The Times’ Trump tax news and confidentiality
Does anyone really care about the NY Times’ news on Trump’s taxes? I’m not even sure that the Times cares all that much at this point.
Oh, the anti-Trump forces are trying to spin this as big. But anyone who is aware of much of anything about Trump’s past knows he went through some hard times in which he was nearly bankrupted. And anyone who knows anything about taxes would know those would be years in which he would be taking losses rather than paying out.
It’s a “blockbuster report.” Yeah, right.
The report is based on printouts from his official IRS tax transcripts and figures from his federal tax form the Times obtained from an unnamed source with legal access to the information.
I don’t know about you—and I don’t know about the majority of Americans—but I wouldn’t like that even if it happened to someone I hated. I don’t like people’s tax information getting out into the public domain against their will, at the hands of the NY Times.
The Times’ source has legal access to the information. Great. All that means is that the information wasn’t stolen. Does that person with legal access have a legal right to give it to a newspaper that will publish the information? If that person is Trump’s ex-lawyer, or ex-accountant, or works for the IRS, or used to work for the IRS, does that make it okay for the Times to publish what I believe is almost certainly confidential information, and protect the source as well?
Those are rhetorical questions.
They do it because they can do it and get away with it, not because it’s the right thing to do. I just don’t happen to think this will harm Trump, and I would hope it would actually help him because people would realize that the newspaper is misusing confidential information against a political opponent.
A person can hope, anyway, right?
Oh, and there’s also this:
[New York state] Senate Dems will vote on Wednesday to approve a bill authorizing the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance to share state tax return information with Congressional committees as long as there is a “specific and legitimate legislative purpose.”
The bill, which would amend state laws prohibiting the release of private tax information, would only apply to Trump’s state returns, not his federal ones, according to sponsor Sen. Brad Hoylman (D-Manhattan)…
The president’s New York roots and his business being based in the city means a lot of the same information available on his federal returns would be included on his state documents, Hoylman noted.
Isn’t that special? If they pass this, I hope it comes back to bite them.
Let me get this straight… the great State of New York is voting on a bill that allows its legislature access to private citizens’ tax returns, as long as there is a “specific and legitimate” reason for it. This is a bill for which there’s been no call until now – despite New York’s long history with the Mob and ALL the various shenanigans that New York taxpayers might reasonably be expected to have pulled over the years to try to minimize the significant burdens placed on them by the state. But now it’s an Idea Whose Time Has Come. And a New York legislator is publicly stating that the raison d’etre for this bill is specifically to gain access to the state returns of the President of the United States.
OK, you know how in Captain America, the baddie who becomes known as the Red Skull originally has a normal face over his, well, red skull? And over time the normal face literally starts to slip, revealing weird little gaps and so forth, to the point where he has to keep tugging it back into place so he can look like a normal person? And eventually he just gives up the pretense and peels off his normal face, revealing the monstrous face beneath?
Where are we in that process, exactly?
We all file tax returns in the expectation that our co-workers, neighbors, and family will not see the data unless we share it ourselves. We are all subject to audit by tax authorities, and in Trump’s case, audits are probably routine, as he says they are. These attempts to get his private information are purely political.
The person who leaked this data, even though it’s 25-35 years old, should be identified and prosecuted. If New York passes a law invading its taxpayers’ privacy in this way, the case should be resisted all the way to the Supreme Court. Being wealthy and being hated by a segment of the population doesn’t mean rights are surrendered.
The Sulzberger Birdcage Liner is kind of like First Jersey Securities. No one with any integrity works there for very long.
passes a law invading its taxpayers’ privacy in this way, the case should be resisted all the way to the Supreme Court.
Don’t you love the ‘now-you-see-it-now-you-don’t’ quality of ‘equal protection’ in the hands of the purveyors of the jurisprudence of the ‘living constitution’?
Humpty Dumpty’s constitution; not just living and breathing, ” It’s alive! ”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiG-ZfnYkl0
Conidentiality?
I am not surprised that the neither NYT nor its supporters grasp the fact that, if the tax information published is simply accurate, that Trump, nevertheless, had the gumption to stick with it and make a success of himself. This sort of intelligence is beyond them.
Additionally, there might be more to the point then the fact that, as many have pointed out, this period was a tough one for everyone in NY real estate. While his taxes show he lost money, he wouldn’t be paying taxes either. It seems to me that, finding ways not to pay taxes or reduce taxes owed is a GREAT AMERICAN ENTERPRISE. More power to him.
If Trump’s current or former accountants or lawyers turned the transcripts over, that a disbarment offense. If an IRS employee did it, it’s a federal crime. The FBI should get a search warrant to raid the NYT and find out.
The viability of a tax return is between the filer and the IRS.
If the conditions are as Richard S. states and, the crime is the release to the public of the taxes of a private individual without their consent, then isn’t the NYT complicit in the commission of a crime?
The real point is that The New York Times wants public employees to commit felonies so that they can print confidential information for the sole purpose of damaging their political opponents. This is yet more evidence of the Deep State in operation, and its ongoing collusion with the media.
All that means is that the information wasn’t stolen. Does that person with legal access have a legal right to give it to a newspaper that will publish the information?…I would argue that that IS stealing. Just as James Comey did in leaking his notes from his conversation with President since those notes were taken in his capacity as an agent of the FBI there weren’t really “his” in any true sense any more than my notes in a capacity in state government are mine. IF I’m discharged and take them with me it is a theft of a serious nature. And in the instances discussed here all the more so.
Even funnier, the NYT is incompetent, not news, I know. Trump mentioned his bankruptcies in his intro to the first episode of The Apprentice in 2004.
https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2019/05/08/trump-discussed-his-business-losses-on-the-apprentice/
Howie Carr read a 1995 NYT piece lauding Trump for making it back from the brink and going on to succeed in real estate when many other businessmen had failed in the last decade.
Where are we in that process, exactly?
Nice marvel reference.
“[New York state] Senate Dems will vote on Wednesday to approve a bill authorizing the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance to share state tax return information with Congressional committees”
* * *
So, when are Cuomo’s and Bloomberg’s returns coming out?
To give him some credit, Cuomo recognizes the generic application if the bill passes.
https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/ny-senate-dems-trump-taxes-congress-committee-subpoenas-20190507-psudrml3mffwnjkgp5sen5cobe-story.html
“Gov. Cuomo said last month he would support the measure, but cautioned that it would have to apply to all lawmakers in order to pass a legal challenge.
“Why not say, any elected official or any person who runs for office in the state of New York your tax return will be released? Period. No hypocrisy, no duplicity, no political games,” Cuomo told WAMC’s Alan Chartock.”
Oh Goody! When do we get to see Hillary’s?
Well, that female reporter at the NYT must have really had to put out to obtain this story. I love the NYT’s new motto, “we put out for the news”.