| | | | The Trump tax return fight is coming back in a major way |  | | One day after announcing a broad inquiry into President Trump's political and personal life, House Democrats began to offer some hints as to how they plan to pry Trump's most closely held secret from him.
"Congressional Democrats are likely to request 10 years of President Trump's tax returns in coming weeks, tailoring their inquiry in a way they hope will survive a court battle, according to lawmakers and others involved in the discussions," reads the top of a Washington Post story published Tuesday.
Much remains uncertain -- do Democrats try to get Trump's personal taxes and taxes for his various businesses, for instance -- but what is clear is that the newly installed majority party in the House has no plans to back down from what will almost certainly be one of the most pitched fights of the second half of Trump's first term.
Some context here: Trump is the only modern president -- since Richard Nixon -- to not release any of his income tax returns. He was also the first major party presidential nominee since Watergate not to do so. The excuses he has provided for his lack of transparency have varied -- from claiming he is under an ongoing audit to insisting that tax returns reveal little about a person's finances. (Tax returns provide the fullest picture of someone's financial well being -- or lack thereof. And simply being under audit does not preclude an individual from releasing returns.)
This is a fight that has been simmering, slowly, since the day Democrats took over the House majority last November. Under a little-known law passed in the 1920s, the chairman of the House Ways and Ways Means Committee can request any individual's tax return and the law says the secretary of the Treasury "shall" turn it over.
Trump -- and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin -- have made clear they have zero plans to hand over the President's return to Ways and Means Committee Chairman Rep. Richard Neal, D- Massachusetts. Republicans in Congress have made clear they will fight the attempt by Democrats to get Trump's tax returns -- insisting that the effort is entirely political and amounts to an invasion of privacy.
The likely outcome? A series of legal maneuvers that could well land the case in front of the Supreme Court. Which could, again, put the court right in the middle of a hugely contentious political fight with all sorts of implications on the coming 2020 presidential race.
The Point: The battle over Trump's tax returns is about to begin in earnest. Pay attention.
-- Chris | | "Doing nothing is hard."
-- Louisiana Republican Sen. John Kennedy, who says the Senate will vote next week on President Trump's emergency declaration. | | | Roger Stone may be under a gag order, but that hasn't stopped him from re-releasing his book. The move may earn Stone a bit of cash, but it has also earned him a slap on the wrist from his judge.
Stone is out on bail, and the same judge recently applied a gag order to Stone while he awaits trial. He is not allowed to say anything about the case, the court or Robert Mueller.
Stone, in his re-released book, calls Mueller "crooked" and in the introduction writes how he's being targeted by "deep state liberals" for "strictly political reasons." The introduction is dated January 2019. Stone was arrested and indicted on January 25. | | WATCH: TRUMP VS. CONGRESS | |  | How Congress could embarrass Trump on the wall | | President Donald Trump declared a national emergency at the US-Mexico border, but will he finally get the funds for his promised wall?
The Democrat-controlled House and Republican-controlled Senate are poised to pass a resolution to block the national emergency, but Trump still has the option to veto it. Will their move be only a symbolic one?
Follow up: Have you finally subscribed to The Point on YouTube? | | | Chris is a GIANT fan of Tallest Man on Earth. GIANT. And this new one -- "The Running Styles of New York" -- is a bop. | | How do you mark the 86th birthday of Supreme Court justice, cultural touchstone and noted fitness fan Ruth Bader Ginsburg?
You plank on the steps of the Supreme Court -- apparently.
DC-based group The Outrage is throwing a "Plank like RBG" fitness-themed birthday party on the Supreme Court's steps on March 15. | | Bernie Sanders: Has signed a loyalty pledge saying he will run -- and if elected -- serve as a Democrat, rather than an independent.
Hillary Clinton: Is NOT running for president in 2020 (quelle surprise).
Jeff Merkley: Is also NOT running for president in 2020.
Michael Bloomberg: Is ALSO NOT running for president.
Mark Cuban: Is strongly considering running as a third-party candidate, the NY Daily News reports. | | Among the donors who helped fund Kamala Harris' political rise in California: Donald Trump.
Trump donated a total of $6,000 to Harris' campaigns for California attorney general in 2011 and 2013, reports the Sacramento Bee.
Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump also donated $2,000 to Harris in 2014. | | | | | | |
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