Open defiance of a duly authorized congressional subpoena
The House Oversight Committee moved Tuesday to hold a former White House personnel security director in contempt of Congress for failing to appear at a hearing investigating alleged lapses in White House security clearance procedures.
Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.), chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said he would consult with the House counsel and members of the panel about scheduling a vote on contempt for former White House personnel security director Carl Kline. At the instruction of the White House, Kline failed to show up for scheduled testimony on security clearances.
The move marks a dramatic escalation of tensions between Congress and the Trump White House, which is increasingly resisting requests for information from Capitol Hill.
“The White House and Mr. Kline now stand in open defiance of a duly authorized congressional subpoena with no assertion of any privilege of any kind by President Trump,” Cummings said in a statement. “Based on these actions, it appears that the President believes that the Constitution does not apply to his White House, that he may order officials at will to violate their legal obligations, and that he may obstruct attempts by Congress to conduct oversight.”
This is not a monarchy. Let’s hope it’s not a dictatorship.
This is essentially the definition of a high crime.
Trump’s tax returns appear to be the current analogue of Nixon’s Watergate tapes. Nixon only made the tapes for tax dodge (sorry, reduction) purposes.
The conclusion that is drawn most readily is that Trump has stuff to hide. But what could it possibly be? Does he own a chain of brothels…? Curiouser and curiouser.
Considering how much importance he places in just how rich he says he is, official tax figures showing he’s not as rich as he claims to be would be an ebarassment. That is the most charitable, least damaging scenario I can imagine for hiding his tax returns. Anything else I can think of (the sources of his income and his dealings with them since being elected, from whom he has borrowed and their connections, etc.), is much worse. His determination to keep hidden that which his predecessors have released as a matter of course only encourages people (like me) to believe he must have something really embarassing, bad or even illegal to hide.
YNNB, and it must be something that bothers him. He realizes it is embarrassing or bad or illegal. I don’t think brothels would bother him as long as they are making money. He would just laugh that off. But he has been accused of various things over the years, and may not want us to find out what is and isn’t true; he may actually be afraid of prosecution in spite of the fact that he claims the president is above the law.
What does he have to hide? Since his inauguration, the man has stood in plain sight of the international media and shown both his inability to fathom and his contempt for the truth. The man appears incapable of telling the truth. A pathological liar who is a real estate developer. Not much of a stretch to imagine that a pathologically lying real estate developer might be a tad bent. They say, “where there’s smoke, there’s fire”. In Washington DC there’s so much smoke there should be a respiratory advisory in effect.
Which makes want to know what he’s hiding even more…
The man seems to be completely shameless, so yeah, I’m dying to find out what he’s trying to hide.
Maybe, just as with Capone, there are no returns to be released, or returns simply marked ‘No Reportable Income. Love, Donald’.