Trump tax returns: Conflicts of interest and national security threats plague this presidency - USA TODAY
Trump tax returns: Conflicts of interest and national security threats plague this presidency - USA TODAY |
- Trump tax returns: Conflicts of interest and national security threats plague this presidency - USA TODAY
- Bad Bunny's glow-in-the-dark Crocs go on sale today - USA TODAY
- Car rams into crowd of protesters in New York City's Times Square, video shows - USA TODAY
| Posted: 30 Sep 2020 04:01 AM PDT
We need to know if Trump's income, debts and financial ties have influenced his decisions, and require future presidents to divest business interests.For four years, President Trump has said that neither the public nor Congress would learn anything important from his tax returns. Now, having caught a glimpse of what's in his returns, those arguments are thrown out the window. It's time to move forward full throttle on genuine oversight and transparency. I testified before Congress early last year, and wrote with my colleagues in this newspaper, that the president's tax returns could shed light on whether he paid his fair share of taxes, whether he could have been involved in tax fraud, and whether the IRS has appropriately reviewed his tax files, as well as crucial issues ranging from his income from foreign sources to financial ties that could create conflicts of interest. The president broke with 40 yearsof his predecessors and has failed to disclose his tax returns himself. But now the New York Times has uncovered his tax return information, and it reveals important — and devastating — information on all of those questions I raised last year and more. Favorable IRS treatment for Trump?The tax return data reported by the Times makes clear that the president has not paid anything like what most of us would consider his fair share. For instance, he paid $750 a year both his first year in office and the year he was elected, while regular Americans with wealth a small fraction of his paid thousands more. The report also reveals that he reduced his tax bill by writing off highly questionable business expenses and consulting fees. The tax data has also illuminated the president's conflicts of interest. My organization, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, just last week documented the more than 3,400 conflicts of interest that the president's businesses have caused for him, based on publicly available information. We now know from his taxes that he received millions in income from countries like the Philippines, India, and Turkey. Importantly, we also know that the president has more than $300 million in loans from banks and obscure trusts that will come due within the next four years. But this is not a time to say "I told you so." Now that we know Trump's tax returns contain so much information crucial to oversight of his presidency, we must take steps to ensure transparency and accountability going forward. First, Congress must spring into action. Of course the president himself should make his tax returns public, as we and so many others have called on him to do for years. He said in Tuesday's debate that "you'll see it," a promise he's made and broken many times. If he sticks to his intransigence, the House Ways and Means Committee must continue its legal effortsto compel the Treasury Department to turn over the president's returns as the committee requested and the law requires. The Times has reviewed and described tax return data, but it is still essential for Congress, and eventually the public, to have access to the full returns. That includes later returns that can tell us whether and how the president benefited from the massive tax cut bill he and his congressional allies pushed through in 2017. Should he get clearance? Trump tax returns are not just good for gossip. Here are 3 reasons they matter to voters. That committee and others should also immediately demand answers from the IRS about whether the presidency has in fact delayed completion of an audit into a $72 million refund Trump claimed for business losses (it started 10 years ago and is still going) and whether the agency has examined the questionable business expense claims the president has apparently made in recent years. Congress needs to know whether President Trump is receiving favorable treatment from the IRS and whether political pressure has been brought to bear to protect the president. Committees should also be drilling into the many potential conflicts of interest revealed by the tax return data to determine whether the president's income, financial ties and debts have influenced his decision-making, and to determine whether the massive debts coming due will compromise policy-making and national security going forward. The people's interest, or Trump's?Second, the Times' reporting, and the tax returns, must precipitate quick and comprehensive outside investigations. The Manhattan District Attorney's Office is reportedly already investigating potential tax fraud in connection with the president's companies and won a Supreme Court victory that should eventually allow it to receive his tax returns. That office should pursue new leads revealed in the Times' reporting to determine whether they support potential fraud charges. Outside groups and scholars with expertise, and the public, should also follow up on the reported tax return data to uncover more about potential misconduct and about conflicts of interest that could impact the lives and security of Americans. Because the president has refused to cooperate at all with legitimate oversight requests, it is up to all of us to do what we can to ensure that the American people and our representatives know whether decisions are being made legitimately in the people's interest, or in the president's personal interest. Systemic failure: Our tax code, not Trump, is the scandal. It's designed to help rich people avoid taxes. Finally, there is now no excuse not to enact real democracy reform. The For the People Act passed by the House early last year included, among many other significant reforms, a requirement that the president, the vice president and major candidates make their tax returns public. The arguments against that provision that I heard when I testified in the House last year — that obtaining this tax information was unnecessary, irrelevant and extraordinary — now cannot be taken seriously. It is important too to put into law strong requirements that any president divest business interests before taking office in order to foreclose the conflicts of interest and national security threats that we now know plague this presidency. The reaction to this week's tax revelation must go well beyond jaw-dropping headlines about President Trump's $750 tax bill. It is time for us to act to make real transparency and anti-corruption reform a reality. Noah Bookbinder, a former criminal prosecutor for the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section, is the executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. Follow him on Twitter: @NoahBookbinder Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2020/09/30/trump-taxes-conflicts-of-interest-national-security-threats-column/3578359001/  |
| Bad Bunny's glow-in-the-dark Crocs go on sale today - USA TODAY Posted: 29 Sep 2020 09:00 AM PDT   |
| Car rams into crowd of protesters in New York City's Times Square, video shows - USA TODAY Posted: 04 Sep 2020 12:00 AM PDT CLOSE  Police are still searching for a suspect after a car rammed through a crowd of protesters in Times Square. Storyful NEW YORK — Police are continuing to investigate after a car rammed through a crowd of protesters in Times Square during a rainy Thursday evening demonstration. Video shared on social media around 8 p.m. Thursday showed a black sedan charge through a group of protesters, some with bikes, in a crosswalk in Times Square. The group had been chanting messages protesting social injustice when a car horn begins to blare and the sedan comes into frame. The car stops in front of two cyclists then plows ahead as the crowd chases after it. New York Police Department spokesperson Thomas Antonetti told USA TODAY on Friday morning that the investigation was ongoing. "It's unclear at this point who is responsible," Antonetti said. Juliet Germanotta, identified by the Associated Press as a passenger in the car, said a pro-police activist who wasn't part of their group offered to drive them away because, she says, "a mob" was trying to attack them. "We tried to leave. We stopped because they blocked the street," Germanotta said. "They then begin to try to open the door and break the windows, so he drove to save our lives. That's what happened." Germanotta made headlines this summer when she was arrested on several occasions for dumping paint onto a Black Lives Matter mural on the street outside Trump's namesake Manhattan tower. Gothamist, a New York City news outlet, reported that the car was carrying pro-Trump counter protesters who had received an NYPD escort before running into the crowd. The website, citing an unnamed police spokesperson, reported that the vehicle was being ushered through a nearby hotel parking lot but "missed the turn." New York Police Department's public information office declined to comment further on the report. The news outlet also reported that the license plate of the car matches that of a car frequently seen with a pro-NYPD activist, Hakim Gibson. Gibson posted a video on his Facebook page indicating that he was at the Times Square protest Thursday night with Germanotta. She confirmed he was the driver and that she knew him as a photographer who took pictures at various protests. "He saved our lives," Germanotta said. New York Police Commissioner Dermot Shea told WNYW-TV on Friday morning that police are still investigating whether a crime occurred and believe multiple were inside the vehicle. In a tweet Thursday, police said the car involved was not an NYPD vehicle as some social media users said they believed it looked like an unmarked police car. Antonetti said there were no injuries, though some social media users who tweeted video from the scene said a few minor injuries occurred. NYPD said on Twitter on Thursday that there were no complaints and that anyone who was injured should come forward. Keith Powers, a New York City council member who represents a district that includes Times Square, tweeted that his office was looking into the incident. "Using a vehicle to hurt peaceful protestors is unacceptable and must be stopped," Powers tweeted. In a disturbing trend amid recent protests against racial injustice, dozens of vehicles have rammed into demonstrations across the United States this summer. In one incident, it was two NYPD vehicles that rammed into a crowd. The protests Thursday in Times Square were calling for justice for Daniel Prude, a Black man who died from asphyxia during an incident with Rochester, New York, police in March. Seven police officers involved in the Prude's death were suspended Thursday after new details came to light this week about what occurred the night Prude died. Prude, whose death has been ruled a homicide, was pinned to the ground as police restrained him, and officers also placed a "spit hood" over his head. The incident occurred two months before the death of George Floyd, a Black man killed when a white police officer dug his knee into Floyd's neck for over eight minutes. Floyd's death sparked massive unrest across the country as protesters repeated calls for changes to police departments and racial justice. Contributing: John Connolly, The Bergen Record; Steve Orr, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle; The Associated Press Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/09/04/new-york-city-times-square-car-rams-protesters-daniel-prude/5713780002/  |
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