Depends on what you mean. If someone pulled a Pentagon Papers, and read it into the official public record, then probably not.
If some staffer meets a reporter in a back room and gives it over, then probably.
That’s a silly question. Of course there is punishment.
It’s also silly to think anyone would want to leak them. Why would they do that? It will just show us what we already know: Trump is the biggest most bestest most wonderfulest most smartest most honest businessman ever, who is always making the most bestest deals ever.
The question I’m wondering about is related. Suppose, for the sake of wild speculation, something turns up in those tax returns that looks fishy. Payments made to women who’ve claimed to have affairs with Trump. Or payments not properly accounted for in the returns, payments that have shown up elsewhere. Or shell corporations that are used for fishy purposes. Or, I dunno, something that I as a tax amateur can’t predict.
What are the constraints around legislators who find out about shenanigans? Can they report in general terms what they’ve learned? Specific terms? Can they report shenanigans at all?
There does not appear to have been any fallout the last time that that happened.
He assures us that there’s lots of fish— fantastic fish, the best fish— and covers the entire pond with a tarp.
Thanks for clarifying my question. My question would be are there legal consequences if they leak the information to third parties or would it be House punishment (censure, expelled, etc. in theory). Also, could they report suspected illegal acts to the FBI, Department of the Treasury, state AGs, etc.* based on what they find in the tax returns?
*Ignore the theory the President can’t be indited and assume it is the tax return of an indictable citizen/resident
ETA: read Lance Turbo’s cite and noted
This was answered in my last post.
The last time the Ways and Means Committee used U.S. Code § 6103 (f) and then subsequently both forwarded private info to the DOJ and published private info to a public website, there were no legal consequences whatsoever.
In similar, but not identical circumstances, the IRS paid $50k to the National Organization for Marriage to settle a lawsuit over disclosing confidential tax information. This was also related to the IRS targeting controversy, but didn’t have anything to do the House Ways and Means Committee’s handling of information.
So it looks like the penalty may be somewhere between a stern look and $50k fine.
I forget. Which form is used to report bribes from foreign governments?
Thereby keeping the dem’s focus there instead of making any serious efforts investigating something that might actually merit investigation.
I don’t know. Do you thinks it’s relevant? You’re the first one to mention bribes in this thread. Do you think he has taken bribes?
DJT has a long history of hiding records, and more recently of destroying records in the White House. He goes to great effort to maintain non-transparency. Why hide his financials? Because they’ll show he’s owned by hostile interests and he doesn’t want to die in prison? Congress can issue all the subpeonas they want; who will actually retrieve subpoenaed documents from a most obstructive POTUS?