Both subpoenas involved attempts to access Trump’s financial records as part of ongoing investigations. The good news is, the court found unanimously that the President is not above the law and that his legal team’s arguments that a president is immune from investigation while in office were without merit. The bad news is that both decisions were remanded back to lower courts for further review which means that no one will be seeing Trump’s financial records for a while. That said, it does appear that the State of New York will eventually get the documents – but probably after the election.
The question that keeps coming up in my mind, and I assume many other people’s minds, is, “Why is the President fighting so hard to keep his tax returns and financial records secret?” No president in modern history has failed to release their tax returns. Why is Trump so adamant that he will not?
There could be some simple explanations. Perhaps he is not nearly as wealthy as he has claimed and revelation of that fact might prove embarrassing. We all know Trump doesn’t like to be embarrassed so maybe it’s that. Or maybe it will be revealed that he didn’t pay very much tax due to his real estate investments and associated write-offs and revelation of that would be an embarrassment. Perhaps. I personally believe that there is something much more sinister at work.
During my career in the defense business, I held all kinds of clearances and program accesses at various times depending upon what I was involved with. In order to obtain some of these accesses I had to undergo a lot of scrutiny. For some of the background investigations and updates, the ‘men in the dark suits and sun glasses’ would talk to my neighbors. For some accesses I actually had to undergo a polygraph exam. And the investigators certainly looked at my finances and all of my international travel.
In counter-espionage briefings they often talk about why people commit espionage and they use the acronym MICE which represents the primary reason people commit crimes against their country. The acronym stands for ‘Money’, ‘Ideology’, ‘Compromise’, ‘Ego’. So the question I have is, “Why was I subjected to such extensive investigations before I was given the clearances I needed, when we have a man in the White House who has access to the nation’s most sensitive information and he is allowed to completely avoid any oversight?”
The US House of Representatives has a Constitutional duty to provide oversight of the President and his administration. If there is any inkling at all that the President could be compromised (by the Russians for example), then the House has a duty to investigate. If there is any inkling that there might be financial misdeeds (Money), the House has a duty to investigate. We know that Russians have been heavy investors in some of his properties. ‘We the people’ need to understand this better.
There has to be a reason why Trump is fighting so hard to keep his finances under wraps. I personally believe it is something more than just embarrassment. This is not just a ‘personal’ matter in which Trump, as a private citizen’ chooses to not release his tax returns and financial records. This is a matter of national security. Going forward I hope the Congress eventually passes legislation requiring any future president or congressman to release their tax returns as a condition of taking office. These people work for us and we have a right to know who we are ‘hiring’.
If Trump has nothing to hide, he could just release his records and, even if they were a bit embarrassing, it would probably blow over and he could get on to creating the next crisis. The fact that he is fighting so hard to keep his records secret tells me there is a lot more there than just ‘embarrassment’. Given this latest ruling by the Supreme Court and Trump’s subsequent Twitter storm, my guess is he is even more desperate and is not sleeping well at night wondering what kinds of legal jeopardy he and his family might be facing in New York. Time will tell!
What you are saying Mike is so true. All these facts you present need logical answers but tribal loyalty of Trump supporters “trump” the truth that everything that comes our that is against Trump is fake news. This game of smoke and mirrors is not new and has been used by almost every dictator in their quest for power.