The Fight For Trump’s Tax Returns Reemerges Outside of Washington Swamp

President Donald Trump heartily bucked tradition when he refused to release his tax returns to the public during the 2016 election cycle, and democrats are still in a tizzy about it.

Trump, a proclaimed billionaire real estate investor, has cited ongoing audits as the reason for becoming the first President to deny the public a peek at his profits.  His lawyers have backed him up on this, encouraging the President to leave the documents in the dark for now on account of this IRS action.

But that hasn’t stopped foes of the President from launching countless diatribes against the move, despite there being exactly zero legal retirement for an elected official to do so.

Beyond the constant chatter, Congressional democrats have attempted to subpoena at least six years of Trump tax returns as well, in a fairly ridiculous manner.

Now, the President’s old pals in New York are joining the fray as well, seeking to sneak a peek of the President’s portfolio through the Empire State’s judicial system.

[…]on Monday, state Sen. Brad Hoylman introduced S5072, which would amend the law and require the commissioner of taxation and finance “to cooperate with investigations by certain committees of the United States Congress under certain circumstances” – a bid to let the state share tax return information, specifically Trump’s, with congressional committees that request it.

“This new bill will permit New York State to comply with requests from congressional investigative committees and help ensure Congress can’t be blocked in their attempts to hold even the highest elected officials in the land accountable to the American people,” Hoylman said in a statement.

The maneuver seems to be just another layer to the federal inquiry.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., said in a statement that the bill could help Congress get tax returns if blocked at the federal level – an apparent reference to an effort by another House committee to get six years of Trump’s returns directly from the IRS.

“This legislation would make the work of a federal committee a little easier, if confronted with inability to receive the federal tax return, we can turn to New York State,” Nadler said.

The use of the NY State legal system to annoy and perturb the President isn’t a new one, however.

After former Trump aide Paul Manafort was federally sentenced for crimes uncovered by Robert Mueller, New York prosecutors also charged Manafort in their courts, which is someplace that presidential pardons have no jurisdiction.