How the GOP dossier chase may help Democrats get Trump's tax records

Sep 2012
Can you imagine the tRump tantrum if this happens?

How the GOP dossier chase may help Democrats get Trump's tax records
In the end, Congress will almost certainly get President Donald Trump's financial records -- and Republican efforts to investigate the Christopher Steele dossier could be one reason why.

Trump has asked the courts to stop the records from getting to the Democratic-held House of Representatives. Yet one past court case that could hurt his arguments was, ironically, the case that hurt the Democrats in the last two years.

That was the Republican-led House pursuit of political research firm Fusion GPS' financial records. Rep. Devin Nunes, a Trump ally and then-chairman of the House Oversight Committee, targeted the firm for its commissioning of the Russia dossier.

In that case, Nunes, a California Republican, subpoenaed the bank used by Fusion GPS, and Fusion GPS sued the bank to stop it from turning over the records to Congress, which would reveal who paid for the dossier.

"The difficulty that Trump faces is the same one that we faced," said Bill Taylor, Fusion GPS' attorney in the case. Fusion ultimately lost the court fight to keep the records away from Congress, following a federal district judge's ruling.

Though Fusion's situation is only one case, the legal history doesn't look good for the Trump team's approach. A better understanding of how federal judges might respond to Trump will come as soon as Tuesday, at a scheduled court hearing in the accounting firm subpoena challenge.

Trump's legal team has brought its court cases against subpoenas with a similar tactic to what Fusion unsuccessfully tried -- suing the banks and the accounting firm directly to thwart Congress. Their legal arguments, so far, even cite some of the same laws and precedents.

The financial companies haven't taken positions in court in the Trump financial records cases, and the House of Representatives' general counsel has stepped in, like in the Fusion case, to argue for the subpoenas.

In the Fusion case, a judge in DC federal court said Congress' Russia investigation was a legitimate legislative endeavor -- meaning it overrode even laws that offer some personal financial privacy protection.

After the judge ruled, the bank gave the documents to the House committee for its investigation. The Fusion GPS clients -- which included the Democratic Party looking for opposition research on Trump --were revealed.

Likes: Babba
May 2012
By the wall
And what will you do when they show you nothing?

What will you go after next?

Mueller looked at his tax records and found nothing but you are going to do something that he and his team of high paid lawyers couldn't huh?