There is no law requiring Presidents (or Presidential candidates) to reveal their tax returns. Otherwise, tax returns should be PRIVATE, otherwise the work of the IRS is compromised and journalists would simply dip up everyone's tax returns in order to "get dirt on them".
That being said....I cannot imagine what liberals hope to find in Trump's tax return -- "I.O.U. Vladimir Putin $100 million"? that's not even how tax returns are set up!
During the campaign, Trump stopped promising to reveal his tax returns when he realized that Romney in 2012 was seriously harmed by the news that his effective tax rate was surprisingly low, around 15%, and not because of any obvious cheating on the returns he released.
Trump, as a real estate builder/operator, probably pays even less than that, because real estate people benefit from some absurdly generous tax rules, especially on depreciation and on rollover (deferral) of gains on properties at sale.
In 2016, documents leaked to the New York Times, plus a surprisingly loose-lipped former accountant for Trump, showed that as of 1995, he had a tax loss carryforward of $916 million, probably carried forward from his financial disasters of the early 1990’s)'
"The 1995 tax records, never before disclosed, reveal the extraordinary tax benefits that Mr. Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, derived from the financial wreckage he left behind in the early 1990s through mismanagement of three Atlantic City casinos, his ill-fated foray into the airline business and his ill-timed purchase of the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan." http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/02/us/politics/donald-trump-taxes.html
“[A] $916 million loss in 1995 would have been large enough to wipe out more than $50 million a year in taxable income over 18 years.”
No wonder Trump is adamant about not releasing his returns, as every other presidential candidate since Watergate has done.
Superb editorial at this moment in our chaotic Trump presidency!
One thing to keep in mind at this moment is that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts in this unfolding intelligence investigation into Trump, his campaign operatives, and Russian meddling in our US election.
One motivation of this sloppy, cut-and-paste Nunes' memo is to narrow the public's focus to only one small piece of this Trump-Russia jigsaw puzzle. How many people and how many dimensions of wrongdoing in the Trump campaign are being investigated by the FBI, Mueller, and other arms of our intelligence community?
This Nunes' memo is a hatchet job and a disgrace with its inaccuracies and with the bumble-headed GOP members of the House Intelligence Committee refusing to release Adam Schiff's rebuttal memo. If Trump and his family are so innocent, what are the Republicans so afraid of?
Nunes and the former law-and-order GOP launched the first PR salvo with their ham-handed attack memo to discredit their own government's FBI and our justice system.
The GOP wants to be transparent? Game on! Now we must also turn our attention to lots of disturbing aspects of the Trump presidency. Trump's tax return is critical, but also we need a serious look at the many conflicts of interest bedeviling Trump and his family as our top government officials.
For example, take Jared Kushner: "China's Trump Card"
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/01/29/jared-kushner-is-chinas-tr...
Hope the democrats release their memo soon.
As Mr. Ryan said on Tuesday in defending the House’s decision to release the memo, “Transparency can reign supreme.”
Reign supreme for a contrived memo from Representative Nunes (R), while the Democratic alternative offering gathers cobwebs under the cover of continuing classification.
The Nunes memo is all acred partisan smoke and no fire.
Ryan and Nunes are birds of a feather.
Washington transparence is a pipe dream made even more surreal by a President who knows not a whit of what it means to tell the truth.
62
The tax returns were at the top of Mr. Mueller's list, so I never give them much thought. He knows how to follow the money.
Take those off your worry list.
40
Right! And by the way, the one sentence about real and serious concerns about Trump becoming president is because the evidence Steele and the FBI had showed that Trump, like Flynn but on a grander scale, was vulnerable to blackmail by the Russians. His "favors" for Russia, as a candidate and now as president, prove their fears were justified. And just the latest evidence - his failure to impose any new sanctions on Russia even though a virtually unanimous Congress directed him to do so. Would someone, anyone, please file an emergency petition with the Supreme Court seeking an order that he impose sanctions immediately? Even this Supreme Court should have some respect for our balance of powers. His failure to uphold the law violates his oath of office and the Constitution, he should be impeached.
69
It seems clear - and will become absolutely clear when the Democratic memo is released - that the FISA court was told of the "political" nature of the Steele dossier. But that's not the real issue.
The Simpson/Fusion GPS testimony describes in great detail how the information in the dossier was gathered. Simpson's credible report confirms most of the charges made in the dossier. No person, not even the Trump lapdogs Nunes, has impugn the integrity of Steele or Simpson.
So, the Nunes memo, however cherry-picked and partisan it may be, doesn't have any meaning whatsoever. The issue at hand is whether the justification for the warrant is credible, not whether the source of the information can be politically attacked. And it's very clear that the dossier's claims have been verified through other sources.
Let Nunes, Fox News and all the other traitors and blowhards blather away. Mueller will not be deterred and Trump knows (or has been strongly advised) that firing Mueller, directly or indirectly, will be the end of his presidency.
I am increasingly confident that the house of cards is trembling in the wind.
53
This commenter has it right:
"Mr. Mueller gets the last word, in fact - the only word that counts. Listen carefully."
Mueller hasn't complained that Trump is interfering in any way with Mueller's investigation -- and, frankly, the parallel investigations being conducted by various Congressional committees and the FBI are a waste of time and money.
Mueller's investigation is the only one that counts.
If Trump fires Mueller, or interferes with his investigation, Trump will be and should be toast. But if not ... I'm more than a little tired of reading speculations what Mueller "surely" will find. I'd like to see what he actually DOES find. Not to rush him, but it's about time he let us know what he's up to. So far, all we've seen are indictments of Manafort and Gates on entirely unrelated charges, and an indictment of a third-tier volunteer (Papadopoulos) who spent his time trying to arrange a Trump/Russian government meeting that nobody claims ever happened and who couldn't even get the Trump campaign to cover his travel expenses.
Maybe there's more than meets the eye here, but not much has met the eye so far. Not to rush Mueller, but ...
13
Trump has released his tax returns. To the only entity that counts. The IRS.
10
It's always been widely accepted that when persons or entities refuse to reveal certain info they have something to hide.
Trump's refusal to reveal his tax returns and other highly important info reveals one thing - he's guilty and should face impeachment.
38
Individuals at DOJ and FBI, who were personally opposed to a possible Trump presidency, used their position in law enforcement to spy on a US citizen, and by extension, a presidential campaign. Leadership at these law enforcement agencies pursued this spying solely for political purposes and obtained multiple FISA warrants based in part on character assassination information (most of which had been debunked) supplied by the opposing party in a presidential campaign. The source/validity of this information (including the role/employer of a spouse of a DOJ official)used to justify these warrants was not disclosed to the FISA judges. In essence, individuals who are supposed to impartially carry out their duties in law enforcement, used their confidential powers to attempt to influence a presidential election.
If this happened to a Democrat candidate (especially if that candidate lost) the leftists, progressives would be howling from the mountain tops for heads to roll. Because it was designed to undermine the candidacy of a person the leftists loath, none of them see a problem. Just more hypocrisy from the left.
8
This is why we have those regulations the Republican Party is so desperate to get rid of: because not everyone can be counted on to do the right thing without fear of punishment.
30
Simply unbelievable that the American public regardless of political affiliation tolerated what is clearly behavior of paid foreign agents. I’m speaking about Nunes and other members of Congress that are supporting this scam show. The treasonous nature of this behavior has by now become obvious. Aren’t we all supposed to be Americans regardless of political party??
46
When you can’t dispute the evidence being presented, attack the cops. Trump knows the truth of his guilt, and he has embarked on this legal strategy before Mueller has even begun to present his case. What is not being said (as it is highly classified) is that there are undoubtedly recordings of telephone conversations between Page and others (including campaign officials), so the FBI knows much more than is currently being presented. Trump and the GOP are doing everything they can to discredit the FBI, rather than to wait for the evidence.
Sounds like an desperate, guilty man to me, and a GOP that is more interested in maintaining power than representing the American people.
48
If one favored transparency for the Trump Dynasty then it would be nice to know how much money President Trump and the Heir Apparent Ivanka will earn from the copyrights bestowed on them by Emperor Xi upon Donald’s ascension. But Trump’s diehard supporters favor monarchy/dictatorship over democracy as shown by their enthusiastic embrace of Putin. This is hardly surprising - about the same percentage of American colonists (the Tories) favored the British monarchy over the Patriots who fomented the revolution. In their view it is only right and proper that Trump should continue to hide his tax returns and purge the FBI and DOJ.
22
Don't count on all that many people being at all interested in this whole thing, right?
Our president should be indicted for obstruction of justice and treason.....we all suspect that he has promoted Putin because of the money laundered through his properties and the Russian loans made to bail him out in the past. It’s disgusting. Please hurry with your investigation Mr Mueller.....America is hurt by this horrible administration and it’s supporters like Nunes. I have to believe there are still republicans of character who refuse to endorse these tactics.....could they please now refuse to support this corrupt President?
28
Having read "the memo," I conclude just what I anticipated: It's not worth the hype. But since it was released, the Democratic response memo should be released too. Though it was not, I understand from an NPR story aired Friday morning that a revised version soon will be. (According to that NPR story, the Democratic memo is much longer -- 10 pages versus 3.5 pages -- and contains some "national security" information that needs to be redacted or removed.)
In other words, release neither or release both (after any "national security" information has been redacted or removed). Frankly, I doubt EITHER of them deserves our attention, but it should be "both or neither."
14
The Nunes Memo perhaps can also be viewed as a desperate act by desperate men. Mueller has by now all of the information including Trump's tax returns. Folks, we are not just looking at collusion and obstruction of justice, but also money laundering and income tax evasion. Trump has an "Al Capone Problem", Capone went to prison, because he did not report his ill-gotten gains on his taxes to the IRS. And, it is not just Trump, but also members of his family as well. And, it is not just the Feds that are going to nail him/them, but the State of New York already has their lyin' State tax returns. The only question now is it Leveanworth or Attica. Remember, their is no potential protection of Presidential Pardon at the State level for Trump or anyone else. It could possibly come down to the State of New York having the last and most impactful word on all of this.
34
First it was the Tea Party fighting the mainstream republicans. Now we have the republican president fighting the FBI and the DOJ.
Most recently, the President is not imposing sanctions on Russia which was overwhelmingly voted by the House and Senate.
What's next?
23
It is a collective misdid of all journalists in the USA that kept demanding Clinton’s emails “her truthfulness” instead of having discussion of really important policies which none of the 17plus members of the Republican circus were capable of either defining or eloquently expressing about it. The loss is of USA,and idealistic journalism that’s made American soule and standing in the world. Regrettably the time has gone and may not return,in spite of talks of resilience of the country and people
6
I have two questions: 1)Who will play Rachel Maddow in the movie, and 2) since Spielberg will probably be too old, or since he's already done "The Post," who will direct it?
13
One basic difference between the memo and Mr. Trump's tax returns. The memo was produced by government employees on the people's dime. The tax returns were produced by employees of Mr. Trump on his dime. He who pays the piper, calls the tune.
9
I like to think of myself as an optimist. I believed that our elected representatives would act in faith to the oath they took to protect our Constitution above all else. Implicit in this is the belief that no man is above the law. Now we are seeing the very fabric of our democracy being threatened by partisan politics, a steady drumbeat of lies, and seemingly petty corruption at the highest levels. We need absolute transparency as you note in your article and the completion of an unimpeded Mueller investigation to restore faith in our government and prove once again that we are a nation of laws based on truth and integrity.
23
Transparency is for Democrats, not for Republicans. The vaunted Memo was in essence an op-ed. We'll see Comey doing Jello shots with Trump before we see Donald's tax returns. If he has to bring down the judiciary, the intelligence community, and the self-respect of the GOP to protect his precious ego, so be it. He's sure not "growing into" this job. And that's what it is for him, a job, to prove he is the most popular man in America, not a position of public service. He receives the service, not gives it.
15
I applaud the TIMES editorial board's ongoing vigilance and articulate expression of the nuances and implications of current issues such as this one. IF ONLY there will be an open, receptive audience. "Let truth and falsehood grapple in the marketplace of ideas," as John Milton once wrote.
I had not known, however, of the degree of hysteria being continually stirred up by Sean Hannity and others of the right-wing propaganda mill. This, coupled with the apparent unwillingness of any but a very few Republicans to step up to the plate and serve their country with a conscience aimed at championing true justice, leaves me quite concerned. It's a no-brainer that if Trump succeeds in making the Justice Department his stooge, we will have arrived at Dictatorship.
27
The expectation that Paul Ryan and Co. will be staunch proponents of transparency and due process in these circumstances, is about as ironic as Fox News 's trademark catchphrase "Fair And Balanced" .
Yes "Transparency reigns supreme" as long as it's directed at someone else but away from the Republicans and Donald Trump...They prefer the shadows...
22
On the question of releasing his own tax returns, Trump appears to embrace the obverse approach from his view of the Republican’s FISA memo, out of concern for exposing sources and methods — of his own criminal financial deception and wrongdoing, especially money laundering and tax evasion.
15
So Christopher Steel was desperate to prevent Donald Trump from becoming president. Why is no one questioning the characterization of this as a partisan position? Inasmuch as Mr. Steel had uncovered information he determined was of such import it needed to be shared with U.S. law enforcement, it seems more reasonable to characterize his position as altruistic.
18
Wasn't the Hillary email dust up over possibly mishandling of sensitive information?
What about releasing the memos despite the Justice Department strongly requesting that they not be released? Isn't that much worse?
10
Sometimes it takes a train wreck before we'll do anything to repair the tracks. The Trump administration is the train wreck of our political system, but at this point the train itself is just starting to derail, with the real carnage yet to come. This is tragic, but we have a long history of doing absolutely nothing to fix our worst problems until they finally cause real damage. Donald Trump, Devin Nunes, Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, and the Republican Party are what we have deservedly inherited as a result of our failure to protect and care for our nation's highest ideals. We are easily and totally distracted by the shiny objects of technology and social media, our attention focused on our tiny screens, the care of our nation's treasure left in the hands of people determined to fulfill their own interests. We look up when we hear the loud screeching of twisting metal as the train wreck begins, and we run about demanding to know who's responsible, why somebody wasn't watching.
The good news, if there is good news in this kind of wreckage, is that we also have a long history of recovering, rebuilding and restoring. The Republican Party and their leader are firm in their resolve to have what they want, even if it means destroying every standard of decency, honesty and loyalty to the United States. They will continue to drive this train right off the tracks, certain that they're making good time. They will all be on board when the wreckage is untangled, and we can start over.
126
The FBI don't have an impeccable record. What they do have is a long and proud history of success based on an ethos of individual loyalty and patriotism. Service to the badge and to country above loyalty to political master. Fidelity, bravery and integrity are much more than a clever motto. They are words which bind and give purpose to 35,000 employees.
The Congressional Republican Party will know all this better than I do. They will know that if their President takes on the FBI there will only be one winner and it won't be him. So..why are they encouraging him? There is only one logical answer. The GOP are provoking this confrontation for their own ends. Light the touch paper, stand back and observe. Then..when the FBI get the upper hand they feign surprise, dump the Trump and take the credit for saving the country!
6
I forgot to mention the double standard the GOP has always applied to transparency regarding Hillary Clinton. Clinton has released over 10 years of tax returns personal and Clinton Foundation and all campaign records as well. The GOP has had forensic auditors pour over them for years pointing out all the nefarious, dubious financial dealings of all Clinton monies and always were vocal in their incredulous horror at Clinton malfeasance rightly or not.
So let us see all the RNC financial records for the 2016 Campaign. Specifically, the RNC donations from the NRA where a Russian insurgence of money is suspected in 2016. Also, the Inaugural Committee collected over 150 million and the actual events which occurred under forensic audit could not have cost even half of that. The Committee promised to donate the 'unused' monies to charity. So let's see the signed and dated checks please. Or does Trump enjoy a huge slush fund without accountability?
18
This memo thrown out to keep Trump afloat seems about as helpful as a Turkish life preserver sold to a Libyan refugee. This desperate attempt to shield Trump seems necessary only if they know he is guilty.
11
Let us hope that Trump's tax returns have made it to the Mueller investigation. That's probably where the smoking gun is hidden.
11
One year and counting and the Repubs have not stood up to him. They haven't even censured him over what have been some pretty offensive remarks. (ala Charlottesville) As long as they think they have a signature-machine, and someone who appoints all-day, all-night Pro-Biz, destructive heads of agencies and departments...they wont.
Even the ones not seeking reelection are spineless. Apparently even these guys want their legacy to be tied to a destructive POTUS.
Enablers are rarely ever cited for the wrongs of those they enable.
18
Mr. Trump is already transparent. So are members of his party. They are transparently ethically-challenged connivers. They transparently lack a conscious or pangs of guilt or remorse for their wrongdoings or for their chronic lying. And that includes the hype about the memo, refusing to counter this president's un presidential demeaning conduct, or demanding he release his tax returns all the while knowing he refuses because he transparently has something to hide.
Winning is Trump's and their obsession. And it doesn't matter how. Anything goes. And that includes obstructing those who vote Democratic from even voting. And who knows what else.
And Republicans played this wicked anything goes game long before Trump politically showed up humiliating President Obama by challenging the legitimacy of his presidency. Which he knew was a bold-faced lie. That's why he and they are a perfect fit. They are birds of the same feather.
The only thing that matters now, the only thing that will restore some semblance of Obama-like stability honesty integrity and forthrightness to our government is to vote. And it's never before been more vital to keep in mind that "Bad politicians are elected by good people who don't vote."
18
Doesn't all of this point out that Steele succeeded where Trump, Trump Jr., and Jared failed?
Steele found dirt. Yes, some of that dirt could not be verified, and was not used. Some other of that dirt was used in a FISA Application.
So now since the truth is being exposed the truth teller must be accused.
As for Trump's taxes they do need to be released, and in the name of transparency.
6
Years ago, The Harvard Lampoon published a parody of Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings." It was a riot.
Galadriel's mirror--a magic mirror that could foretell the future--came in for some joshing. The mirror went dark for a moment--then revealed:
(1) The repayment of the French war debt. (Sorry, France--a cheap shot!)
(2) The inaugural ball of Harold Stassen (perennial Republican candidate).
(3) The triumphant reception of RMS Titanic in New York Harbor.
Ah so. How about a fourth vision?
(4) Republicans demanding the release of Mr. Trump's tax forms.
Your editorial concludes with the single word "right." Followed by a question mark. A kind of sigh, really. The word sort of trails off.
And that says it all.
Republicans clamoring for the release of Mr. Trump's tax forms?
Unlikely. Highly unlikely.
A pity.
6
Oh please. If Trump had to show his tax returns he would be would have to resign so president Pense could pardon him as he flies to Russia to see if Putin will let him stay as a Russian oligarch, which is presently his daytime job.
Putin's work is done. The job of cleaning out the traitors in Congress will be left for the American voters. Yet demanding those returns in a major campaign is a great idea. On the other hand what would happen if there was an unfortunate leak of scanned and digitized copies of the last 2 years of Trumps of tax returns and the package arrived at the NYT office. would the paper print them? If so, what happens next?
9
We have a president that may not be legitimate. The more he and his sycophants do last-ditch things like the “memo,” with their put-on passion and seriousness for “justice,” the more you have to wonder what they really know and are trying to hide. Who in their right mind believes them? These lose credibility daily. The real problem for all of us is the possibility that what Republicans are “accomplishing” in legislation through majority status, is rooted ultimately in a lie. And don’t lose sight of the fact that our adversaries (for example, Russia, North Korea, ISIS, etc.) are getting a free-ride from all of this.
4
We the People of the United States need to WAKE UP! If we are not careful, we will sleep through the give away of our republic to the Russians.
The nearly 63 million Americans who voted for Trump voted for him knowing:
1) He lied for years about President Obama's birth
2) He stood up every day talking about how the American political system was "rigged."
3) He talked about his love for Wiki-leaks for releasing stolen e-mails from the Democrats when US intelligence services were telling US that the information came from the Russians.
4) He stood up in a press conference and invited the Russians to find and release Hillary Clinton's deleted personal e-mails.
5) He refused to release his tax returns. He had no plan for divesting himself of his financial interests in the event that he was elected.
6) We heard him bragging about sexual assault, and women came forward to confirm that he did what he said he did.
7) We knew that, according to his son, the Trump businesses relied on Russians for financing.
It is IMPERATIVE that we put a check on this Russian asset in the White House. Give control of Congress to the Democrats in November. Send Trump home in 2020.
14
The rise of Trump and Russia and the fall of the Republican Party is the most successful espionage campaign ever accomplished in modern times.
11
Paradoxically, while Republicans cynically lay claim to transparency, the only transparent thing about them is that one can see right through their groundless, hollow charges and their unsubstantiated claims. That they're wasting time and untold taxpayer dollars while doing this is as clear as cellophane.
6
And Nunes says the dossier was partly funded by the Clinton campaign; deliberately leaving out that it was initially funded by the Republicans. A piece of cherry picked details of partisan garbage was released by a low life "representative" who was suppose to be recused because of his bias and tendency to run to the WH to subvert investigation into the Trump campaign and its ties to Russia.
12
The shortcomings of the "world shaking" memo don't matter a whit to those that have been sounding the drumbeat, nor to those following in step. It isn't the facts that matter, it's the showmanship. The Hannity followers will continue to believe this memo proves their conspiracy theories, the cowardly Senators and Representatives will continue to further the deceptions to further their cause, and the fraud behind the curtain will continue to do as he wishes.
Still, the answer to this bizarre new world is in the hands of the voters this November. That will be our last chance to restore sanity to our nation.
6
Hypocrisy reigns in the Republican party.
Imagine the outcry if Hillary or Obama didn't release thier tax returns.
There was never even a hint that Hillary's emails were going to a foreign power. Yet, she needed to be investigated with no end. How does that contrast to the Russian interference investigation?
No sense of decency at all. No integrity. I don't get how anyone supports the Republicans.
11
If the New York Times and the Washington Post and others had kept up a constant drumbeat of, ‘’release the returns!’’
Then, perhaps we wouldn’t be in this position.
The media writ-large is and was repeatedly distracted by tweets and insults that it forgets that it is supposed to be society’s best advocate for the actual truth.
So Editorial Board, you really have no one to blame but yourselves.
Epic fail. It’s time that the mainstream and social media really take the blame for our current state of lawlessness and disunion.
5
If you've read Thom Hartmann's The Crash of 2016, you have insight into how the poisonous seeds of the illicit mating of economic and political power have come to fruition in this country.
The robber barons are intentionally destroying the trust in our institutions and the rule of law on which our republic was founded. They have corrupted the Republicans and our system elections with massive infusions of money and had the great good luck of earlier-than-expected success with the installation of the Orange Abomination in the Oval Office. They now control the government through their toadies in Congress, whom they will tolerate only as long as the facade of a "democracy" is required. They retain the loyalty of those who fawn at their feet by letting them slurp up the drippings that trickle from above. The goal, according to Hartmann, is global corporate rule. He cites example after example of how executives connected to Goldman Sachs have taken control of whole countries by generating bubbles that pop, scooping up the profits and bailouts of the resulting crisis, and then imposing austerity on the populace to pay for the debt that they themselves created. The hollow husk of the government we imagine we have will remain, with all the money and power schlucked up to the corporate rulers.
Sounds paranoid, right? But Hartmann names names and cites easily verifiable facts. His book will scare the bejeezus outta you.
8
One thing memo-gate has shown us is that you don't need intelligence yourself to be appointed Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. How sad is that?
7
It will never happen as long as the current Republicans are in office. I think the only way to stop this protection of Trump is to vote against every Republican running for office in the midterms. What boggles my mind is that they are all so transparent with their subversive behavior. And for what? Protecting an unethical, pathological liar?
8
Yep. We got the toothless memo. Now , Trump, if you are truley , innocent, let’s see your tax returns. Remember , you promised to release your returns, or was that another lie?
3
I believe Trump will boldly go where no other president has gone before, putting self interest before country and the Republican party will follow suite in putting party before the institutions that make America great. Have they no shame, I think not. Simply put they do not care. What can you expect from an opportunist for a President and his followers the Republican party? He is only taking a page from the playbook of his favorite person, Vladimir Putin, by spreading misinformation, sowing confusion and doubt. It goes beyond dirty politics. This just highlights the lengths that Trump and Republican Party will go to undermine the Russian investigation but the big question is why and what do they have to hide?
5
So we are now supposed to believe the boy who cried wolf? What is that boy distracting us from?
3
I doubt that trump has read the memo. " you figure it out".
2
Every circus must have a particular clown whose job is to distract the audience while the ringmaster sets up the next act. Over sized shoes, polka dot baggies and colorful makeup would have helped a bit, but not much was needed. This Fox propaganda exercise in loud screaming is hilarious. It's especially funny when you read the "memo". For a moment I thought it was my granddaughter's unfinished homework assignment sans crayons. We can hope Hannity has more exciting car chases loaded and ready to run. He's going to need lots of them.
89
Guess the Republicans don't really care about "transparency", since good old
Vladimir Putin will get into our election process again, and make sure that they all get in again.
Wake up America, or it's adios to democracy.
3
The Republicans no longer can claim ignorance .. They can no longer deny their hand in it all. They, along with Trump are traitors. They have sold out our DOJ to the Russians. There is no other way to put this. Their disclosure yesterday did more damage to the FISA than to anyone or thing else. They have revealed details to the Russians in regard to dates and times of activity concerning the Russians hand in cyber warfare on our system. Attacking the legitimacy of our Government's Legal arm. And arming the Russians and their American operatives with information they can work to discredit. IT is no longer about party even .. It is about treason.. which I believe Senator McCain alluded to yesterday in his tweet to the American People. Nunes has done nothing but play his hand and it is not just a deceitful one but a dangerous one as well.
4
The GOP don’t care about transparency, honesty, fairness, or good governance. They also seem immune to shame and allergic to the truth.
Here’s the sad thing. It doesn’t matter. GOP voters don’t care that Trump refused to release his taxes. They don’t care the GOP is doing nothing, and in fact encouraging, open grifting by Trump. (Example: this week the congressional GOP leadership held a conference at a Trump property). They don’t care Trump is a misogynist, accused of sexual harassment by almost 20 women, a compulsive liar, barely works part time and spends vast amounts of taxpayer money traveling almost every week on vacation to a Trump for profit private property, and completely incompetent. None of this matters to them and their voters.
The GOP Congress and its voters are only interested in imposition of their policies on America: tax cuts primarily for the rich and large corporations, stripping millions of health care, hiking the deficit, gutting Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare, voter suppression, unlimited guns everywhere, even in the hands of terrorists, criminalizing abortion, and making the air dirtier and water undrinkable.
And guess what: a lot of this agenda is happening. And many people seem to not care about any of it. Our country is devolving into something scary and unrecognizable right before our eyes.
8
Hypocrisy reigns supreme in the GOP. This is very sad for the country.
3
"I'll meet with Mueller under oath," says Trump.
That ranks right up there with, "I'll release my tax returns after the audit is completed."
Does anyone actually trust this self-serving compulsive liar with state secrets? For shame, Nunes. For shame, GOP.
11
Is this really the Democratic response to the memo? Show us the tax returns? The narrative that the politicization of the FBI/JD/IRS is just another paranoid illusion of mindless republicans is getting a little thin.
3
I love reading NY Times COMMENTS on its Editorials & Opinions!
In this case, most comments appear to have left out: "… and Watergate was a petty criminal activity, no need to release any information on it…let the DC police deal with the burglars…". If your name was Donald Trump, would YOU be at all upset that these proven, politically-motivated facts by senior government officials led to the one year (so far) investigation trying to link you to Putin and the Russians (recognizing to date not one fact, not one 'smoking gun' has surfaced publicly proving this). Senior officials failed to disclose the facts about the (unverified!) Steele dossier, its origin and who paid for it, in the middle of a presidential election.
The memo released yesterday is all about Civil Liberties; where is 'the left' and the ACLU on this aspect? This was a political hatchet job by senior officials who should at least act in their jobs as bi-partisan no matter what their personal feelings are!
3
Brilliant! Where do you stand now Mr. Ryan and Mr. McConnell? Please respond with your public answers.
1
GOP, the least transparent, biggest hypocrites, and most blatant criminals, in history, are masters of "do what I say, not what I do."
Don't hold your breath for any Trump tax returns because they would prove everything all the people who actually care about this country have been saying, all along....
4
Roy Cohn and Joseph McCarthy would be so proud of their disciple. DJT has mastered the art of the smear campaign and now he is schooling the rest of the Republican Party in the dark arts. They are gleefully taking their dishonesty and manipulation to levels that even they didn't imagine they could get away with.
It is terrifying how close we are to losing our Democracy.
7
Donald Trump is a checker player. Robert Mueller is engaged in chess. Trump is behaving like he will soon be checkmated.
4
Most excellent article!
2
The corruption here is limited to the republican party which is doing its best to undermine the country. The winner here? Putin.
2
What about the transcript of Bill Clinton’s meeting with Loretta Lynch on the airport tarmac?
What about the transcripts of the meeting between Barack Obama and his staff setting up his alias with which to communicate with Hillary Clinton on her private server and the transcripts of all his discussions with her about the server? Why those might even exonerate her if he approved, albeit that would show him a liar for claiming he learned about the server in the news like the rest of us, as if his use of the alias with her server didn’t already do that.
Or, how about the transcripts of the meetings of Comey and his staff preparing his Hillary exoneration letter with only 15 or so witnesses to go, and let’s see the FISA Court application, too.
As a liberal, I thought it was our position that even a Secretary of State has to follow the law, the police need to be under civilian control—in the FBI’s case, that means the President—and that independent and special prosecutors were dangerous to liberty, and secret courts an especial danger to freedom.
Yet, here we are, with a real estate mogul/reality tv star our last remaining bulwark against a Progressive nation where the FBI is to be our newborn King.
Odd.
4
Great editorial, splendid!
2
If the purpose of the memo is to provide cover and justification, then is today the day for Trumps Saturday night massacre?
2
The damage done by the GOP lawless Trump collaborators is monumental.
The DOJ and the FBI will think twice or three times before they share information with this GOP congress, for fear of being used again in a fabricated propaganda scheme.
America is a less safe place when mistrust becomes the norm.
3
This is definitely a Wile E. Coyote moment for Republicans. Far from endangering Rosenstein's creditably as Deputy Attorney General, the Nunes memo undercuts just about every Republican talking point against the integrity of the Mueller investigation. Tying yourself to an ACME rocket sure seemed like a good idea at the time.
Here's a lesson for Republicans. Don't hype the underwhelming. You're only embarrassing yourselves.
I wouldn't put it passed Trump to fire Rosenstein anyway though. The man is desperate. However, such a course will not end well for Trump. If I were fired under such flimsy pretexts, I would sue for wrongful termination. Meanwhile, I don't think Mueller would have a hard time closing the file on obstruction of justice. Despite what Sean Hannity will tell you, Trump just cornered himself.
4
Who knew the president's taxes were more secret than a classified secret fisa court warrant?
I mean, I've seen for official use only (fouo), classified, secret, top secret, and no foreign national (noforn) documents, and ghee whiz, the president's taxes are more secret than this little old memo?
Gosh by golly and wowee, that's some national treasure secret there, the president's tax returns.
12
The dripping sarcasm is preaching to the choir, and not enough.
NYTimes, you need to call for resignations. Lay out the evidence. Put it on the front page. Put in on the front page every day for a week! Paul Ryan, Nunes, Trump himself. It's all there. Collect it, summarize it, and in bold faced type on the front page of your newspaper write, "PAUL RYAN SHOULD RESIGN."
11
Seems the GOP has just given up the ghost and it now controlled by Fox News - as is trump. It is one big reality show...poor me...I hate reality TV.
8
The good Jesuits taught me a healthy appreciation for logic, clear thinking, and stinging sarcasm. I seldom comment on opinion pieces, but I can’t help but laud this biting critique of a silly political memo and the slithering sycophants who have debased our democracy by foisting it upon us. Cicero lives!
8
Sunlight is indeed an excellent disinfectant, but this administration and its enablers in Congress are photophobic, a trait they share with dictators and cockroaches.
5
It is the Obfuscatation-of-the-Day brought to you by the Ultimate Oxymoron: the House Intelligence Committee.
3
We should all submit crime tips on the FBI website regarding Nunes and Trump and all of their cronies repeated obstruction of justice, treason and collusion with a foreign power to compromise US democratic processes...
3
HOW MUCH HAVE YOU CONTRIBUTED TO THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY for the election this year?
Your comments here will DO NOTHING.
A competitor to the NYT reported this week that Trump is raising money early and effectively.
WHAT HAVE YOU CONTRIBUTED?
Nothing, right?
(Since I started asking two months ago, only one commentator here has replied that he has contributed to the Dems. You haven't.)
If all you do is write comments here, you deserve more Trump.
3
That's easy. Use your FBI, CIA, and NSA "unnamed" sources to grab them and then pretend they came into the mailroom unnoticed and then publish them. Just like old times at the NYT. But odd how you had no "unnamed" sources for "the memo". Comey gone?
1
Memo: Devin Nunes, Sean Hannity, Matt Schlapp, and other Trump shills out there
Subject: The Russia investigation
Guys,
Just in case you're trying to suggest otherwise, Robert Mueller, Christopher Wray and Rod Rosenstein did NOT graduate from Trump University.
But it sure looks like you did.
9
This laughable memo demonstrates that Republicans in congress perfectly reflect the mindset of their tinfoil hat constituents. Even if Trump is ousted, the country's problem will remain: almost half of the citizenry are lunatics. That is unless the "Memo of Nunes" serves as the starting point for a crusade against stupidity.
5
Wow. Can you spell D-E-F-L-E-C-T-I-O-N? I mean, we've just been informed that people at the highest levels of the FBI and DOJ used a document--the truth of which they knew had never even been investigated, much less validated--to get approval to spy on an American citizen. And what is your response? "Whatever. What we really want to know is, why does President Trump continue to cover up the fact that he picks his nose in the Oval Office?" I mean, STOP already. I'm having to wear a neck brace from all the painfully obvious deflections, distractions, diversions, and misdirections from you guys. Y'all need to cut it out. Try to just stick to the subject, if you're able. We're talking about officials from our own government using what they knew to be untruths to spy on a fellow citizen. What does that have to do with Trump’s taxes? What if some random person created a document with, as Jim Comey described it, “salacious” details about one of you guys, and then slipped it to some law enforcement and justice department officials who just happen to be of the opinion that you’re just a bunch of progressive nutballs? Suddenly you wake up one day to find your phone conversations and your emails have been monitored, and you keep seeing a nondescript sedan in your rear-view mirror. I know. SCARY. So what on EARTH does that have to do with Donald Trump’s taxes? Could you try, for just a moment, to set aside you’re liberal lenses and pay attention to the real problem here?
2
Looks like the media played into the GOP/Fox and friend playbook again.
Hype it up. A nothing is there memo form a nothing is import person named Nunes about a nothing is normal child living in the Whitehouse and firing people like he was still on the apprentice TV show.
2
We've learned that fake 45 is a traitor and the GOP is complicit in the treachery. Talk about Russian oligarchs we're no better with the Koch Brothers and their ilk.
6
This will all blow over by Tuesday. By then Trump will have done some other idiotic thing to try to distract from the truth about Russia.
5
The only transparency Trump understands is in a woman’s blouse.
4
Time for The Times and everyone else to ask, "Is Trump a Russian agent?"
6
Akin to Al Capone’s vault?
Where is the IRS's "Daniel Ellsworth"?
3
Since he says he is the smartest president that ever was, how about his college transcripts!
3
It’s about time that the Times demand the release of Trump’s tax returns.
It should be the editorial everyday...
3
Tax returns, you demand--you get the same answer Obama gave for not showing his college records...
The released memo just confirmed what everyone already knew, that is a corrupt Democrat Party, that even can drag down the FBI--no surprise.
1
Millions of people around the world continue to maintain sincere confidence that Donald Trump and his small-minded minions will soon be remembered as mere biting gnats, quickly passing through the bowels of history.
They will not be allowed to appear "significant," especially if we do our jobs and not let them get away with their on-going Con-Game.
It's tax-return time. Time's up.
5
Surely you jest.
Awww...you're just funnin' us!
"...the memo looks ... like the next 'unmasking'-gate, the 2017 pseudo-scandal that alleged — wrongly — that Obama administration officials had mishandled classified information. That dust-up was orchestrated, coincidentally, by Representative Devin Nunes ... whose staff prepared the document released on Friday."
Don't you mean "that dust-up was orchestrated, not coincidentally, by Representative Devin Nunes"?
2
My President is a Russian operative.
4
I understand that politicians do what they do out of desperation to get reelected, but how and when did the Republican base become so utterly stupid that they actually support this kind of nonsense?
7
Wow! For 'much ado about nothing' this memo is second only to Geraldo Rivera's opening of Al Capone's vault.
4
Look for them right on top of Obama's college records.
2
Yeah yeah, he colluded with Russia. Yeah Yeah, he obstructed justice. His followers won't care. Republicans won't care.
Get his taxes. Find the money laundering. This is why he won't release them. Get NY State to charge him and throw him in jail (won't happen at the federal level).
Anything else is a waste of time. Get on this NY Times. The rest is just a waste.
6
Nice deflection.
3
Sort of like Al Capone's safe.
1
Trump will never show his tax returns voluntarily. Only Mueller can do that which is why Trump is desperate to fire Mueller. He knows he can't do it directly so he is getting his attack dogs ie, Repuke party to do his dirty work with the biased memo.
2
You guys really must be worried. That is quite a strawman you are building.
2
This is truly ironic; the Times editorial board is equating the misuse of government resources in attacking an incumbent president's political opponents with that of a private citizen refusing to divulge private tax returns to the UNBIASED expert reporters and staff of the NYT. What does it take for the Times to look at the malfeasance of a Democratic Administration? Perhaps the sale of fissionable material in return for contributions to a "charitable" organization?
8
What a pathetic attempt at distraction. Can you honestly believe the Obama Administration didn’t already do that? It seems they were willing to do anything to stop Trump.
3
Exactly.
2
I would like to see not only Trump's tax returns but also Nunes' college transcript, plus the transcripts of all the other idiots who, like one Fox talking head, thought this memo would be "earth-shattering." As I understand it Carter Page had been surveilled under renewed FISA warrants since 2013. Each renewal required hundreds of pages of FBI-collected evidence suggesting he was a Russian agent. Now the Grand Old Protectors of law and order and national security object to the FBI keeping tabs on a Russian agent who was apparently acting as a liaison between the Trump administration and the Kremlin. In the words of Sen. McCain, they are "doing Putin's job for him" and should be prosecuted for treason.
22
No consequences.
He Has Won.
1. Disrespects a war hero....no consequences.
2. Convinces the majority of both republican led houses that Russia is now “ok”......no consequences.
3. Convinces the majority of both republican led houses that the republican led DOJ and FBI can’t be trusted, and need to be cleansed.....no consequences.
And only a war hero, battling brain cancer, has the loudest voice.
He Has Won.
10
Love this editorial!! The questions...oh so many.
9
Another revelation due to this memo is the actual stupidity of the republicans and their freedom, tea party followers. I call them followers because they clearly can't read, or think for themselves.
Can Nunes, Ryan, and the rest can't be as dumb as this revelation shows them to be? Guess the real issue is as many have said, follow the money---starting with tRumps tax returns.
8
Here is some needed transparency.
Editorial Board, please tell us your ages and occupations till date. You seem to have so much knowledge of law, business, economics and real world experience.
1
What on earth do you mean by "real world experience" and how would it be possibly relevant?
2
Trump’s tax returns are the new Obama’s birth certificate. Move on. Focus on policy and leaders.
2
The traditional definition of "chutzpah" is "a man who, having been convicted of murdering his mother and father, pleads for mercy because he is an orphan." The newest definition of chutzpah is the present-day Republican Party.
15
The only thing transparent about Ryan and other Republicans is their hypocrisy
23
This piece should have run on the front page, as well as be linked to within any NYT coverage of this entire staged production.
5
You’ve turned into “Mad Magazine!” A great joke indeed.
7
It beggars ones imagination to think what trump is hiding. I know one thing, Melania will not be happy when she finds out what it is.
11
Frankly, I don't know whether Mueller has Trump's tax returns, or feels he needs them if he doesn't:
"Who's to say that Mueller does not have a copy of Trump's tax returns?"
I'd be amazed if Mueller's people haven't carefully reviewed each of Trump's 100+ page financial disclosures filed, and updated (every 6 months, I believe), when Trump was running for President. If the information reported in any of those financial-disclosure statements was inaccurate or incomplete, that hasn't been reported yet -- by Mueller or by anyone else.
I haven't bothered to look at any of those financial-disclosure statements, but I'll wager that Mueller's people have. If some suspicious entry appears there, I'm confident Mueller will bring it to our attention -- and would expect that journalists (who've undoubtedly read those financial-disclosure statements too) would have raised the point by now.
The main point is that there's ALREADY quite a bit of financial information out there, without tax returns. JFK never released his tax returns. George McGovern never released his tax returns. More recent Presidents and candidates have, but it's not clear what good that's done anyone. The federal laws that require disclosures of certain financial information (over 100 pages of it, in Trump's case) have been passed and reviewed over the past several decades. If those laws want to ferret out financial connections with foreign governments, they should require appropriate disclosures. They do.
2
Well said, sir!
1
Maybe I am stupid. I thought Congressman's Nunes memo had to do with FBI and pre election search warrants. That was it.
All of a sudden, The NYT Editorial Board trots out old news about Trumps tax returns. Correct me, if I am wrong but I do not remember the NYT Editorial Board recently complaining about Trumps tax return. Why is that of interest right now?
I think they should address the matter at hand. Not try to change the subject. Somehow through some quirk in history he got elected President.
Just let him govern and in three years vote him out.
The NYT Editorial Boards constant bashing of a sitting President shows they will under cut the people will to serve the parochial wants.
6
Any statements or promises by then candidate or President today are understood to be wisps of the moment. They are white noise to the salacious spectacle of an Administration half baked and twice cooked with pettiness, petulance and perfidy.
The Yiddish word “meh” sums it up nicely.
Jersey Shore, the Kardashian’s and Trump life.
1
Hahaha, I love good satire!
Or is it science fiction?
2
Don the con never intended to release his taxes. He knew he was riding the discontent of a morally bankrupt republican party so desperate they are willing to sell their souls to Beelzebub himself. That contract however has a price.
8
So Nunes waivers between sycophant and traitor to achieve, what?
Well he proved that he and Trey Gowdy need to work on their reading comprehension skills. before they retire to their rat farms, or whatever the Kochs have in mind for them.
But they did succeed in mudding the waters, and that is enough.
The rest will be accomplished with Fox and Friends, convincing Americans to doubt the integrity of our institutions, and to side with Russia and trump.
8
Considering the amount and degree of fibs from the liar-in-chief, who could say that his tax returns would not be full of lies as well?
5
Seriously? Of all things, the Times is still whining about this?
This is like Trump whining to get Obama's birth certificate disclosed. Both silly.
Trump didn't disclose his tax returns as a candidate. Does anyone actually think he will release them as President? Waste of time.
Besides, I don't think anyone cares as long as the economy does well.
4
Tax returns? Really? Time for a new playbook NYTs. Been there done that. The only tax returns Americans cares about are there own. And I got a huge tax cut courtesy of Mr. Trump. Thank you POTUS.
5
The editorial board says, “The response memo reportedly explains, among other things, that investigators did in fact tell the court that the dossier was politically motivated. However, the Nunes memo suggests that the court only that Steele had political biases against Trump. The FISA court wasn’t told that Hillary Clinton and the DNC paid Steele, or that Steele paid Russian intelligence operatives and officials to shove the “dirt” that went into the dossier. Former acting CIA Director Michael Morell told NBC News that, "I asked myself, why did these guys provide this information, what was their motivation? And I subsequently learned that he [Steele] paid them. That the intermediaries paid the sources and the intermediaries got the money from Chris. And that kind of worries me a little bit because if you’re paying somebody, particularly former FSB officers, they are going to tell you truth and innuendo and rumor, and they’re going to call you up and say, ‘hey, let’s have another meeting, I have more information for you,’ because they want to get paid some more." The Senate Judiciary has sent the FBI a criminal referral letter alleging Steele made false statements when he claimed he didn’t pay ther Russian informants.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/clinton-ally-says-smoke-no-fire-no-...
2
The emperor has no clothes
Democrats wanted the dossier out immediately. But not the memo. Hypocrites.
3
“Also helpful would be the 10-page response memo prepared by Representative Adam Schiff, the committee’s ranking Democrat, who, unlike Mr. Nunes, has actually seen the intelligence underlying the application. “
Yes, let’s hear from someone who’s done his homework. #FeetheDemoMemo
3
Why aren't I fired up by all this? I know the reason why. It's because my gorge rises every time the (Republican v Democrat) aka ( Right V Left) War comes up and it comes up all the time. I hate you all for destroying the mission of the United States Congress and the American Democracy. Nothing any of you supports is worth what has happened to the government of this country. Shame on you all.
5
Transparency from a fairy tail congress and serial liar? Give me a break! Who in the world other than their close-minded base and themselves do these political simpletons thing they are fooling? As usual they are reaching into a void and hoping to pull out substance. All they have done here is confirm that team Trump stupidly hired a foreign agent and compromise the foreign intelligence process.
In the name of Transparency lets see it all. The truth is that the right will continue transparency
2
This fetish with Trump’s tax returns are amusing.
Line 24: Collusion income.
Please stop. You make yourselves look silly.
6
Nice one, editorial board!
Sadly, your Harvard Lampoon tone of sarcastic wit is the aptest style in this political age. We have all changed in order to be able to adequately express ourselves.
3
What about the judges that approved the warrant? Does the GOP really think we are so stupid as to assume judges just rubber stamp a FISA request. Maybe Fox "News" viewers do, but they do not represent the majority of Americans. I cannot wait until November. Throw them out of office until we can throw them into Jail!
5
Do not abuse our patience
4
This memo has Stephen Miller written all over it.
3
The allegations are a secret
1
I have been waiting impatiently for the sequel to Dumb and Dumber 2 and it was just released starring Nunes and Trump...please, please bring back Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels and let us laugh again.
6
This editorial is very revealing of the true intentions of the Democrats and the editorial board of the NYTimes that is in collusion with them. It’s like we did not get you that way, so let’s get you this way. It is not about truth, honesty and dignity; it’s about getting him and getting him out of there. That’s what it is all about. You have lost and you will lose again and again until you change your attitude.
3
Right!
You know, this might be a very good time to ask Melania to release HER tax returns .... frame of mind, timing, you know?
1
The memo was written by a gaggle of low level staffers for an ignorant, immature, incompetent, inexperienced, intemperate and insecure Devin Nunes and Donald Trump under the guidance of the high school graduate entertainer farce journalist Sean Hannity.
Smiling smirking Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin is delighted with the antics of his puppet dummy stooges efforts at making Russia great again. Russia is an aging shrinking nation of 143 million people. The American annual nominal GDP is 15x Russia. America annually spends 9x Russia on it's military. But the Big Bad Russian Bear is dining on the American Eagle's socioeconomic political military diplomatic interests and values in every geographic demographic sphere.
Trump is primarily motivated by enhancing his profit. By hiding his personal and family income returns and business records from the American people we can not and do not know by how much. Putin knows. Trump regularly and routinely violates his solemn sworn oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution.
14
There isn't a grown-up in the entire Trump entourage.
3
Mr Carter Page published an amazing article in 2015, it's a classical peace of FSB disinformation propaganda, both in content and style. Why would an American banker bother to write it, during Cold War, only ideological lefties wrote similar stuff.
This bizarre text is almost a parody of Russian propaganda, maybe even just a translation of some an prepared text. Could have been included in the evidence for the intelligence court....
I have no doubt that Mr Carter Page is at least a cooperating "influence agent".
http://www.globalpolicyjournal.com/blog/05/01/2015/no-justice-no-nuclear...
2
And how about the Russian money that's funding the NRA? When can we see where the dark money is coming from?
3
Don't hold your breath waiting for the hypocrites who run the Republican party to release anything that could harm them or their president.
3
I guess we can be relieved that Devin Nunes is the jerkwad in charge. He's now zero for two. Way to go, Dev!
4
the NYT and Maddow already released T's tax returns illegally. Do you want to keep breaking laws.
Why don't you analyze and report on all the FBI Strok txt msgs, and what they really mean when they talk about insurance policies, "what we just planned in Andy's office", etc. While you're at it why don't you analyze how the DNC colluded with Clinton in the last election. Who ok'd it? Who coordinated it, etc. You haven't dug into that one bit.
Do your job, for god's sake!
5
Great fun to watch you guys and Jeff Bezos vie to write Adam Schiff's term paper for him...
For WaPo to throw their hat into the ring - Adam must carry some hefty kind of lunch money...
Of course, it all depends on the meaning of the word "Ohr" - or not...
3
“The slow-rising central horror of "Watergate" is not that it might grind down to the reluctant impeachment of a vengeful thug of a president whose entire political career has been a monument to the same kind of cheap shots and treachery he finally got nailed for, but that we might somehow fail to learn something from it.”
~Hunter S. Thompson Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72 (1973)
7
Being a student of history, I always wondered what it was like to live in the Joseph McCarthy era. Well, now I know. Spineless members of Congress who refused to stand up to Joseph McCarthy . . . remind me of the spineless Republicans in Congress who not only refuse to stand up to Trump, but even lower themselves to lie for him as well.
Isn't it fascinating that Donald Trump's own lawyer was Roy Cohn. What a co-incidence that Roy Cohn was once Joseph McCarty's right-hand-man.
I hope history is not repeating itself.
13
The Republicans are using classic Communist tactics to destroy our democracy. It is a shame that so many Americans are willing to go along with them.
11
Nyt, help me. Write an editorial I can send to my independent voter family members who think you are too biased in coverage. Give me a fair assessment, note the GOP points and help me convert people beyond my bubble. Of course as CNN said this is an act by a desperate president to limit the Russia investigation. Of course today is a field day for Putin. But help me with reporting that passes skeptics muster, beyond the cheers of your liberal fans.
5
It's an opinion piece.
1
How does one reach people who are too biased to know how biased they are?
Trump supporters are either utterly vapid or more crooked than a barrel of snakes.
2
>Representative Devin Nunes, the California Republican who heads the House Intelligence Committee <
Nunes, the epitome of a living, bloviating oxymoron...with emphasis on the second syllable....House Intelligence indeed.
6
For goodness sake, Trump loyalists, haven't you noticed that Trump attacks, undermines and maneuvers to silence and/or remove any person who questions him? What makes you think you're any different?!! You're quite disposable, too. He has bragged about how he could shoot YOU on Main Street and still be elected. (Oh, did you assume someone else was the target?) Haven't you noticed how he has shifted positions on your most cherished priorities? He cares about money, his. and that of people like him. (That is not you.) And about control, for his benefit. It is very likely that his debts to Russians (and money laundering) have compromised him. We are all pawns and bargaining chips in his frantic game of self-preservation. Ok, so you are angry about ABC, feel betrayed by XYZ... Try to just look at Trump's behaviors. This is a man you would dread at your lunch table or at a weekend get-together. Just look at his frantic illogic, constant disarray & obvious attempts to sow contention and confusion. Where are the tax returns he promised you?
Warning lights should be going off in yr head!
22
I encourage all of us, regardless of our opinions on this administration to click the link at the very end of this article. It opens to an astonishingly long list of activities committed by this White House. Read it, then check your own bias and replace “Trump” with “Obama” .
1
There are many people who lack the wherewithal to tell right from wrong. But there are plenty of intelligent, successful people who refuse to acknowledge what seems astonishingly obvious. Those are the people who are frightening to me.
2
How low can you go? The Trumpsters and Republicans are setting a new standard. We can forget about Nunes who has proved, once again that he's not even smart enough to be the class clown,
But, look at Ryan and McConnell - surely they will be tried for treason for what they have allowed to happen on their watch.
5
As is sometimes said, you never hear the shot that kills you. The FBI and Justice stonewalled the oversight committee requests for information for months, Why? Because...there's nothing there. Right. Same with this odd editorial that seems relieved that there's "nothing there". Believe us, and not your lying eyes. The fact is this memo is a signal that we're sick and tired of being treated as though our country belongs to the government and the media, dictating what we should know or need to know. We're not stupid. We know infinitely more than you think. And by the way, this memo is only the opening salvo. More revelations about the rot in Denmark soon to follow.
1
Good, hopefully that means the ENTIRE memo will be released, not just cherry picked portions from a Trump stooge. Wake up, we (the people, citizens) are all in this together. For a guy who has nothing to hide, Trump should does act like he does. Can you admit that?
2
If anyone gets to see Trump's tax returns it will be over his dead body. If it isn't obvious by now that Trump is up to his ears in all kinds of illegal and possibly even treasonous activity involving his relationship with Russia then there truly is no hope for this country. What makes one sick to one's stomach is the Republican party's total support and cooperation of Trump even though that alone is very damaging to the country. There probably hasn't ever been a more rotten to the core group of politicians than these. We understand Trump. He's been rotten almost from the time he was born, but the Republicans that support him? Willing to sell their own country down the river for him? Like I said, it makes you want to vomit. Thank God for November 6th.
14
Using political jargon is an art in itself- we now have "transparency." Throwing around jargon only works on the gullible-- We used to have citizens with inferential reasoning skills aided by doggedly curious journalists who could clearly see that this guy is hiding something. Where I come from we teach kids to think critically so that one looks at the track record: womanizing, lying, gaming the system, cheating workers, bullying, bragging, discriminating -- is fox news so powerful that it can hypnotize so many citizens into believing this man is somehow worthy of leading the free world as he deliberately dismantles the ideals for which our forebears fought? The Liar in chief says he is waiting for the audit before releasing his returns-- well we the auditors have seen enough to know that there is no "there" there- only a transparent naked fool sans teeth, sans eyes, sans everything-
6
Great point!! Right on!!
2
You didn't need the gratuitous sarcasm to make the case.
Lets see Trump's tax returns. Please.
4
It’s a policy of appeasement of Russia and Putin.
2
The infamous memo is a rancid a piece of right wing propaganda that alleges FBI maleficence. Its argument is sophomoric and without substance, and as Chuck Rosenberg stated yesterday, "it could have been written by an underachieving first year law student".
Paul Ryan, where is your shame? Nunes is a shill for the White House. Facts and truth play no part in his character. Remove him now from his chairmanship, History, truth and justice in our democracy will be the future judges of your actions!
5
What isn't sophomoric about Trump and his entourage?
I'll enjoy the Nunes perp walk even more than Flynn and Manafort. But Trump's senior and junior along with Jared will be the best reality TV of all.
8
NYT - Talk about changing the subject! Wrong doing by democrats - it's OKAY! You have been #1 cheerleader for the endless Russia investigation which has consumed over a year and millions and millions of taxpayer dollars and it has yield a single Mike Flynn indictment for a totally unrelated matter which would never had been prosecuted without the pressure to embarrass President Trump. Meanwhile the Russia thesis has deteriorated from "throwing the election to Trump" to "Influencing the outcome of the election" to "meddling in the election". I don't know what is more laughable, the concept that the USA does not "influence elections in other countries" or that $800,000 in Facebook ads were more important than the flawed candidacy and election strategy of Hillary
2
Not either or BOTH
It hasn't been a year yet and it's cost less than 5 million (which is chump change compared to the 1.5 trillion tax scam). Why did Flynn and Papadapolous plead guilty? Why would they lie to the FBI is nothing untoward happened? Why are they choosing to endure jail time if there's nothing to see?
2
Help Wanted: Tax Return Leaker
Excellent opportunity to work with a great team. Anonymity guaranteed. Work in your spare time, generous benefits.
Want a job where you can make a difference? Call now for confidential interview:
800-DJT-LEAK
5
The “release” we need—
Is Mr. Trump from office.
5
I wonder if the Secretary of State released a press release to NYT concerning his remarks reported by the BBC.
He made blunt comments about inappropriate Russian and Chinese influence south of the border.
Trump implies that the FBI and CIA are corrupt.
The Supreme Court may be corrupt!
I have confidence as a student of moral theology and economic history that the chat written in a Man for All Seasons may inform congress of its moral duty.
If Congress chooses to exhibit ethical neutrality so be it.
"Roper: So now you'd give the Devil benefit of law!
More: Yes. What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?
Roper: I'd cut down every law in England to do that!
More: Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned round on you — where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country's planted thick with laws from coast to coast — man's laws, not God's — and if you cut them down — and you're just the man to do it — d'you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake."
Looking squarely at congress which is largely comprised of lawyers may I ask, as a foreigner to whom the they have vowed their allegiance?
Laws cannot determine or ensure ethical behaviour.
When law makers legally emasculate law enforcers and pressure judges inevitably the winds will blow where they will.
GOP have destroyed a forest.
Quite sad.
2
Rest assure, Mr Mueller has them for review.
2
Absolutely, release the returns.
It will expose the crook whose favorite interjections is: "believe me."
Let the IRS go after him; that'll make the FBI look like boy scouts.
Once he's investigated, tried, and convicted, it will be so great for the "president".
He mail his post-card tax returns -- from Gitmo.
6
Until America comes to it senses and realize that we have in the White House a Crook, a Con man, a Liar, and someone who thinks cheating on his wife is a badge of honor we are getting no place.
HIs GOP Palace Guards will keep him safe as long as the Big Bucks roll in from the top .01%, large corporations and Russian help we can do NOTHING!
5
VOTE Nov 2018
It REALLY makes a difference.
1
The people who wrote this article obviously don't get it. 99.99% of the people won't read the memo. So when Fox news starts stating about the devastating report and how it shows XYZ the people that listen to Fox will believe every word of it now that it has been supported by an official report from congress
4
America, we are getting slimed by Trump and his band of reckless Republicans.
1
The GOP has become a disgraceful and disgusting cabal of political hacks willing to do anything to prop up their corrupt"leader." It once was different. There was a time when Republicans were honorable and respectable. They are now complicit in promoting craven conduct and dishonesty while destroying our republic.
3
Let's start a movement!!!
Where are your tax returns, Mr. President?
7
Transparency from a fairy tail congress and serial liar? Give me a break! Who in the world other than their close-minded base and themselves do these political simpletons thing they are fooling? As usual they are reaching into a void and hoping to pull out substance. All they have done here is confirm that team Trump stupidly hired a foreign agent and compromise the foreign intelligence process.
In the interest of transparency beyond anything more than words lets see it all. The tax returns, visitor logs etc etc etc. I won't be holding my breath in anticipation. True transparency is their biggest enemy and it will be nowhere to be found. Unless of course it negatively affects anyone but them.
6
He can’t release his taxes. They are still under audit... in Russia
1
"Transparency" is a word with a unique meaning to Trump and Republicans. "Transparency" means that Republicans can spend millions and years digging to uncover everything and every detail about Hillary, but that Trump can conceal his businesses information, continue to control and profit from those businesses, and pack his White House with family as advisors without rebuke. The Failing New York Times must understand that what's sauce for the Democrat goose (and wouldn't Trump so love to cook that goose...) is not at all sauce for any Democrats. No sauce for Democrats! And no "transparency" for Democrat's memo, either. I really, truly hope that some patriot leaks the Democrat's response widely. Clearly, there is no real danger of revealing classified sources or methods, or surely the Republicans in Congress, and Trump (both staunch patriotic guardians of America's "greatness") would never allow its release. The Democrats memo likewise should do no harm... after all, "transparency" is everything, right Trump?!
2
Bob's got them! All is well.
3
We'll see transparency when pigs fly
1
Donald is in transition, HE is becoming King Donald. For Life. How dare we pesky peons question his abilities, his intentions, his words. All will be revealed, when his Collaborators do HIS bidding. Right ???
Thanks, GOP. November.
1
Right on, Editors! We need to see the tax returns NOW!
4
When your political party elects zealots, don't expect government to function.
Paul Ryan is a zealot. And for all the hype, he is not the smartest guy. Some might even call him a bone-head, since he regularly makes public statements that are clearly inaccurate and disingenuous.
Ryan was corrupted by Koch money years ago. He and the rest of the "freedom caucus" need to be called what they really are... The Freak-show Caucus.
Show us the tax returns. You are not the winner if you cheated to win.
Paul, you have gone from corruption to aiding the enemy. I hope your mom is proud.
5
The very best kind of editorial regarding a trump presidency: absolutely truthful and absolutely snarky.
Thank you, New York Times.
3
Hypocrisy, thy name is Republican. Apart from the absence of tax returns that Trump did promise to release, we have his comment that the FBI and DOJ should be ashamed. Are you kidding? Trump, who should be ashamed of the approximately 7 lies per day that he has uttered since being inaugurated and of his having uttered incredibly hurtful and insensitive comments and insults at other people, who has never admitted error nor evinced shame has the hubris to stand up on his hind legs and tell others, based on a biased and incomplete politically inspired memo, that they should be ashamed? As they say, you can't make this stuff up. The best political satirical fiction ever written is no match for Trump and the GOP.
3
John 8:32 - Then you will know the Truth and the Truth will set you Free.....
In the end, the Truth will prevail.
3
Is this really the mountain the democrats want to die on in 2018? Nobody cared about Trump's tax returns during the election, and nobody cares about them now. The man is rich...get over it. Instead, the democrats may want to focus on trying to beat Trump and the republicans, in the era of tax cuts and a booming economy. Remember, "...it's the economy, stupid." Democrats need to get out of their bubble and focus on what the rest of the country cares about. Higher wages, infrastructure, and border security. The democrats may not like these topics; however, they are real concerns to the general public, and democrats can ignore them at their own peril. Of course, the democrats need to come up with an actual message and messenger that can deliver, first.
1
Am amazing ability of GOP voters to somehow believe every crazy conspiracy re: clinton and the democratic party - just follow the money, they say ... but a complete disinterest in 45's tax returns.
Or, everyone he knows meeting with russians and lying about it.
Yup .. this guy is clean as yellow snow.
5
As we all know, our esteemed leader doesn't read, so somebody needs to show him a large format picture book about Nixon and his hair brained attempts at ending the investigation into his presidency. Spoiler alert for The Donald, it didn't turn out well.
2
Right? Alt.Right.
Dream on.
When pigs fly.
How about investigation against Nunes for obstruction of justice?
9
These guys really need to experience what it is like to lawyer up for their witch hunts.
Hallelujah!
Finally, the “memo” is out. Nothing particularly scurrilous besides more of the same old, same old Republican obfuscating.
Ok, whew. So, now, let’s get back to reality. Mr. Mueller we’re still
waiting …
5
Isn't it funny how much more often 'transparency' means, "You show me yours," than, "I'll show you mine!"
I am sure everyone notices how Vice President Pence, Speaker Rayan, & other stooges stand behind The President with their hands folded smiling approvingly & nodding their heads in agreement, just like slaves of a bygone era. With them firmly behind him why would he release his tax returns ? Whose business is to know how many millions were given to him in so-called business deals by the Russians. After all, he is the greatest businessman.
6
All very thought provoking in our fact based liberal bubble. Unfortunately, facts are now irrelevant.
The way that Russian spies get access to our government while others get access to our citizenship (i.e. Rinat Akhmetshin of Trump Tower fame) makes the under cover skullduggery and the elaborate wigs and disguises of the "Americans" look quaint.
2
Trump deemed this as big as Watergate. Once again, he becomes as great a huckster as P.T. Barnum.
His comments regarding leadership of the FBI take me back to another one of his uninformed days, when the stock market soared, and he tweeted "Check your 401k's", not realizing that less than 50% even have one.
He has become tiresome.....
8
Once again for the second time once more: Who's to say that Mueller does not have a copy of Trump's tax returns?
One of his greatest traits is that Mueller is not given to both the traditional and social media. This is the one thing that is giving Donald cheeseburger-fueled nightmares. The not knowing what Mueller knows after two of his "low level" stooges have turned witnesses.
Donald does not know the Constitution, the lyrics to the National Anthem, the rights of immigrants, and he does not care one bit.
Donald also does not know what bank and IRS documents and written testimonies are already in Mueller's hands and are copied to the NY State Attorney's Office, and this he cannot wrap his puny little brain around.
Thus all the distractions.
Won't be long before he tweets: I ran the biggest money laundering operation in history. The biggest ever, everybody is saying it, believe me. But what about Hillary's emails? Sad!
8
If you break a transparency you have bad luck for seven years. Or was that a mirror? Either way, Republicans break everything any good.
5
Spot on. Yes, they wanted Hillary's emails but they are so corrupt when it comes to their finances, their businesses, their meetings with Russia. I do believe I am living in a dream..a bad one.
6
What short memories people have. Two years ago, if one was “desperate Donald Trump not get elected and passionate about him not being president,” it didn’t mean they were a partisan democrat, it meant they has a brain! At that time, most Republicans were opposed to Trump.
9
Glad to know that the Trump administration doesn't want the FBI to protect the country from potential Russian spies. Good thing the GOP is in control of government. Patriots all, yeah right.
3
What happens if the tax returns go public and there's nothing sinister? This scenario would surprise me the least. Not that it would stop interests from trying to spin contents of the return into evidence of nefarious doings, that would also not surprise me. Probably Trump is just holding them back as bait. When he senses a lull in media fervor, they'll get released. The news sites will count the bounty of all the clicks and comments for a new season of omigawd-what-Trump-did stories. It's not like Trump doesn't know this...
This whole Russia-FBI thing seems fishy. Russians in Trump tower... and what? Likely the Russkies were probably testing the waters, to see if what intelligence they had on Trump fit the real world. They offer nuggets only a despot would bite at, and those nuggets were declined. So because the Russkies offer the nuggets, the FBI has to have a looksee I guess. The CIA is probably scratching their heads, they've seen Russians and other countries do this all the time to get a feel for what may be political shifts in their neighbors/adversaries. The US does it, sending emissaries with boxes of chocolates or bullets, depending on the country being scrutinized. "Chocolates" and "bullets" are metaphors in the event the boxes bearing them are a little thick.
For self preservation and to save the nation, the FBI must leak Trump's tax returns.
7
KellyAnne, thanks. Sarah Huckleberry, you too. Mooch and Sean, take a bow. Fake Nunez, good performance art. Pence, Miller, Cohen, and Bannon - you can take off your masks and step off the stage. Thank you, everyone - it was fun and got us through the year. But now the main event is upon us and it is a deadly serious matter. Mr. Mueller gets the last word, in fact - the only word that counts. Listen carefully.
8
Let's go back to the old days of Whitewater, Paula Jones, Monica Lewinsky and Hillary's emails. The idea that Russia and the Trump posse may have colluded in breaking our democratic election process cannot even compare to the high crimes of the Clintons. Thank God there was a right wing conspiracy to bring those two down. Well, if the GOP don't care about the Russians maybe you can bring back Ken Starr and we can take a look see at Stormy Daniels?
2
I’m sure Mueller has the tax returns. Or, Lordy, I hope he has them.
6
I will put it very simply, yes.
2
It has become increasingly obvious that Trump is terrified of this investigation He behaves like a trapped rabbit, struggling and screaming in a trap that draws him deeper and deeper. His frantic actions are evident behaviours of his guilt He is afraid that the legitimacy of his presidency is being questioned and it is, by some.. This man sold his soul and country to Russia and soon everybody will see that. Ugh How sad...
7
One of the best editorials yet because it shows in simple terms exactly what the Republicans are trying to do here. Unfortunately, Paul Ryan and his minions are showing the world exactly how corrupt they are and all with the support of the old white Fox News baby boomers (this coming from a 67 Year old white woman). With that being said, I don’t believe the old adage that “the meek will inherit the earth.” The democrats need to grow some, get some younger, smarter, and fearless people in their ranks. They are always being outflanked by the ruthless on the other side. The dems should go on their own retreat with the help of some hard edged consultants who can help them put a battle plan together because we are in a battle for the soul of this country right.
8
This is a signal. The Times, which has been in the midst of some terrific reporting on Trump and Russia, and which is dedicated to ridding the country of Trump, has given up on "collusion" to do the job and has probably given up on "obstruction of justice" to do the job. So what do they hope to get from the tax returns, beyond titillation: money laundering.
Everybody knows that a lot of very high end real estate in Manhattan and London has been sold in recent years to shadow buyers, whose principals are not disclosed and hard to determine. Is it possible that Trump has sold such real estate to such buyers, including Russian principals with dirt under their fingernails? Of course. The problem is 1) that such transactions have been facially legal and 2) every other developer/realtor of such luxury property around the world has been doing the same thing. So what distinguishes Trump from an international army of other luxe sellers? He's the president of the United States. The repulsive Steve Bannon supposedly has said that Mueller will ultimately go after Trump for money laundering. Looks to me like the Times shares Bannon's judgement and is happy to run with it. Any port in a storm.
1
Everybody, including the fact-fudgers at Fox News, knew this would be a nothing burger even before it was served up on a platter. After White Water, Benghazi, and other pseudo-scandals, we all know that the Republicans regard congressional investigations as tools that serve their partisan interests and nothing else. But we all know something else, too. Trump is under the thumb of Putin, even if we don't yet know the exact details of how he came to be in this position. But it seems increasingly probable that he is guilty of treason. The same charge would apply to those members of his party who are doing everything they can to shut down the Mueller investigation.
5
The curse has spread, throughout the Republican party. Like Ionesco's play about fascism, Rhinoceros, all the elephants are transforming.
Do the Trump apologists pinning their hopes on this strategy really believe it has legs?
It was torpedoed before it was even released. Adam Schiff has helpfully filled in most of the details already, and journalists and former FBI can finish the job. It doesn't even need the coup de grâce of the Dems' memo.
This is beginning to look a lot like desperation.
Nunes antics here have the exact same M.O. as his "unmasking" revelations. Those resulted in his pretended "recusal." What will this overreach result in? Is there any further down to go, except off the committee?
As for Paul Ryan, trying to put the brakes back on a runaway train- his oblivious accommodation of this travesty quite possibly wins the award for Most Likely To Go Down In History As A Doofus.
At the very least. There are worse things I could say about him.
8
The whole point of the memo was to get Robert Mueller to lay off the president, by discrediting the FBI and the DOJ. So Christopher Steele didn't want the Republican nominee to win the election? Big deal. So Andrew McCabe's wife ran for and lost a Virginia Senate seat as a Democrat. Big deal. FBI agents Peter Srzok and Lisa Page simply expressed their distaste for the GOP nominee, as did millions of Americans. Aren't FBI agents also protected by the First Amendment? Devin Nunes' snide reference to Ms. Page as Strzok's "mistress" was an unnecessary cheap shot. And if Ms. Page is a mistress, what does that make Stormy Daniels?
As for the president's taxes, would he release them in exchange for his border wall? If a wall is that important to his base, he can make a grand sacrifice by releasing his tax information, unless he has something to hide.
11
If any American other than a Trump associate had been the target of this FISC application, the NYT would be up in arms, and rightly so.
Let Mueller finish his probe and let the chips fall where they may. That is a separate issue.
But make no mistake, if the FBI and DOJ did in fact mislead the court in a secret application to spy on an American citizen on U.S. soil, then that should be what concerns people, not how that fits into their partisan leanings. The Constitution affords every American certain rights, and if the DOJ and FBI face no sanctions for these actions (if indeed true) then we have a serious problem.
How you can make this statement in absence of facts is breathtaking! At the very least no one has disputed that Page was targeted by the Russians. Not exactly an ordinary citizen.
At last, at long last, at the very long last and astonishingly late, we must return to the most basic norm of our presidency and DEMAND TRUMPSPARENCY NOW on his tax returns, his opaque financial dealings, his gag order on White House business and the ongoing monetizing of his position for personal profit.
Demand trumpsparency now, constantly, obstinately. As said Elie Wiesel: we will not change them, but it is our last chance to prevent them for changing us, and the Republic, irrevocably.
6
Just remember this memo is directed toward people who believe what they are told. They need an occasional booster shot of the rallying cry to keep them hungry for more. They have no interest in looking at this any further than that. When you look at the swamp and see crystal clear waters, you have a big, big problem.
6
I just want everyone to know this almost 75 year old lived through Watergate and felt it imperitive that I read this explosive memo. It was highlighted as no less than the Nixon tapes in the Oval Office. I'm sorry but I fell asleep on page two.
My God these people have got to do better. They cannot continue to rev up us old people, then poof, nothing.
I'll betcha Special Council Mueller has some more good stuff though. Looking forward to more indictments. Now that's excitement!
10
The full throated support of most of the GOP congress for this memo nonsense is scary and appalling. The idea that now trump can use this excuse to fire Rosenstein would be laughable if not for the possibility it might work.
7
"newfound enthusiasm" for transparency
Best line.
3
Having seen 'The Memo' I gotta ask: why all of this hubbub over what is quite clearly a piece of advocacy, and not very compelling at that? It could have been the script for a Sean Hannity rant on cable tv.
It's a nothingburger, to borrow a term from the Donald Trump Mini Me.
The larger question is how in heck the President, his Republican enablers in Congress and the reality television news chorus have managed to convince their public that this pathetic, dry bit of gristle is a $250 plate of Tournedos Rossini made with wagyu beef tenderloin.
Here is how any lawyer with a bit of smarts would read this. The prosecution got a search warrant. The investigation pursuant to the warrant has turned up some pretty damaging evidence. In order to avoid the evidence, those whom it implicates have mounted an attack on the validity of the warrant, in hopes the evidence will be disregarded.
This usually plays out in connection with a criminal case and in a courtroom, not in the White House, Congress and the media. But things are not 'usual' in Trumpworld.
Mr. Gates is undoubtedly in a heap of trouble, or the warrant would not have become an issue. Faced with that trouble, he may cut a deal and begin to sing like a nightingale, particularly since it appears at the moment he has fired his lawyers and is an unguided missile. Thus, Trump and his minions would like to shield Gates any way they can.
If this is their best shot, there's trouble in Trump's Republican Paradise. Big time.
3
Gowdy deciding not to run for re-election was the real story here. Perhaps he's made a deal with Mueller?
Regardless, we're all exhausted from the GOP dramedy channel. Give me the remote, please.
9
Let's start with complete transparency regarding this 'memo' first. It has come to light that in an October 30, 2017 interview Carter Page knew that Paul Ryan was planning to 'reveal' all the 'dirt' about the FISA warrant at a future date. So it appears that the GOP and Trump have been planning this whole fiasco for sometime and that Nunes was directed by Paul Ryan and Trump to come up with their desired narrative.
And yes! Once again the hypocrisy and blatant abuse of power by the GOP is in full force. Tax returns and visitor logs are on the top of my list. Of course, unless the Supreme Court ordered Trump I know we will never see this information or any other that Trump does not want us to see. Two wrongs do not make right but it makes one wish for a leaker or Deep Throat.
Trump IS king, dictator, authoritarian oligarch whatever name you want to call him. His power is being supported and encouraged by a GOP Congress which has brazenly said "We don't care" and "We will do what we want" regardless of ethics or laws.
It's their game and they have the ball and are running with it. It would behove the Democrats to focus less on Trump the person and more on the GOP party of corruption and destruction. That message needs to be hammered out to the public daily until they are voted out of office.
4
Trump our last president. He manipulates the press and the electorate. He does what he wants, says what he wants whether factual or not and no one stops him or challenges him. The republicans who use to be pro-democracy and anti-totalitarianism, fascism, dictatorship have moved toward complete acceptance of what they were staunchly against in another era. What is will happen when he challenges election results, declares them invalid or eliminates elections all together by imposing severe restrictions on who can vote. Tax returns where are you? But other than in tyrannical countries does the elader control the country, run their business and do deals on the countries dime. He is moving to full and dictatorship and republicans support him, why? The base wants reversion to a homogeneous country. This is a very unstable and dangerous situation. Our leaders are blind, scared or hopeful and not significant preventive tactics have been employed, too bad.
6
Transparency, like deficits, matters only when it inconveniences Democrats.
1
Constitution of the United States of America, Article II, Section One, Clause 8:
Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation:—"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."
The Prosecution rests.
6
Asking for Trump's tax returns is like going to a carnival midway, and asking to see the expense receipts for the snake oil salesman who says he just returned from an arduous search into the most foreign lands, from the most secret knowledge of the wisest men in the Himalaya to the most arcane wisdom of the shamans of the Amazon, to bring you, today, the prize, his magic elixir, called "winning."
Rule number one of carnival club: it's fake all the way down.
Trump's tax returns would be one half legally dubious, and the other half, just sad.
4
Thank you to the NY Times for continuing to thwart this sick attempt to defend and enable a monster. The Trump and Republican distorting tactic of denial and projection twists the blame/responsibility from themselves and directs it to others. I certainly hope that as it is exposed and diffused, the majority of citizens will continue to know that these people are the real culprits and will get rid of them, the sooner, the better.
3
More partisan hackery by the NY Times Editorial Board.
And all of the slurs hurled against the Trump Administration are true!
They would also be true, in one form or another, if leveled against the administrations of Obama, Bush, Clinton and so on all the way back to John Adams and the XYZ Affair. The only elected leader in America that still stands above the fray is George Washington, a paragon of civic virtue yet to be equalled in the world.
So, as long as the US and its states and municipalities continue to have governments that are engorged with jobs and contracting opportunities that are subject to high level interference, whimsy and machinations by venal elected and appointed officials, the US will have governments that are by and for the elite and their cronies, not by and for the people.
Sadly, America is much more akin to Russia and China in this regard than to the likes of Sweden, Norway and Denmark.
1
If Mueller is fired, expect mass demonstrations in major cities. I know I'll be marching.
7
How did Nunes write a memo about classified information he has never seen? And how can he justify not releasing Adam Schiff's response, when he has seen the classified evidence? This is truly Alice in Wonderland stuff...
6
Do these guys realize they are providing first-rate guidance to 7th graders and beyond on how to wreck Constitutional government?
3
The president and the supporters of this memo seem to be in a fictional replay of American criminal history where Al Capone and his stooges in Chicago government accuse Elliot Ness and his Untouchables of questionable, improper activities in investigating Capone and his criminal activities.
So how and why is the Democratic minority report from the House Intelligence Committee being suppressed and not given equal play?
5
Funny that Schiff went to so much effort to try and hide the names: Lynch, Comey, McCabe, Rosenstein, Ohr and Page.
Did Schiff lie to the American people when he said the world would end if this memo is released?
We will be hearing much more. The first salvo has been fired.
1
Unfortunately, the ironically named Republicans seem intent on following the playbook of Augustus in replacing the Roman Republic with a Trumploid golden theocracy worshiping the leader. The gelatinous Nunez, the aptly named Trey, the unctious Penn, and all their enablers like the hapless Speaker, and the laughably imbecilic “Ron” Johnson will eventually meet the unforgiving judge of history. So even if Trump and his minions manage to avoid the ball and chain in the here and now, there descendants will be burdened with the heavy weight of their ancestors being scallywags, open racists, and enablers of the kind of special kleptocracy that not only robs a society but DE-moralizes it. Thanks Republicans. Go to Confession.
3
Where are Trump's tax returns? Why is he the only President to hide them from Americans? What does he have to hide?
6
Thank you. These gutless prevaricators think that disclosure should only work for them.
A bigger issue is becoming exposed like bedrock in the rain. The steady storm of the Right's magical thinking make it plain that they want to elevate their hypocrisy, double-standards and inconsistencies to the status of separate-but-equal in our justice system, science, business, etc. They insist that belief makes a thing fact, and the harder you believe it the more factual the fact becomes. This polluted mindset has toxified their media and crippled their base. They now face their own mob of enraged frustrated voters.
Is it any wonder that so many of the GOP's leaders aren't running for their own offices in 2018?
3
As it is now clear to everyone Trump accuses other people of doing what he in fact is doing. If you want to know what Trump is up to at any moment just see what he is accusing someone else of doing. Trump is doing everything that he ever accused Hillary of. Not only does he mismanage classified data he freely gives it to the Russians and Israelis and now the media. Our Allies are not going to trust us with sensitive information anymore.
Trumps's biggest joke on us was insisting that Hillary had no energy or stamina. This was especially laughable considering Hillary constantly criss crossed the globe working as Secretary of State. She then went on to working tirelessly on her presidential campaign. Trump as president couldn't even walk a short distance with other world leaders and had to be ignominiously trundled along in a golf cart! As president Trump spends more time golfing and watching television than actually working. But maybe that's actually a good thing. His tenure as president can't end soon enough!
4
I cannot believe my own eyes reading this editorial.
The GOP will never make me hate politics, because in a democracy politicians and political debates are crucial in order for "we the people" to thrive. But I do am completely DIS-GUS-TED by this administration and especially by how low the Grand Old Party has fallen.
Aren't there any REAL conservatives out there anymore ... ? Did they all become RINOs now, interested much more in their own careers - no matter how much they have to lie and cheat to be able to keep their jobs - than in the strength of the GOP and as a consequence America ... ???
WHERE's the Grand Old Party ...?
2
Just wait till Trump fires his accountant, who'll write some contemporaneous memos-to-self...
6
Everyone(including NYTIMES) declared the information in the memo as SECRET when it was in fact classified marked as TOPSECRET/NOFORN. I understand that no brain Rump declassified the release as UNCLASSIFIED for nothing but moronic and political reasons. It can be legal and unwise at the same time. The President can share this information but just because he can do something doesn’t mean it’s a good idea.” And although it can be "considered legal " to declassify it could still be an illegally act of obstruction of justice.
Trump and Nunes caused exceptionally grave damage to our national security The memo sent to the White House was marked TOPSECRET/NOFORN
The highest security classification. "Top Secret shall be applied to information, the unauthorized disclosure of which reasonably could be expected to cause exceptionally grave damage to the national security that the original classification authority is able to identify or describe.
Also, the statement of NOFORN (meaning "no foreign nationals") is applied to any information that may not be released to any non-U.S. citizen.
2
So what were Russia's top secret agents doing in Pompeo's office the other day?
1
Our fake president certainly acts like he has something to hide. And I'm talking about more than his tax returns.
5
The the very fact that Nunes is Chair of House Intelligence Committee should scare the bejesus out of any thoughtful American. Clearly “intelligence” is not a prerequisite to membership.
11
Fact: Many of the Trump circle denied meeting with Russians and later we found out they lied.
Fact: Russia compromised our election.
Fact: Trump doesn't seem interested in fact 2.
Conclusion: where there's smoke, there's fire.
Lock him up.
6
I don’t understand why the Republican reps have been so busy fabricating stories to distract the American audience from the gory mess right in front of their eyes. Donald Trump is desperate and wounded, even as he keeps shouting. He has stomped around, threatened lots of people, exiled some whom he feared, fumed about firing more, insulted Jeff Sessions for failing to stifle the Russia investigation, and dirtied himself with spitty little lies because he’s guilty. Guilty. Corrupt. Scared. He’s been in league for years with cheaters and sneaks ... his natural associates. Most members of his family and many of the people he’s recruited to his staff have been complicit in the corruption, the deceptions, to enrich themselves. They all know it.
This is clear.
What’s more, it doesn’t matter how many FBI leaders Trump and the Republicans manage to dismiss or try to discredit. Robert Mueller and his experienced team have already gathered a payload of information, and it won’t just evaporate. It will come into the light, one way or another. There are just too many people involved now. And they all have good computers.
It’s really not a smart tactic to insult both the FBI and the Justice Department. Donald Trump started it because he’s hooked. But good grief, why would the GOP follow?
Trump is toast.
7
I wonder why Adam Schiff and FBI were so vociferous against releasing this "dud"?
1
The only thing transparent about the Republicans is their lust for power. This latest fiasco is yet another example of them placing their party above their country. For a party that controls both the congress and the presidency to be so desperate seems to indicate that they are scared to death of Mueller's investigation and what it may uncover. By all means, let's turn the bright lights on and watch the cockroaches try to scurry for cover.
2
They seem completely unrelated to me. Why should he release any more info to provide material for you to use against him. You obviously have lost a clear thought process when it comes to Trump.
Trump ruins everything he touches. This is why he belongs in jail. Society needs protection from him.
3
Transparency is a four-syllable word. So is hypocrisy.
Paul Ryan’s call for greater transparency is Shakespearean: full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
5
The only thing made clear by this memo is how frightened Trump is, and the spinelessness of Ryan. The rest is smoke and mirrors.
4
And his real healthcare report. Not the fake one.
2
Please add to the list: detailed expenses paid by tax payers for weekend getaways to Palm Beach, including Mrs. T's spa trip while Mr. T was at Davos.
3
The releasethememo Russian bots talk about the Pentagon Papers. Obviously not knowing what they are and only being told to mention them by their handlers. I have been saying this would be the modern equivalent of the Pentagon Papers...the release of the Trump tax returns. Then we can see how dirty he is, how many lies he's told, and how much he owes the Russians. That's the equivalent of the lies Americans were told about Viet Nam which nearly destroyed us.
5
Of course it's right, but they won't. Their hypocrisy is as blatant as their craven cowardice to shrink from standing up to the Russians, Putin and the US oligarchs enabling their subterfuge. The fake president's "disgraceful" comment yesterday was applied, as usual, to the wrong target. Ironically, there is significant transparency here because everyone knows what really is disgraceful and it is decidedly not the efforts of law enforcement to unravel the foreign meddling in our elections. The Nunes memo is a lame attempt to distract us from the truth but it backfired and only makes the need for truth more compelling.
1
The whole Nunes memo is just another malicious stunt designed to give credence to Trump's actions. Last time, Nunes was discovered to have made a secret trip to the White House under cover of dark to receive "intelligence. " Nunes alleged that he was getting classified information from a unnamed "whistleblower" that turned out to be White House aides and was designed to buttress Trump's lie about Obama "tapping" his phone at Trump tower. Nunes was removed from heading the House Intelligence committee's Russia Investigation after that ridiculous move.
Now, Nunes releases a memo that was written with the help of the White House to pre-justify Trump's firing of Rod Rosenstein who is in charge of the Mueller Investigation. Trump is desperate to shut this investigation down before it uncovers his serious criminal behavior.
1
The editors need to be patient. I'm sure as soon as the Trump White House has created another one-sided story, edited by Nunes, it will be released. I don't really care about the tax returns any longer. We have ample evidence (2,000+ items) demonstrating he is incapable of telling the truth. We know he bragged to the Russians that by firing "Nutjob" Comey he had relieved himself of a big burden. We know the adoption of Russian children was never an issue in his campaign. We know he had no clue as to how Mexico would ever pay for his wall. We know people around him are already pleading guilty of lying....and probably more.
Therefore it should come as a surprise to no one if he lied on his income taxes. It will be just a continuation of a long-established pattern of deceit. I guess the relevant question becomes, if he has lied on his returns, does that qualify as a high crime and misdemeanor by this Congress? So far, the probable reaction is "Meh."
Thank you, Editorial Board!
Ever since Paul Ryan, with his schoolboy smirk, stood up and demanded 'more transparency' I thought, Yes . . . . how about showing us Trump's tax returns?
At this point, Trump and the Republicans are beyond reprehensible.
9
This is a brilliant Editorial by the Times! Connecting the dots between this so-called “transparent” memo, Ryan’s comment (“Let transparency reign supreme!”), and the transparent LACK of transparency in this White House and its obsequious GOP Congressional allies.
I predictRyan is going to regret this call for transparency. Indeed, it may become for him a bête noir that may haunt him for a long time.
Vive la bête noir!
3
Well-said. Fair points. What seemed to not be said was that the release of this memo (trumpets blaring, media attention for weeks, etc.) is that it was the answer to a different GOP problem.
Certain GOP members must be placated and given approbation so that they can please their home district supporting voters---and $$$$$ contributors.
The GOP LOVES conspiracy theories. They love a nugget of truth extrapolated into a partisan gigantic media storm for their own benefit---not America's.
As was said so well several conspiracies ago, the answer to illegal (nearly-non-existent) voting by Americans is that they don't vote for the GOP candidates nor message & agenda. Consequently, restricting Americans access to vote---an answer. Lather, rinse, repeat---the GOP playbook.
The GOP love to rage against government & when once in office, refuse to govern to satisfy all Americans, only their benefactors.
2
What about releasing the list of all Russian oligarchs who laundered money through Trump "investments?"
7
No good reality show reveals the final surprise mid-season. Trump's tax returns surely hide the big crime — money laundering for Russian crooks with dirt on him, and who bailed him out of his multiple bankruptcies via Deutsche Bank "investments." Don, Don, Jr., and Jared will all look great in orange jumpsuits.
4
Sorry, NYTimes, this article reminds me of the Washington Post's motto, "Democracy Dies in Darkness."
Are we there yet? God bless America, from sea to shining sea!
1
Rome, or at last Washington, DC, is burning, and this is what the Congress is focusing on?
1
Thank you, and well said.
1
If my taxes go up because Trump is in jail, I'll enjoy it even more.
5
The members of the media should file financial disclosure just like members of congress.
1
Let the POTUS do it first!
1
Republicans in Congress know that Trump is as pure as Dick Cheney. All that is suggested is unnecessary.
After all, if we really needed to see Trump's tax returns, the NYT would have considered that as important as Hillary Clinton's emails in 2015 and 2016. But the Times never devoted resources to looking at Trump the way the Times looked at Hillary until AFTER he was elected.
I'd like to see the NYT apologize to the public for its poor judgment, inadequate reporting, and unfair analysis that NEVER gave Hillary Clinton the benefit of the doubt.
5
How about those transcripts that show Trump was a “good” student. And thanks to Open Secrets we know Nunes, who ran unapposed in 2016, had a war chest of two million dollars for a rural California seat. Public office means you lead an open life.
5
Trump was probably a student "in good academic standing", which means a "C" average or higher. I guess the university could not be bribed by Trump Sr. to give him a higher grade than a "C"...
1
Amen. My thoughts exactly.
3
Mueller has all he needs. Transparency will be moot when he finally walks up to the podium.
2
The bar has been lowered so low that it’s hard to tell if democracy still really exists in the US. Honestly, our parties must have started lowering the bar decades ago for it to get this bad. We the public are just catching up to the realities of how non-transparent government can work for private profits, and ignore public outcomes, and the public’s interests. For Main St. USA the outcomes have not been good, and the future is not bright, no matter how cable TV tries to dress things up in stale old narratives of left vs. right, liberal vs. conservative, Dem vs. GOP, and call it the news. It’s really about this new gilded age we are in. Whether party bosses engage in endless rampant corrupt cronyism, and future presidents use their office to run their own private monopoly in secret. In terms of American politics this is a new type of extremism.
1
A thrilling editorial. As I read it, I kept on nodding "Yes" after "Yes" after every revelation. At the end I almost felt like raising my fist in agreement.
Until I realized that the editorial was in fact describing our nation's president and the political army behind him. A malignant force eating at the heart of this great nation.
8
“Transparency can reign supreme.” Why even bother to quote Ryan, he is a slippery and smooth-tonged prevaricator who epitomizes what this party is all about - lie, distort, deceive, deflect. Trump's tax returns will likely never see the light of day - his well paid lawyers and tax accountants are working overtime to cook those books. Meanwhile we continue to follow the never ending trail of the discord, dissension and disarray that Trump creates, generated by his twisted tweets in an increasingly predictable effort to bring down Mueller's approaching time of reckoning. Transparency for this administration and the GOP - wishful thinking. And he sooner Ryan returns to the north country the better off his party and the Country will be.
4
With the release of this four page memo that contains nothing significant to shut down the Russia investigation, Trump and the Republicans have proved to the true Americans like us beyond any reasonable doubts that their main plank, especially Trump's assertions in all his rallies that "I'll be a law and order president", is phony.
By this heavily redacted and half truth memo, Trump and the Republicans have gone into a dangerous territory, something they used to accuse the Democrats of.
Now with the perception of the American public turning against them and with all the state houses and city councils gearing for a change with the Democrats poising to win in all the local upcoming elections till 2020, Trump and the Republicans will find out that this memo will act as an ax to cut off their own feet in all the upcoming elections in future.
This Democratic win will come right at the moment when the D.N.C. will wait for the next census report in 2021 and use those new numbers to fix all the districts in the country as per their own choice just like what the G.O.P. did in 2011 to elect its least popular president ever who received 4 million votes less than Hillary.
So as life long Democrats, we can be sure of our victory in the coming November's midterm as well as all the elections in between now and 2020 including the presidential one which we all know will be fought with a Republican candidate other than Trump who'll resign long before like a coward, like Nixon did in '74.
1
The GOP knows that when the tax returns are released the walls will come tumbling down.
If you’re looking for ethical behavior and dealings in Mr Trumps taxes, his behaviors contradicts that belief.
4
The Memo, about to be dismissed by Republicans as a 'Nothingburger', not to be confused with one of Trump's cheeseburgers, which the Democratic Leader of The Party, Senator Chuck Schumer was polite to share with him, while attempting to establish an understanding with the president on a variety of matters, is a first small step toward clarification.
Clarification that in America, we are not used to being threatened by our Captain; one unable, or unwilling to disclose his tax statements for the view of Our Nation.
Perhaps we should be more patient, and lean on this president's Wall, one which remains dear to his heart and those of his supporters. Trump has poetry coursing through his veins, with days of proclaiming beautiful happenings in the works, followed by sadness when the Public appears to be misguided, mislaid and bamboozled by The Press, and other sources, showing signs of showing a mounting mistrust of his lack of substance.
'If only he were not so crass', from a staunch Republican acquaintance, as I remain silent and stare into my soup. The GOP, shows steadfastness in a desire to stay under the Thumb of Big Daddy. He makes the Republican Party look grand. A Trip of brilliant Dotterel who enjoy nothing more than pursuing 'The Art of Damage-Control'.
Americans are becoming rarer by the day with this Presidency and its unclear policy of Governance. Confidence has to be earned, and Spartan-like, one can hold the gnawing fox closer to one's chest in disbelief.
2
The real challenge for the democratic (and I mean parties and organizations who still believe in democracy and are ready to defend it) opposition will be to exercise restrain. We need to uphold the norms and rules of a healthy democratic discourse and not engage in a tid for tad mud flight that will further the erode the public confidence in the democratic order. Breaking norms with the noble goal to defend democracy will unintentionally play into the hands of those who threaten it in the first place. Trump has no master plan to become an authoritarian leader, he is a president however who has authoritarian tendencies and will gladly become an autocrat if the opportunity presents itself. We are on the best way to give him the chance.
The memo achieved its goal. It successfully distracted everyone, softened the opposition and set the stage for what comes next: firing the special prosecutor. Who's betting that the Senate holds immigration hearings as promised?
2
Thank you NYT for keeping this issue alive. Funny how Trump, when enumerating his promises, has not kept this promise. He can hardly claim to be honest when half of his commitments mean nothing. I hope that Mueller has access, as I could almost swear on my life that the info in them would contribute to the overall picture of who Trump is and what his motives are. I have little doubt that it would validate what many of us "non-professionals" have been saying about him. But then, since almost every day is sullied by his continual lies, one has to wonder how truthful he has been in reporting to the IRS as well.
4
The reaction to the memo is another example of the partisan divide among some and also shows how each party for the sake of political advantage (life blood of both parties) can switch allegiance.
For those on the right, the memo exposes bad behavior in how law enforcement officials at DOJ and the FBI misled the FISA Court by failing to disclose the history of a dossier used to get a warrant. What is still not clear, is what beyond the dossier was used to get the warrant. Perhaps the dossier was o 5% or 90%.
For those on left, the memo disclosed methods and sources that could harm institutions and national security.
Both sides should be equally concerned about both views of the memo, but I guess some media outlets are making that impossible. On CNN, the coverage was harm to national security and institutions and on FNC, it was bad behavior of law enforcement.
Normally, people o the left would not be downplaying bad behavior by law enforcement, and people on the right would not be pushing bad behavior by law enforcement.
1
Democrats should prepare themselves for another lose. No matter how much the pendulum swings in their favor, the end result here could be Trump walking away and conservatives becoming more polorized. If Democrats fight fire with fire, they risk an ethical fiasco. If they play fair, they continue to lose against a cheating juggernaut. Their best hope is the law of unintended consequences. May the zeitgeist be with them.
2
I do not think selective transparency is new. The extreme shown by this president and his supporters may be--or at least well-outside any sort of bell curve. Rep. Nunes' hypocrisy is transparent, given that just a few weeks ago he was pushing policies to remain in place for the FISA court.
So the Republican "leaders" think we should not see the president's tax returns--to help answer questions of money laundering and the international web of his business dealings--but they want to release a cherry-picked "document," mostly written by a staffer and likely not closely read by either Nunes or the guy in the White House? Given the current Republican party, this is perhaps no surprise.
If Mueller's crew has not yet seen those returns, they may get them before long. I am OK with waiting for this investigation to finish and see their results.
As for Speaker Ryan's remarks, they are about what we've come to expect. Why would he display any more intellectual honesty in these circumstances, relative to what we've seen him do with the health care debates?
3
".. push President Trump to release his tax returns.."
Small chance of that! The returns will likely show that he is a mere millionaire.
5
Is there any one who is not a liberal democrat or not on the editorial boards of leftist newspapers care about Trump's tax returns or his past life as a real estate agent or in show business? Independents like me care more about what he has being doing in the white house and is likely to do while in the white house. State of the Union and defense of American values and security is far far more important, presumably for which his supporters elected him. What he has not done is as important too. Trump has not tinkered with social security, he has not wrecked the economy, he has not nuked anyone, he has not increased taxes so that government could spend more tax payer money on more useless costly regime change wars, he has not allowed inefficient people to continue in government agencies, not let government business to be allowed to continue as usual and the memo detailing the corruption by a few rotten apples in the FBI was not allowed to not see the light of day. Do I care to examine Trump tax returns when he was a private citizen not holding elected office? No I do care what Trump did with his presidential salary. I understand he gave it as charity. I would like to know the list of charities he donated his presidential salary to.
1
Perhaps hundreds and hundreds of people have seen Trump's tax returns? Ben Franklin said three people can keep a secret as long as two of them are dead. So why have there been no leaks of Trump's tax returns - or at least their contents?
3
Actually no. Information compiled in returns and audits are very carefully parcelled so only a certain number of IRS employees are authorized to view a certain number of files. When the subject is a high profile person, that number with access is reduced to a handful.
Next, safeguards built into the system mean that every access to a subject's file requires coded access and the employee accessing that information is identified at every log in.
In other words, if an IRS employee were to leak the tax returns of anyone, the IRS would almost certainly know who did it. That person would be fired immediately and would very likely end up in jail. Hence, no leaks.
1
As Bill Maher pointed out last night, a memo is not evidence. They wrote it. It's like making a Facebook post.
One would think, if you get wind of an American being recruited by Russian spies you'd want to dig further, instead the GOP on the committees, ran from it. National security takes second place to party.
7
Now THERE is a distraction if ever there was one.
I have always felt that Trump SHOULD release his tax returns and I also suspect that he has something to hide - I don't know what.
But bringing them up in THIS context is absurd, and so openly partisan that if it was any OTHER editorial board, I would be disappointed and surprised.
2
I find it utterly amazing that DJT’s tax returns have not been leaked.
In this age of leaks of documents, phone calls and conversations, how is it possible that someone at the IRS has not gotten this out?
My tax returns ( along with those of many other people) have been hacked,
so things at the IRS are not totally secure.
5
Good luck with Trump releasing his tax forms, you will have better luck getting photos or his many affairs.
If he paid any taxes at all, his recent rifling of the treasury will insure that he pays none in the future or as Romney said he is probably hiding possible tax fraud.
4
Maybe the real truth about the tax returns isn't that they show collusion with Russia, but if they were released even a college freshman in Tax Law Accountin 101 would be able to tell that the man in the White House is a massive tax evader and cheat.
The little guy, all those little guys who shoulder the burden of taxes on their hard earned wages in the salt mines (as so many working environments have become these days), might not care one whit about collusion with Russia, but would experience an enormous rush of unfairness anger at the idea that an alleged billionaire was wasn't just not paying his fair share, but no share whatsoever.
Nobody much understood the complicated loophole way Trump that was able to wriggle out of his bankruptcies and pass his debts onto his creditors, while skating free himself. But folks understood that Romney paid a lower percentage in taxes than they themselves did and that did make them burn.
Trump's ten year tax free escapade did come to light in one of the debates, where he declared "That makes me smart." But since H. Clinton was never adept at turning the tables on Trump, the opportunity passed to show him for the freeloader that he was and still is.
6
It doesn't matter what is in the"memo." Trump's supporters, getting their daily briefings from Fox and Friends along with Trump, have even less idea what's in it than does Nunes. So this bit of theatrics will now allow Hannity to wave the memo in the air like a matador waves his red cape, done for the sole purpose to excite and anger his audience. That will pave the way for Trump to fire Rosenstein and put in somebody more sympathetic to his plight.
2
How can the country survive when partisan politics are so volatile that the left sees fit to uses opp research to start wiretapping their opponets using FISA courts, hasn't found a lick of evidence and still we are supposed to get distracted by that the memo was written by a republican, or that Trump hasn't released his taxes. Anything but the issue at hand. As a centrist, Ithink Democrats will do anything to win, and as such, they are unfit to ever hold power again.
It wasn't the Left that sought a FISA warrant, it was the FBI and the DOJ. And the reason they sought the warrant, and the reason the court issued the warrant, is that there was credible reason to believe that people associated with the Trump campaign were acting as agents of the Russian government. As for nothing having been found, the reason the FISA court renewed the warrants is that evidence had been found that a crime was being committed. No one objects to the so-called memo because Republicans wrote it. What dismays nearly everyone is that the memo is a hastily assembled, dangerously irresponsible, and deliberately misleading of partisan talking points.
Given all this, aren't you even a wee bit curious about the money trail that might just lead from the Kremlin to Trump Tower?
The article rightly lists several things that should be disclosed to public if the transparency is so dear to Trump's WH. Each one of those should become a movement unto itself.
I would also add that all licenses and business approvals obtained by Trump's and Kushner's family ventures in foreign countries since election should be disclosed.
3
In the interest of transparency Trump should immediately release his tax returns.
Will our nation every recover from the Trump era? He has brought our nation to such deplorable and dangerous lows. He has damaged our foundational institutions, the environment, our national lands, our healthcare, our security, our morality, our international standing, and our democracy. The Republicans have sunk to such low depths and have put party before country, in ways never before imagined. Congressional Republicans, along with Trump, have put Russia before America. They have damaged our republic, hopefully not irreversibly.
We can wait for Mueller to do his job and hopefully the NY Attorney General too (please let there be state charges against Trump and his cronies so he can't pardon his way out). BUT, in the meantime, get out and vote for Democrats in the 2018 midterm and local elections. Volunteer, register voters and get people to vote for Democrats so we can take back control of our presently out of control government and so we can check Trump's power.
6
The right wing, Congressional Republicans and Trump had an episode of mass hysteria. It reminds me of the Great Ebola Panic according to which everyone in the US is supposed to be dead by now.
Yawn.
1) Trump's campaign was full of Russian sympathizers. Fact.
2) The Trump campaign had more than 30 contacts with senior Russians. Fact.
3) All involved lied about the contacts. Fact.
4) Independent evidence such as intercepted phone calls by senior Russian officials who are always under surveillance as spies or spymasters revealed the contacts. Fact.
5) An elaborate cover up ensued among Trump people, with bizarre scenarios. Fact.
6) Changes were made to the Republican platform, sanctions were ignored, classified information told by the president himself to top Russian officials and other actions that were against the national interests of America. Fact.
7) The American election was interfered with; more than 20 state voter lists hacked; the DNC and the DCCC servers hacked with selected and edited emails released to damage the Clinton campaign and help Trump who also publicly requested Russians to hack a former Secretary of State's emails. Fact.
Where is the outrage, Republicans?
What has been done to safeguard future elections?
Why are you attacking and trying to destroy the premier law enforcement agency and top intelligence agencies who have counterintelligence missions to protect us from hostile states like Russia?
Why are you helping Putin?
9
Unless an unprecedented refusal has occurred , the FBI has access to any and all tax returns. Many of their cases are follow the money type cases.
Right?
5
During the campaign, Trump stopped promising to reveal his tax returns when he realized that Romney in 2012 was seriously harmed by the news that his effective tax rate was surprisingly low, around 15%.
Trump, as a real estate builder/operator, probably pays even less than that, because real estate people benefit from some absurdly generous tax rules, especially on depreciation and on rollover (deferral) of gains on properties at sale.
In 2016, documents leaked to the New York Times, plus a surprisingly loose-lipped former accountant for Trump, showed that as of 1995, he had a tax loss carryforward of $916 million, probably carried forward from his financial disasters of the early 1990’s)'
"The 1995 tax records, never before disclosed, reveal the extraordinary tax benefits that Mr. Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, derived from the financial wreckage he left behind in the early 1990s through mismanagement of three Atlantic City casinos, his ill-fated foray into the airline business and his ill-timed purchase of the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan." http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/02/us/politics/donald-trump-taxes.html
“[A] $916 million loss in 1995 would have been large enough to wipe out more than $50 million a year in taxable income over 18 years.”
No wonder Trump is adamant about not releasing his returns, as every other presidential candidate since Watergate has done.
4
Our Founding Fathers went to great lengths to protect the nation from the rise of a dictator. By creating three equal independent branches of government they thought they had ensured oversight and safeguards to prevent some demagogue from rising to crown himself king. They also created the electoral college to guard against a swayed, uninformed, mob vote.
If we have learned anything since the November 2016 election, it is that as knowledgeable, enlightened and committed as our Founding Fathers were in giving us a republic, they failed to address an obvious weakness. A low information public fed hostile propaganda (with all the protections of the First Amendment) by a nefarious network of an anti-American party, controlling all branches of government.
Benjamin Franklin was right to observe that America can have a republic as long as the people can keep it. Too many of the people are willingly undermining the republic in favor of authoritarianism. They have been misled by right-wing propaganda and they believe ONLY Donald Trump can solve their griefs. These people support Republicans and will not vote them out, no matter how they are abused and their griefs aggravated. They cannot be educated, informed of truth and facts.
America is being held hostage and tortured by a small group of people who have exploited the failures of our democracy's safeguards, created by the Founding Fathers.
The only question now, Are there any decent, patriotic Republicans left?
6
Ok. Everybody has the memo which has already been dismissed by the Left as a non issue. Now they want Trump tax returns. I say ok let’s have them but I want to see Obama’s passport application. I want to see his complete academic record as well to include his application and transcripts. And will everyone be happy?
2
Why are you so fixated on President Obama and his academic performance? He graduated magna cum laude which is based on a top grade transcript, and he was head of the law review. Ridiculous about the passport. Who in the world disbelieves state records and still believes the racist birther lie about Kenya.
If you care about academics, Trump's very thin degree (a transfer) was only a bachelor's degree from Penn to which his father had to donate a fortune, probably paying for his stupid son's degree.
Ugh. I cannot believe that Obama Derangement Syndrome is still festering in the minds of Trump supporters when they have the con man, sexual assaulter, and Russian lover. Ugh.
2
I asked the same question yesterday after reading the memo. Cue Rosemary Clooney singing "Is That All There Is?" How about applying their rationale---transparency--to Trump's tax returns? That said, the true motives are unclear and the waters keep getting muddier. Instead of gaining more clarity, we were treated to a much-hyped "memo" containing cherry-picked "facts" authored by a sketchy Republican staff lawyer, Kashyap Patel who, as another article in yesterday's NYTimes outlined, was called a troublemaker by a federal judge and apparently attempted to circumvent protocol and meet with Steele in London outside official channels.
4
And while we're at it, I'd love to see his academic record in college.
4
Keep up the call for the president's tax returns. I'd especially like to know the impact of recent tax reform legislation on his tax liability. I was surprised to see a small increase in federal tax withholdings in my recent paycheck, which company HR says reflects the new tax rates. It will add up to $600 a year--not a lot, true, but I resent that my $80k salary is expected to fund tax cuts for millionaires like Trump.
4
The OJ defense ploy is rather thin but effective in rallying the tribe. But can they withstand the light of the hundreds of other bloody gloves that DO fit? That only Trump, Putin and Co. could have left at the scene of the crime?
3
If this memo is the best that either party could come up with, it is no wonder why the government is in such a sorry state. How many years have these people been receiving the fruits of taxpayer labor--their salary--and they seem to be less adequate that high school student. Much ado about NOTHING.
Yes transparency in trump speak is spelled REDACTED. Good luck on seeing anything other than more opacity. Mr Mueller, please hurry, there is a cell at Leavenworth with trumps name on it---in GOLD.
13
Once Nunes gets booted out of Congress, he'll be well suited to open a Nunes Nothing Burger Stand. That is, if he's not behind bars for obstruction of justice.
14
Exodus 20:16 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor." It is the sixth commandment from the Lord It is also a felony in Under the Penal Codes of the U.S. Judicial System and Criminal Law. It is basically lying. The Nunes Memo basically points out how a so called 'Dossier' which was fabricated by an opposition research company compromised of left wing investigative journalist and purchased by a Political opponents campaign, which found it's way to I believe John McCain who turned it over to Mr.Comey. Knowing it was a fake document it was used as the major piece of evidence to get a FISA judge to sign off on a warrant to tap members of the Trump campaign. What the FBI and the DOJ leadership did was bear false witness to a judge to get a green light to tap the would be president. If this is accurate it could mean a purging of tens or hundreds of people at the top levels of governance. Where these roads of injustice lead could set off a firestorm bigger than a Ventura County wild fire. It could also taint the entire Mueller investigation if it was based on a lie or false information, which would or could lead to a dismissal in an eventual appeals court over how evidence was gathered in the first place. I can't believe that anyone with a modicum of legal knowledge would not see this. It is not about Democrat or Republican. It's about the Rights under the Constitution that every citizen including a sitting president or a candidate has and the laws of this nation.
Nope. That ain’t it. The investigation started way before the dossier became a thing (ask Georgie P). Carter Page was under surveillance since 2013 for being a Russian agent.
Now go try again.
4
But what Trump is really attacking is the release of Page’s recorded conversations. Mueller knows the truth, and Trump cannot allow the release of that truth. Nice legal strategy, but if the President and his campaign team actually used a hostile foreign power to obtain power, and have traded the stoppage of sanctions in return, our citizens must hear the facts. The democracy is at stake, so let’s wait until Mueller presents his case.
2
Your facts are not factual, try again.
The four-page memo alleges that the DOJ and FBI submitted inaccurate and incomplete information in a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant against Page. The spy warrant was granted on Oct. 21, 2016.
1
President Trump’s tax returns are none of anyone’s business other than President Trump.
Then he should not be president.
4
And are you going to be saying the same thing if a democrat does not release them and is headed to the White House? Yeah, right...
So you only want transparency if it fits a Republican narrative. Putin is proud of you.
1
That dossier. It was initiated by A Republican group getting "background" on Trump. When Trump was the nominee, Clinton's folks continued that same investigation. This keeps getting lost in reporting and it's a really interesting and important fact.
5
Maybe to be safe, from now on, politicians should only hire their opponents' supporters to do opposition research, and cops and the FBI should only investigate criminals and spies they sympathize with.
3
What is transparent to me is the GOP's effort to impugn the accuracy of intelligence reports by a highly respected former MI6 agent on grounds of bias.
Christopher Steele is neither Democrat nor Republican; he is a Brit. By definition he has no horse in our race. Isn't it far more believable he was "passionate" Trump not get elected--and presented evidence to the FBI of a feared "crime in progress"--because, based on his investigation and his long experience in Russian intelligence, he truly believed Trump was in bed with the Russians?
16
We all agree that transparency strengthens democracy, but I think this latest nasty controversy reveals a more serious problem. Our political divisions based on different facts from competing sources and opposing voting bases has put us in a kind of non-violent (so-far thank god) civil war. Where is the leader whose intelligence, insight, and skills can pull us towards the center and begin to unify us and save the government by making it creditable to all? I see no such leader from either party and if our divisions continue and worsen our civil war will become a lot less civil
1
"Can we see your tax returns?"
"Believe me, I"m very rich"
"Can we see your tax returns?
"They're under audit,"
"Can we see your tax returns?"
"It's none of your business."
"Can we see your tax returns?"
"You already saw my assets in Forbe's list of richest people like me.
By the way, did I tell you I'm very rich? That I can tell you. Believe
me. Probably the richest man in history.
"How much money do you OWE? And to who?
"We're done here. Now get lost, or I'll sue you for harrassment."
28
Hypothetically, if a search warrant on an alleged drug dealer was obtained with questionable evidence, but the search uncovered 100 lbs of heroin, does anyone think that Republicans would be in favor of tossing the charges on “a technicality”?
So why are we focusing on the evidence presented to obtain the FISA warrant rather than on the fact that Carter Page committed serious crimes?
8
The President has claimed several times that the new tax law will increase his taxes. Perhaps he can prove it by sharing his returns. And the 2017 one isn't being "audited" (yet).
17
Let the sunshine in by releasing:
* Democratic response to the Nunes memo
* All underlying information used to secure the FISA warrant
* Results of the FBI inspector general's report that the NYT indicated was the basis for McCabe being forced out
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/29/us/politics/andrew-mccabe-fbi.html
Tax returns? Mueller is investigating. If the tax return prove wrongdoing, release them. Otherwise there is no justification for releasing private information.
4
How about the recordings of Page’s telephone conversations? Preventing their release, that’s what these GOP arguments are really trying to prevent.
There is no such thing as privacy for a POTUS, accountability and continuous scrutiny comes with the job. A POTUS lives in a glass house. The POTUS can see all American tax returns if he so desired and sign off on tax policy that affects me, so I want to be able to see his tax returns.
How can any decent person support the united states? Tyranny has descended upon the country and no on does a thing about it. It is foolish to hope for fair elections in 2018; trump himself has said the elections are rigged, and they will be - by him and those who work for dictatorship.
#calexit - separation is the only option left.
6
I regularly pose this simple question to Trump supporters: What is Mr. Trump so desperate to conceal that he will not release his tax returns as he had earlier declared that he would do?
I have yet to receive an actual direct response. They begin to deflect and redirect in the same manner as Mr. Trump. Astonishing, really.
6
But her emails...!
Yet another gift to Putin: an effort to the destroy the F.B.I., which just happens to do counter-intelligence work against Russia.
The guilt of Trump and his gang is so obvious it would be laughable if these people were not endangering national security, polluting the country, harming workers, etc.
7
Excellent rebuttal of the Republicans' claims for transparency. This should be airdropped in leaflet form in the heart of Trumpland.
5
The veneer of patriotism has been peeled off of the Republican party by the release of this memo. This is McCarthyism... and I am deeply saddened. I had held out hope that a 'love of country' would prevail. But I was wrong.
8
I’d be much more interested in seeing the tax returns of the editorial board, or journalists in general, for that matter. They purport to be unbiased intermediaries between the public and “power”. I’d like to know the financial sources, commitments, charitable leanings (or lack thereof) of those near dieties that purport to give us common folk a “voice.”.
Oh goodness. Is that the talking point going around for the GOP faithful? This is the second comment that appears to be word for word to a similar one earlier. It is a ridiculous one, at any rate. The editors and publishers are not elected politicians, they are private citizens. Surely you can understand the difference. American citizens can, but I suppose Russian bots would not.
3
What will be your opinion when a democrat president refuses to divest or release her tax returns?
Thank you for keeping the real issue in the discussion. Trump could end this tomorrow by releasing his tax returns. Right??
Well, one way or another. The tax returns could finally quell rumors that he is being blackmailed via Russian kompromat, or that he is beholden to shady financiers who have enabled his borrowing habit when banks refused, and curiously purchased Trump properties at exorbitant rates.
Or exonerate him. C'mon, Don, face the music. The White House is trying everything, and using partisan hack surrogates like Nunes and documents that sound like they've been run through the infowars conspiracy hot dog mill, to distract from that central glaring, and missing, puzzle piece.
Perhaps that's the point: sleight of hand to avoid smoking guns that could prove once and for all whether Trump has been lying about his interaction with Russians, before and during the presidential campaign. And how stupid could they be to invite Russian intelligence officials to meet this week??
Sure be nice to see more republicans remember the oaths of office they took. The electorate may remind them come November.
4
I wonder if the court will let the Donald tweet in his "Not guilty." plea?
3
Yes release the taxes on Trump and all his cabinet and all their emails. Let's see the whole picture.
4
Question: Why would we expect trump's tax returns to be honest?
This man lies several times a day on the most absurd issues.
Tax returns are important.
Surely we could expect them to be filled with outright lies and half-truths.
Still lets the whole world see them "President Transparency!"
2
after the news media hype that is normal for our 24 hour news cycle mentality, short of proving the existence of aliens, the memo would not live up to hype and this was surely to be the left and openly hostile media's reaction. I just can't wrap my head around the fact that simply put, an openly paid for investigation by one political party was used to obtain a FISA warrant to wiretap against the other political party in a nonpublic court forum. How can the majority of the people commenting not understand the issue with that regardless of your political affiliations.
People understand that what you have asserted is not true. It can't be true because a FISA court would have required much more than raw intelligence (which is what the dossier was,) with hard facts. Those would be required for a FISA warrant. Try to educate yourself about actual law, not some nasty cherry picking by a political party. Then put your misplaced incredulity where it properly belongs.
2
Nunes is a useful pond with groupie aspirations. We are talking about treason or violations of the emoluments clause or conflict of interests. That is exactly why we will not see anytime soon those tax returns, White House logs, guests at Trump properties or business deals of the Trump business. Trump had Americans for breakfast and I apologize for the cliche.
Unfortunately, transparency will never reign supreme, not with a GOP with so many double standards and a president afraid of what his tax returns will tell us which could be all of the above or maybe that he is a not a very rich crook. I still remember when Comey was Trump's hero at the end of the campaign. So let us not talk about consistency or transparency because this is like the mafia.
1
Hear, hear! Show those tax returns.
2
I suspect that, to borrow Gertrude Stein's words, there never was a there there.
It never mattered what was in the memo; the political theatrics surrounding it -- oooh, secret memo; oooh, release the memo, let us see it! -- were the real point from the start. To further decay trust in independent investigative agencies for the base and the GOP, all that was needed was innuendo and performance art.
4
Trump must protect his image, at all costs; that’s what all this fuss over the Russian investigation is all about—and the refusal to release his tax returns. He thinks that his image will keep his base solidly behind him, so he will be invulnerable to Democrats, liberals, old-style Republicans, the New York Times, the FBI, and anybody else. He may well be right; he has years of experience as a reality TV host, and he’s an expert at gauging audience reactions. Would he even notice if he stepped over the line and did something illegal or impeachable? Unless it would damage his all-important image, I’d guess not.
The moral of this story: don’t go after the man. Go after his image. That way you get both.
3
I recently asked a Trump supporter if he knew who Devin Nunes was and what he thought about the impending release of the memo and the ramifications of it's contents to the FBI and the Department of Justice. The question was met with a "deer in the headlights" look. I'm not kidding. I live in a ruby red county in Florida so I decided to ask more basic questions like who Rod Rosenstein was and who appointed him as Assistant Attorney General and why. I was told Obama did it. Puzzled by this, I asked a known Trump supporter in the meat market if she knew the of the purpose and intent of the separation of powers our constitutional framers thought to be so important. Crickets. Not one person knew that DACA meant Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.
It seems that Trump supporters simply wander into the voting booth, seething with hatred for democrats and in a zombie like way, vote for Republicans even if they're voting against their own best interests and then go home and watch Sean Hannity.
These people are not stupid, they're lazy. No one wants to take the time to review the facts and draw their own conclusions. Republicans rely on this to get re-elected.
Our political landscape won't change until that situation changes. And there's about the same chance of that happening as there is of Trump releasing his tax returns. His supporters just don't care about his tax returns and their efforts go into hating Obama and Hillary without understanding why.
10
Trumpism is nothing more than the end times nihilism of lifetime losers. That there are so many in the US is proof that its political system is poisonous.
And they say only elephants never forget, but leave it to the Board to prove otherwise.
House Republicans just ended the 240 year Republic, quite an accomplishment, Mr. Nunes.
3
So long as Mueller can get his hands on Trump's financials, there is hope.
3
Defense lawyers who will represent Russian spies caught by the FBI and brought to court, will read this memo with intense interest and use it as powerful ammunition against our justice system.
Just invoke the "Nunes Amendment" to discredit the FBI with a claim that the FBI & US courts "hate Russian & Russia" - therefore are biased against their client to get them free.
US judges are blatantly biased already. The court system here is an extortion racket, not a finder of fact, in civil litigation.
Agreed, let’s see Trump’s tax returns, finish the Trump campaign - Mueller investigation, and get on with the people’s business. The last time Washington and Congress were knotted up with Bill Clinton’s affair, Osama bin Laden and multiple terrorists were planning the terrible events of September 11th.
1
Once the dust settles there is still the question of why so many Trump supporters meant with the Russians?
1
whole lot of nothing burger. where are the trump tax returns, and nunes as well!
1
Nunes's memo, go figure, was indeed a bias-flavored nothing-burger.
That's why they released it on dumpster Friday.
2
And how about all texts/emails of Congress? I’d like to see them ALL.
2
Editorial Board, rest assured that all of the information requested on your "Transparency Wish List" will be faithfully provided by this White House as soon as Stormy Daniels succeeds Sara Sanders as Press Secretary. All of it!
2
Like many of you, I've come to realize, probably later than most, that nothing really matters anymore. If this document was released on or not, it wouldn't do a single thing to change the course of what is going to happen. Facts don't matter. Justice doesn't matter. Right vs wrong is entirely malleable. It's simply an us against them society we live in now and I don't know how this is going improve. Trumps tax returns, certain to be full of illegal behavior, won't matter to his base. The left will go wild over how unbelievable and corrupt trump is, and the right will say, "good for him he fought the establishment." Look no further than white evangelicals to know beyond a shadow of a doubt, hypocrisy, is the only certainty. Things are bad in the American society and getting worse.
3
Trump and republicans have no problem torturing a prisoner, even if that prisoner were an American Citizen, to get intelligence information. Trump and those same Republicans argue that it is a scandal because the FBI requested a FISA warrant to get intelligence on a possible Russian spy when some of the supporting information could have had a political bias. The hypocrisy and fecklessness of the Republican Party and Trump is astounding.
5
I declare sir, you offended my delicate sensibilities. I believe the flag will spontaneously combust if you continue with this New York trickery. Tax returns indeed!
I just hope we don't fall into the Rachel Maddow click-bait classic 'I've got Trump's tax returns ' over this alleged exposé of an illegal and 'deep state' within the FBI, dedicated to ousting Trump. The actual malfeasance here belongs to Trump, Nunes and the GOP in their attempt to claim conspiracy. And 'so what' if they damage the reputation of the men and women of the FBI...collateral damage? Unfortunately for the GOP, Devin Nunes has never been the sharpest knife in the cutlery drawer - a butter knife or cake lifter - yes. Trump is like the desperado who's run out of bullets and will throw anything within grasp at his pursuers - twigs, lumps of coal, handfuls of sand, fast-food containers, drumstick-bones and empty cans of Diet Coke. In truth that's the only defense this Nunes authored pastiche of nonsense warrants - it's pure junk and should be treated as such.
3
Please please call on Pelosi to explain how this endangers national security. As long as she is the mouthpiece of the Democrats, Republicans have nothing to fear.
2
I too have wondered about this. But I wouldn't ask Pelosi for details, I would ask the republican heads of the FBI and the DOJ why they argued this very point.
People must have long ago abandoned common sense. Think. If you were innocent, would you go through all this nonsense to "fight false charges?" At the end of the day, we're going to find out that this is simple. DT's businesses are a joke. He's been a con man all his life. He couldn't get a loan to cover himself here and went to foreign sources. He owes them. And he won't care about us finding that out. What he's covering up is his failure as a businessman and brand. That comes out and he loses financial backing and his "empire" falls. Follow the money.
3
Who besides the Russians would even see an upside to bailing Trump out of his Hudson Yards bankruptcy?
The fact that the New York Times seems to believe that they need to switch the subject to Mr. Trump's tax returns is pretty much an acknowledgement that the Nunes memo has struck a nerve. At the same time, the point about the tax returns is clearly legitimate, and why the state of our politics these days is so disconcerting. There is a tendency to think that administrations toggle back and forth, but there is arguably a lot more emulation here than anyone would like to admit. The Clintons and Obama really were bad news, if you are a good government type of person, and though this newspaper is clearly very liberal on many issues, it seems to retain its concern about honest government. Arguably, it's the tax returns, and the perceived role of Russian money in real estate (though not Chinese?) that is fueling a lot of the sentiment that led to the Mueller appointment. With lower level people in government, there is almost certainly too much focus on disclosure. But for Trump, absolutely it should be an issue. And maybe in the meantime, we can get a good investigation of the Clinton Foundation as well. Arguably that was the precipitating reason for much of the FBI controversy, since it was presumably behind the reason to set up the non-government server, which Obama, we now know, almost certainly approved. So let's have a bi-partisan effort to force Trump to release his taxes, and get Obama and Clinton to testify under oath why they set up this server.
2
Why doesn't Wiki Leaks do something useful, and release Trump's Tax Returns?
2
Sure let's talk about tax returns, visitor logs, anything to avoid the hard truth that the DOJ/FBI criminally misused its powers to spy on an American citizen in the US. So After noting that, "Andrew McCabe, the deputy director of the F.B.I. who stepped down this week, testified to the Intelligence Committee in December that investigators would not have sought the warrant without the information contained in the dossier.", you blithely continue on denigrate the whole thing by pointing out that there was likely "other evidence". So what part of "WOULD NOT HAVE SOUGHT THE WARRANT WITHOUT THE INFORMATION IN THE DOSSIER" DOES THE TIMES NOT UNDERSTAND?
3
They understand that he did not assert that the dossier was not the only or even primary source of what caused the investigation. Try a source other than Fox opinion shows. Start with Fox News. The News team, not the opinion mill.
I thought Nunes had been removed as a result of his exchange of information on the White House grounds in the middle of the night, with Trump aides behind the committee’s back!
2
This Republican memo is weaker than the second hour of a Rush Limbaugh fast. The FISA investigation started with George Papadopoulos. The darn Steele dossier was initiated by a conservative organization. These Republicans are living in an alternate universe if they think their arguments make any sense.
8
Throughout the campaign, Trump told voters Hillary Clinton could not be president because she had mishandled classified material by using a private email server. Yesterday he declassified highly classified material and authorized—AUTHORIZED—its release over the objections of the director of the FBI and the Department of Justice. Wow!
10
After spending several hours gathering the info I will need to file my simple 1040. It must take Trump much longer to put his return together since we have been waiting for almost 2 years to see his. I hope Mr. Mueller can push him along or better yet just tell us where he is lieing. And if appropriate forget the Russian investigation and just imprison him for tax evasion if proper.
8
A public push for “greater transparency” by Ryan and Nunes and the rest of the GOP should seem to indicate they’d demand full and complete cooperation with Mueller’s investigation by the entire extended Trump group, including the President. In the past, these slippery politicians have used an indignant reaction as a contrived response to a single handpicked issue, and have gotten away with it by the people and their colleagues. Our government sinking to a new previously unthinkable low ever day under the Trump administration has the public more actively interested, and we have to call them out for full transparency on all. Good call by the Times. Let’s flood their offices with a demand for greater transparency especially the tax returns and in cooperation with Mueller.
30
I pray that Mueller has that tax return, and all the ones that came before it, and all of Jared's tax returns. Read the Dossier folks - and ignore the salacious parts. Assume that half of it is not verified (these things are not intended to be testimony). It is still scary as hell. It is absolutely conceivable - that Trump would not be where he is in business or in politics without the Russians. He clearly has lied throughout his campaign about his relationships with Russians. Do any of you believe that Jared filled out those foreign contact forms without discussing them with his father-in-law? No way. Didn't happen. I will personally be disappointed if Trump goes down on obstruction of justice and we never get to the bottom of his Russia financial connections.
49
It has been said that the Republican Party is the most dangerous organization on the planet; well DJT is their WMD. High time to for the Dems to finally get it through their heads that it will not be enough to beat the GOP at the polls; they must be discredited and destroyed, once and for all, before they destroy the nation. Enough stately decorum in the face of these scum balls; which is exactly what Obama should have done during his last term; instead of being quite so 'Presidential', he needed to get his hands dirty doing what had to be done. The Dems must capitalise on the firing of Mueller because it is going to happen; in fact, he's shaping up as perfect bait for the sting of the century, if they can bring it off. Looking shocked and appalled while being outmaneuvered by low rodent cunning isn’t going to cut it. Bring out the razors.
30
Republicans cheat. They redraw voting districts for gerrymandering purposes. They delay Supreme Court nominations until they have favorable conditions. If a law works against them, they make a new law in their favor. Working with Republicans is like playing cards with a 4-year-old, who when in a losing position suddenly announces new rules that allows them the next trump.
59
Sadly, the Democrats have in the past been guilty of much the same: catering to special interest donors, etc. But at least they are consistent on climate change, public education, and health care for all.
Transparency is a requisite for everyone but Trump and his cohorts. Who will demand exposure of Trump's tax returns: The Congress? The Senate? The Supreme Court?
The Editorial is a plea for the Separation Of Powers, for a system of checks and balances that has become non-existent.
42
Though a political moderate who occasionally agrees with GOP positions, I've come to view the modern-day Republican Party as America's greatest national security threat.
From big tax cuts for oligarchs to undermining the FBI through this highly partisan memo to climate change denial to fealty to the NRA, it's frightening to think, statistically, that at least one of your next-door neighbors embraces such dogma and votes Republican.
70
I’m with you, John.
1
I bet if you were to look back at the way Roy Cohen handled any attempts to undermine or question McCarthy's tactics you will find similar approaches to the ones his student DJT is now using. Never admit in and always attack andn in so doing change the subject and distract the issue. How long are we going to put up with this. I suspect until the republican grow a spine.
11
We will never see the taxes. Unless there is a Watergate style break-in at the IRS, where his returns are locked in a vault in the head office, they will never see the light of day. I think the most intriguing bit of info that has come out of this memo is that Carter Page was surveilled not once, not twice, but three times. After the first and second ones, the court had to be shown concrete evidence of misdeeds. So why, after all this time, has Carter Page NOT been arrested for treason or spying? Is he actually a double agent? Did they turn him, to work for the U.S.? Who suggested he be hired by the Trump campaign? I vaguely remember something about Michael Cohen or Roger Stone? Why aren’t they being investigated? They must have known he was a Russian asset. And if the FBI was already surveilling Page when he joined the campaign, why didn’t they warn Trump, like he was warned about Flynn by the Obama administration? The circumstances surrounding Carter Page are mysterious indeed.
16
It is well known that Trump is obsessed with ratings. I am convinced that he just wants our attention, but doesn’t care much about our respect. That’s why the content of the memo is not important, it was the anticipation of its release that achieved the desired effect. He wants us to keep watching. And we do.
Let’s change the channel. Or, better yet, turn off the TV and go read a book.
350
Oh, Andy, I've turned off the tv and read a book--actually many books--but when I emerge from my retreat, the disaster that has engulfed my country remains. Instead of retreating I've decided it's more important to the streets, knock on doors, and remove these charlatans from office in November!
After all, it's our democracy that is at stake!
4
It would be nice if the Republicans held their president to the same high standard they held President Obama. McConnell’s refusal to give Obama’s Supreme Court nominee a hearing was the nastiest display of partisanship we have ever seen. What goes around comes around, karma, the golden rule. Remember that stuff. Trump and the Republicans deserve all the negative vibes the American people are heaping on them and then some. This memo is a vehicle to latch onto that Trump and Nunes are hoping to hoodwink the American people with. We are beyond looking at the next shiny new thing Trump points at. It’s Mueller time.
41
I am holding out hope for Karma.
A core characteristic of folks on the far right (think Tea Party types) is a deep sense that all who are not with them are out to get them. The memo plays well to those paranoid types, who tend also to be believers of conspiracy theories large and small. The world is out to get them; no one but their own families and others who inhabit their narrow political world can be trusted; anyone who is more educated or better off socio-economically is against them and trying to destroy them. For them, the memo is simply confirmation of their paranoid, isolationist world view. They are not big on critical thinking, so they will not even know or care that the memo actually states that the surveillance began with George P., i.e., before it took in Carter Page - nor will they know or care that Page was on the FBI radar in 2013...
56
The memo is nothing more than a manufactured excuse to fire Rosenstein.
It raises more questions than answers. Nunes won't say whether he was aided and abetted by the White House in preparing the memo which means he was.
What I would really like to know is what the White House promised Nunes in his first trip to the White House in 2016 in exchange for Nunes' defense of Trump? A future cabinet position? It looks like a quid-pro-quo. As Trump is fond of saying, "We'll see what happens..."
43
Good summary. Cabinet position is assured for the dual named two faced Nunes.
The name can be pronounced with or without latinization at the end.
1
Thank you! I too wonder what Nunes expects to get as a reward for playing the fool for months now. He is way too willing and obvious a toadie and has Ryan and Trump's backing. I was thinking will we see new Deputy AG Nunes replacing Rosenstein once Trump gets his way?
You do realize the memo is just the first step.
Question is, how will the chess game play out.
Democrats are playing without their queen.
By election time, Democrats may be sorry they ever made up the fake Trump/Russia collusion nonsense.
1
It's crystal clear that this is nothing but a smokescreen to discredit Mueller's investigation into Russia's meddling in the 2016 election. Why is Trump trying to kill this investigation? I get that he is insecure about the legitimacy of his win, in the 2016 election, but if he really has nothing to hide he would welcome the Mueller investigation as a way to vindicate his claim of innocence?
I understand Trump's hardcore supporters would never believe he's anything but the second coming of Christ, but the majority of Americans would just like to know a) Did Trump or anyone in his campaign coordinate with the Russians to release hacked information on Hillary Clinton? and b) What exactly did the Russians do and what measures are being put in place to prevent them for doing this again?
Seems to me that the coordinated effort to shutdown the investigation seems designed to protect Trump (and perhaps other Republicans) from the consequences of their actions...
24
When Trump says his taxes are under audit, then ask for the latest tax return that is not under audit. Then comes an obviously lie as to why he can't release that either. I hate it that reporters fail to ask the follow up question. It's like yelling at the movie screen that the bad guy is behind you, look out.
51
In his speech last year about why we should not want DJT as President, in addition to some of his character shortcomings, Mitt Romney said the same thing. "look closely at his tax returns"
And, by the way, during his own presidential campaign, didn't Romney say that the Russians continue to be a big threat to the US?
Maybe we should have paid more attention to him. And since DJT HATES him I sure hope he runs for and wins the Senate race in Utah. Maybe he will be a sane voice against the Trump effect, esp since it looks like Senator McCain is fading, and no one else currently in the Senate seems willing to carry the torch he bears.
23
Republicans dedicated a massive effort to the attempt to crucify Hillary for breaking an email server rule that her predecessors disregarded yet are willing to turn a blind eye to Trump's treasonous collusion with Russia to help him gain office. There is a smoking gun, ten smoking guns.... The only way to know what is going on is to follow the money. Mueller must continue to investigate Trump's financial ties to the Russian's and Putin via the the money laundering Bank of Cyprus (where Wilbur Ross has had a major role), Deutsche Bank, and Russian investors in his property. It is no coincidence that there are such strong links between Russia and Trump's cabinet members and associates including Wilbur Ross, Felix Sater, Roy Tillerson, Jeff Sessions, Mike Flynn, Carter Page, Paul Manafort, Roger Stone etc., etc., not to mention Jared Kushner, Ivanka and Donald Jr..
Trump’s tax returns must be released to Mueller. Tax returns are high likely to be revealing, thus the secrecy. Not only is conflict of interest a key issue with respect to Trump’s personal finances and his tax proposals, but our national security is also at stake. Trump’s adamant refusal to release his tax returns is likely admitting that he is guilty of treason by collusion with foreign powers for political purposes. Furthermore we must completely reject the band of cowards known as the Republican Congress for attempting to protect Trump when they know that he is owned and controlled by the Russians.
44
If Trump has nothing to hide - then release the tax returns. It's pretty simple. I'm not a big fan of far flung conspiracies - so I'll keep it simple. A businessman with terrible credit needed to keep getting credit. As anyone with a low credit score can attest - you don't get credit when your credit stinks. So - how did Trump keep funding his pie in the sky projects? I don't know the answer - but his taxes will help illuminate that. My opinion - based on logic and facts - is that the money likely came from shady dealings. But - if I'm wrong - then Trump is just a terrible, sexist, incurious, bigot who is our President. I don't think I'm wrong - but the last ten years of tax filings will definitively answer this question once and for all.
24
I’m hoping each state can pass a law requiring such return releases. Can they?
I admired the hopeless snark of this editorial but not its puerility. We're in the midst of the absolute moral collapse of one of the only two parties we have, and the most repulsive war upon our institutions ever mounted (the disturbance of James Madison's dinner, included). And all we get, is this voyeuristic demand to see the tyrant's fraudulent tax returns?
9
What do you suggest be done? Pointing out hypocrisy is worth the effort.
2
If 45 releases his tax returns, his maladministration's goose is cooked. And he is painfully aware of this, which is why he will never willingly release his financial information. It would be game, set, match. All over but the helicopter ride to the airport.
19
Still waiting for the long promised documents. Like all the other Trump fantasies and lies. He is shameless.
16
We do not need the returns. Trump paid no taxes. How do I know? I read it in a tweet.
6
Paying no tax, and owing no tax, doesn't mean there's no tax return paperwork submitted to ensure no tax was due! Everyone has to file. We need to see Trump's.
The center of the circle of wagons contains the safe that contains
these returns. The layers of bluster that trumpicans have shown
themselves capable of will defend that central core to death. They
feel no pain doing so since their voting constituents care little for
any of the details of the stories within stories.
This is the central paradox that thoroughly frustrated nyt readers cannot yet grasp. Trumpican voters simply do not care or do not believe they
need to care. It's all just irrelevant politics to them.
This is the central lesson to learn from this civic and moral collapse
that we are no longer capable of resisting collectively. The institutions simply have been unable to organize adequate pushback. The next step will
reveal the pretext used to justify firing Rosenstein (by first firing Sessions), perhaps even before Schiff's memo is published, or better yet, afterwards.
Few trumpicans will object. How can they
now that they have such a terrifically convincing pretext for claiming Rosenstein's culpability. What more evidence do they and their
faithful lemmings of constituents really need?
There will be shocked rhetorical outrage of course. But this will dissipate since there won't be any institutional pushback. Life will just go on. Having
finally gotten to the situation where Mueller can be fired by a replacement,
the dramatic tension will mount between a destabilized inquiry and its core target. Great tv drama of course. Lots of tweets too.
4
If there were truly a "deep state" Trump's tax returns would have been leaked by now.
17
Government agencies in a democracy like ours ONLY have legitimacy if their actions are transparent. For example, think what would happen if your city or county government were to keep secrets and/or tell lies in the same fashion as the Executive and Legislative branches of the Federal government are doing now. There would be heck to pay. In a country the size and strength of ours, there is NO excuse for not having full disclosure. There are no reasons to keep secrets. These elected officials, supposedly representing us, are acting in our name (if not always in our interest), so why can't we judge for ourselves? We want the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help us God.
5
So you want to see DT’s tax returns right?
2
While we're at it, how about greater transparency from the White House itself? That means no more threatening 'leaks' or those in the media who publish their accounts? The White House is the People's House and we should know what goes on in our highest office.
But, of course, Trump wants publicized only select, out-of-context items, while obscuring his own doings. Why, Trump is a champion of 'fake news.'
8
Exactly. Memo or no memo, don't let the shiny things distract us. Where are the tax returns?
11
The party that made Benghazi into a rallying cry solely to bring Hillary's numbers down; the party that refused to consider President Obama's nominee for SCOTUS, the party that has aided and abetted the puppet master in the Kremlin to achieve his dastardly ends in the 'election' of 2016 has given up any right to be called a party at all and ought to be put into receivership as if it was yet another of the long line in Trump's failed companies; its chief operating officers, Ryan, McConnell, Nunez et al marched off in handcuffs for their all their trouble.
13
This needs to be a question asked of every Republican member of Congress in each and every interview going forward.
8
Trump doth protest too much. If he wasn’t scared to death about the Mueller investigation he wouldn’t be engaging in this kind of devious nonsense. Clearly he knows he is guilty of one or more things. Probably money laundering, a bit of collusion and lots of obstruction. Our job is to scream, shout and march if he does anything to either Rosenstein or Mueller.
11
Take it to the streets like they do in other countries. No resist march but a march to the White House. Us American citizens have to demand by our voices to have the "secretive" tax returns made public. Enough already, this player in many respects has "played" enough!
The takeaway from this Russian/Nunes/Trump theatrical production is this: The co-conspirators are unhappy that a Russian operative working in close proximity to Trump was surveilled and going forward they want these Russian spies left alone to do their spying in peace, particularly when they are operating inside of Trump's inner circle.
3
"The fuse that burned more fiercely than the wet firecracker that fizzled out at the end". My suggested long title for this episode of the Trump Presidency soap opera.
This has clearly been the playbook as scripted by the authors Nunes, Ryan et al. Adding to the already too long running storyline based on cheap emotional twists to enrage and sow division amongst viewers of this Fox News exclusive. While diverting the attention from the genuine and increasingly failing main storyline of the Trump presidency.
But what is the endgame intended by the authors? Most likely none. As each episode is barely scratched together just in time before the show airs. And with little time to rehearse, the result is just bad acting and improvisation. Especially from the main star of the show himself.
The authors are increasingly writing themselves into a corner. So the main characters (the authors included in the cast of antagonists) are continuously losing depth and integrity and having their thin moral layer withering away. The plot is narrowed down to the point where only the authors facile use of symbols like Guns, God and Greed are the only tools remaining in at their disposal. The broader viewer base is diminishing and turning away in disgust But the hard core fans is further enraged and ready to put a bullet through the TV-set.
We can only hope this show is cancelled soon enough.
3
The Nunes Reader's Digest flavored memo is within the critical thinking parameters of the average American voter. Trump's tax returns, guest logs and foreign business interests however is way too much. Moreso when there's football on the TV.
1
You can hope of course, but you want transparency from a political party whose legacy of recent years includes the following shining examples of Presidential hoodwinking:
- Nixon and Watergate, with criminal acts and impeachment
- Ford and the pardoning of Nixon
- Reagan and the Iran Contra hearings, with a lot of people who couldn't recall anything, as well as the secret negotiations on release of American hostages in Iran during the first campaign
- GW Bush and weapons of mass destruction that were used as a pretext to the UN for war on Iraq but didn't exist. Subsequently, many private contractors benefitted from the war including companies run by VP Cheney.
I wouldn't hold my breath for the Transparency Fairy to be visiting this crowd any time soon.
7
Nunes' has a history of attempting to create conspiracies out of thin air--and they are so obviously nonsensical, lame and beyond belief. I'd be afraid of him if was intelligent enough to be able to concoct believable fairy tales.
5
Just wondering. If the fbi had indicated in the memo that it was based on a dossier prepared by Mr. Steele and that he "was desperate that Donald Trump not get elected and was passionate about him not being president", and the FISA court had still issued the warrant, would the Republican excuse be? That the judge was an Obama appointee? Or that he had watched the Hillary Clinton DNC speech on tv? Or that the judge's dog was born in Arkansas?
Republicans have proven themselves to be one big joke. But that doesn't matter to them, so long as they can continue to protect Trump, Putin's poodle.
7
The President doesn't need to release his tax returns. The fact is, this has been a witch hunt all along. The Russians didn't defeat Hillary Clinton, Hillary Clinton defeated Hillary Clinton. She was a lousy candidate, just like Mitt Romney was a lousy candidate. They both hijacked their respective parties to disastrous results. We had every major newspaper, and network as well as every Democrat telling the American people not to vote for Donald Trump. Even the bookies in England and Ireland and all the major polls said that Trump would lose. The American people thought otherwise.
Hillary Clinton could have chosen Bernie Sanders as her running mate, run on the economy like her husband did to two successful terms, and she could have chosen to be completely and totally above board with her e-mails. She had access to the finest government experts possible.
The Democrats are a bunch of sore losers. They lost just like the Republicans lost when Mitt Romney ran. Now, man-up, grow-up and stop riding Trump and let him get on with the business of running the country.
Finally, no one cares about this Russian Witch Hunt and no one cares about any other "Gotchas" that people come up with. Trump is a refreshing change of pace. He's done more for this country in one year than Obama did in the last eight.
3
Your partisanship is showing. Might I suggest the possibility that Hillary was indeed a poor candidate AND that Trump was actively aided and abetted by the Russians? Plenty of Americans care and care deeply about the corrosion of the office of the presidency. You will recall that as flawed as she was Clinton did win the popular vote. We've seen her tax returns.
1
Trump is a criminal who should have been in jail for his Trump University scam, for which he was sentenced to pay 25M in fines and compensation for the victims of his scam. He should release his tax returns to the American tax payers, and if not, Americans should stop paying federal taxes until he does!
The memo does address issues of integrity and legality. It states that “the public’s confidence in the integrity of the FISA process depends on the court’s ability to hold the government to the highest standard, particularly as it relates to surveillance of American citizens. However, the rigor in protecting the rights of Americans, which is reinforced by 90-day renewals of surveillance orders, is necessarily dependent on the government’s production to the court of all material and relevant facts. This should include information potentially favorable to the target of the FISA application that is known by the government. In the case of Carter Page, the government had at least four independent opportunities before the FISC to accurately provide an accounting of the relevant facts. However, our findings indicate that, as described below, material and relevant information was omitted.”
As for integrity, FBI Director James Comey, FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe and Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates have already been dismissed. As for legality, the FISA Court should determine whether the failure to inform the FISA Court that Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee paid Christopher Steele to produce the Russian dossier merits prosecutorial misconduct charges.
2
The headline made me laugh -- like we'll ever be given the chance to see those tax returns!
3
Donald Trump was involved in 3500 lawsuits. Clearly, he has no respect for the law. He is lawless. His tax returns would prove that but are almost irrelevant as the act of hiding them tells one all he or she needs to know. Why would anyone want such a person to be President?
4
Everybody makes me sick to my stomach. Sick of the Dems & Reps going after each other. I am a registered Democrat, but I vote for the individual regardless of party affiliation. I may not always agree with you, but none of us agree on everything.
In all fairness, as a fair minded progressive, I must state that Trump's tax returns are none of anyone's business. He's elected, end of issue on the background stuff. If the Times has such a deep interest, I suggest it get them the old fashioned way, bribe somebody to cough them up. But don't make patently unethical demands of him that are not made of everyone.
2
Good snark, Editorial Board.
Of course we know the answer . . . when called on their hypocrisy, Republicans have one response: "That's different."
That's different, because we will take any position to promote our interests, and never ever be consistent to apply that to Democrats. Transparency for what WE want released. Obfuscation for you. Immediate confirmation of my nominees; months of failing to even meet yours. Etc and on and on.
2
The Nunes "memo" includes this key line: "Furthermore, Deputy Director McCabe testified before the Committee in December 2017 that no surveillance warrant would have been sought from the FISC without the Steele dossier information."
Please note, this has obviously been VERY carefully worded. Because the meaning could be "The Steele dossier provided 100% of the justification for surveilling Carter Page in our application. " OR, it could mean "the Steele dossier was full of such good information that of course some of the Steele dossier would be used in any application for the right to surveil Carter Page, along with other information we had gathered going back to 2013 suggesting that Page might be a Russian agent."
Someone is a very clever writer.
What a fizzle....so hyped, and so obvious a ploy to anyone but a true believer. Those who still think Trump is some kind of leader are evidently just about as clueless as anyone can possibly be. Including the members of his own party who continue to salute as the ship goes down.
1
It seems to me that the tax returns are a fair price for the border wall. You want the wall funded? Path to citizenship for the "dreamers" and release the returns. Seems fair to me.
5
Picking a fight with a retired administration may delight the base, but has absolutely zero political salience.
2
The one thing this editorial neglects to mention is that releasing this memo also gave Trump and other investigative targets ideas of how to prepare.
If Trump has nothing to hide, he should let the FBI investigation proceed and release his tax returns. It's that simple.
6
So, tax returns? Not this old saw. Use your energy to pressure Congress or whomever to make it a requirement for all candidates for POTUS to disclose tax returns 90 days before an election.
Then deal with the present moment.
The memo is just the latest in the campaign to obstruct justice by directly attacking the institutions of justice. It clearly missed the mark in revealing that the infamous dossier had nothing to do with the origins of the Russia investigation. It also conveniently omits that Carter Page had been in theFBI’s crosshairs since 2013 when he was recruited by a Russian spy ring. The question is how much damage has it done? It’s clearly revealed a time line of FBI activity to Russia and compromised the trust between the intelligence agencies and Congress. But, the big question is: Has it so emboldened President Trump that he will continue his obstruction either with his own “Saturday night massacre” in firing Deputy Attorney General, Rod Rosenstein, who oversees the Special Counsel’s investigation or even fire the Special Counsel? It’s clear that Mr. Trump has been successful in removing everyone at the Department of Justice whose stood in his way with the sole exception of Rosenstein and Mueller. Will the backing he’s received from Speaker Paul Ryan in releasing the memo over repeated objections of his own recently appointed FBI Director encourage him to take that step and create a Constitutional crisis?
Superior article, thank you for those thoughts. Transparency is a two way street.
2
Paul Ryan said the sunshine is the best disinfectant. That was yesterday, and he was just kidding.
2
President Trump can instantly put an end to all this upheaval he has brought upon himself and his family by resigning.
5
Thank you for reminding the world about Trump's tax returns. Something he promised to release, but never did. This is the one topic that I believe journalists should keep bringing up to this Administration, over and over and over and over again until it engages them to the point of no return.
The Trump race to the bottom accelerates. All that counts is Trump.He will attack or take down any American institution or value to preserve his presidency. The man has no shame. No honour. All that counts is Trump. God save America.
3
"That dust-up was orchestrated, coincidentally, by Representative Devin Nunes, the California Republican who heads the House Intelligence Committee and whose staff prepared the document released on Friday."
Coincidentally? Come on, now. Nunes was carrying water for Trump then and he's carrying water for Trump now. No coincidence there.
Whatever the Nunes memo said or didn't say, it gives Trump and his supporters a moral high ground (from their perspective) to act decisively in the coming hours and days while the indignancy glows red. A Saturday Day Massacre might ensue tomorrow while the memo is allowed to sink in overnight, before its credibility shreds in the storm of Sunday onwards.
Alas, I believe the moment of demanding Trump's tax transparency has long passed never to return. Too many scandals have passed without adequate recourse, so the old chestnut of taxes is probably passé.... unless Mueller has it in his arsenal as evidence of collusion, which, I think, is highly likely. Deutschebank seems anxious to cooperate too.
It is up to the NYT, among other media outlets, to stay on top of this matter by steadfast reporting. To call directly on Trump to release his tax returns is a rancorous and irrelevant exercise while he can simply ignore it. However, if the issue is maintained in other more subtle ways, perhaps the lily livered Democrats might feel emboldened enough to demand the same, predictably, with about as much guarantee of success.
Transparency from republicans and from Trump? Perhaps when pigs start flying, right? Can't you smell a strong whiff of hypocrisy here? Trump seems desperate to stop the investigation in the Russian interference in the presidential elections, one way or the other (highway?), by finding absurd excuses to fire the very people that are trying to find out what happened...so it won't happen again. Of course, similar to being so 'loudly silent' about Trump's tax returns (to confirm him as a crook), is the express abdication of even mentioning the 'evil' intent of Putin's dangerous collusion with team Trump (as a candidate), impossible to explain rationally, and highly suspicious of graft. I understand we all may be corruptible, if the price is 'right'; but Ryan/Nunes selling themselves for 'peanuts'?
Well one thing that's perfectly transparent are the emperor's clothes.
5
Transparency? Still waiting for the promised proof that the current Mrs. Trump didn't violate immigration law.
1
We say that all the time, "where are his tax returns?"
1
Transparency would expose that the Emperor is wearing no clothes. And that is a frightening sight - just ask Stormy. Well, she can't say...
1
Trump's plan is to make billions for himself, his , and he could not argue the he is rich all along!
He ran for presidency for one sole reason. To rescue himself from his colossal bankrupticies Winning would have been a long shot, if it were not for Bannon's xenophobic agenda and may be for Russian propaganda. Sadly Americans bought the rhetoric and elected him. Hard to believe people feel great about trump throwing young dreamers under the bus than trump colluding with the enemy that undermined their democracy. If there was ICE coralling tired and pooer at Ellis Island, if native Americans kicked the colonials out of the country, Trump and his brethren would not have been here.
Xenophobia trumps Patriotism.
When Obama releases his academic and immigration records, the Democrats will have the right to require Trump to release his tax returns after he has left office. Had Obama released his academic records, which demonstrate that he never claimed American citizenship until he applied to Harvard Law, before his election, he would not have been selected as the Democratic candidate, and Hillary would have run against McCain in a battle of the elderly.
The people who voted for Trump, a majority of voters with college degrees, and the people who support his results during the last year, do not want to see his income tax returns. We are satisfied with his statement that he pays as little taxes as legal and are confidant that the IRS would have indicted him had he been guilty of tax evasion. They'd have leaked his return if they thought they could get away with it. The only reason they did not was that they knew he would win the election if the IRS showed their true corruption.
Democrats and the never-Trumpers are voyeurs who want to pick apart his charitable contributions and tax loophole usage. It ain't happening.
1
Brilliantly on point. Thank you.
Let us not lose sight of the fact that the Kremlin's 3 most senior chiefs of clandestine efforts targeting USA/NATO (!) visited in the day(s) just before the big speech (that did not truthfully sum up the true state of our union), meeting -- as was revealed after the fact -- with Pompeo. Who knows who else they communicated while on US soil, with besides Pompeo?
Who knows what the subject of those meetings was? "Terrorism?" Turkey's escalation against US-backed Kurds? Or Israel's recent lobbying of Putin to go to war against Iran over Syria (followed by Israel's latest threats to fight Lebanon again, in a campaign meant to punish Lebanon for 'not doing enough' to stop Iran from enlarging its stranglehold over Syria -- that by the way goes back pretty much to the fall of the Ottoman Empire).
It cannot be overstated just how irregular it is for 3 senior Russian spy chiefs to come to the USA for a Spy Chief Summit. This has literally never happened before. So what was on the agenda?
I fear the Speech + Memo hype is just noisy cover for some behind-the-scenes coordination between Team P & Team T that could actually lead to sudden war. For example, a war against Iran -- meant to rescue T from trouble.
It was 1980 when Soviet Russians first destroyed Afghanistan. Almost 40 yrs later: no end in sight. Americans have a right to know, especially in the context of 'tax cuts' reducing our DoD/State capabilities, if war (or what else?) looms.
1
"... response memo prepared by Representative Adam Schiff, the committee’s ranking Democrat, who, unlike Mr. Nunes, has actually seen the intelligence underlying the application."
How is it that Schiff has seen the underlying intelligence but Nunes has not? Is this because Nunes recused himself or he does not have the necessary tickets/clearance to review the underlying material? In either case, the memo is therefore hearsay.
Criminal activities, perjury, obstruction of justice, falsifying evidence, misleading a court or a judge in a judicial matter, sedition, conspiracy, rackateering, and treason are void of political affiliation when weighed in a court of law for guilt or innocence of a crime or crimes committed. Justice is blind. The Nunes document is an outline of allegede bad activities, possibly perpetrated, by people, not a party. The legal course would be an investigation of these alleged criminal activities, and if evidence is such that it would appear that crimes have been committed by people, it would lead to a grand jury with indictments, further investigation, and a jury decision, of guilt or innocence. Whether or not it helps one party or another or a president is of no concern in a court of law. The media and the Democrats are guilty of clouding the issues for one reason or another. I don't see any malfeasance on the part of Mr. Nunes. If there was, he could be indicted himself. It would appear that there are many Democrats that may fall in this proceeding, it should not make a difference to any American, regardless of political club participation. Justice is supposed to be blind and we citizens have a right to equal protection under the law. The media is dangerous and is infested with moronic cheerleaders for one side or the other. It is not about Democrat or Republican. God save our nation in this time of Constitutional Crisis.
1
Although thick with sarcasm, the request of the Editorial Board are all perfectly reasonable. However, Republicans are certainly NOT interested in government "transparency," but politically motivated cover for the illegal activities of their President.
And keeping Nunes as "head" of the House "Intelligence" Committee is a misnomer of the highest calibre.
Finally, let's see those notorious TAX RETURNS, please! I'm sure they contain much of public interest.
2
Someone please, hack and release Trump's tax returns. It will be a great act of justified civil disobedience that can save the country from immanent decay, demise or destruction.
3
The point is not what's in the memo. That is irrelevant. The point is a memo exists that now creates a pretext to fire Rosenstein. Sean Hannity and other sycophants will continue to fan the flames of conspiracy and soon Rosenstein will be replaced with an illiterate who will do as he's told and fire Mueller.
The memo is fooling exactly no one.
1
Transparency is NOT a one-way street. When Paul Ryan said: "it's our job in conducting transparent oversight," the American public has also the right to demand transparency from Trump. He must release his tax returns and financial dealings like how his D.C. hotel, Florida resort and his Trump Organization benefit from his presidency at home and abroad.
Why on earth does he want to hide the White House visitor logs from the public? The W.H. is not a private property. As long as he lives there, the public has the right to know who comes and goes.
“There are legitimate questions about whether an American's civil liberties were violated,” Ryan said in defence of releasing the controversial memo. Indeed, the freedom of information is a constitutional right under the First Amendment. The American public is not demanding information that could jeopardise the country's security interests, they want to protect their country from corruption and abuse of executive power.
46
Is there a requirement that a presidential candidate or the president release tax returns? If not, then the call for a person to release their tax returns is a failure to understand personal privacy - and/or, a desire to attach a person. Until it becomes a requirement, the news media should go cover whether government and its employees are doing their jobs.
4
What you apparently fail to comprehend is the ability for some officials to do their jobs depends on voluntary revealing of information that may have a bearing on issues of importance, such as whether or not a public figure has been compromised. As the current president has said on many occasions "what's he hiding"?
1
I don't think I've rooted for the FBI this much since the Quinn Martin Production--this episode "Boris Versus the G-Men."
24
I'm waiting for the Epilogue after the commercial.
As a librarian, one of my most important--and most difficult--jobs is to teach my students how to select credible sources. Teaching them to distinguish a fact from an alternative fact has become a high priority in this environment where greed-driven media forces have such a hold on our society that they threaten to crush our tradition of maintaining a set of shared facts as Americans. To combat this, I stress in my research lessons that type of analysis, including writing an editorial, requires a strong grasp of facts gathered from primary sources. I often use the Times editorials as examples of credibly sourced analyses to demonstrate the difference between an opinion and an informed opinion.
A person who has been taught how to locate credible sources knows that the Nunes memo is not based on primary source documents, and is therefore not worth reading. That should be the end of the discussion. But in this world where media outlets get away with the constant peddling of alternative facts, and where adults have not been taught how to determine the credibility of a news source, it's unfortunately not that simple.
My profession needs The New York Times now more than ever. You are helping us educate the next generation to build a better world than the bizarre and mildly depressing one we find ourselves in currently.
73
Respectfully, the NYT may be missing the point of the release of the Nunes Memo. It was not released to persuade the NYT of anything, let alone FBI wrongdoing. Nor was it released to sway the vast majority of Americans who are paying attention to American politics.
The Republicans seem to believe that the investigation and potential impeachment of Mr. Trump poses an existential threat to the Republican party. In this context, the Nunes Memo is simply another building block to establish the narrative Congress will use to defeat impeachment. It is just a pretext so the base will accept the anti-Trump conspiracy narrative, helped along by Fox and the Koch network sponsored propaganda machine. So regardless of any evidence of smoking gun wrongful acts unearthed by Mr. Mueller and his prosecutorial dream team, Trump will continue to rubber-stamp the Republican/Libertarian agenda for the duration of his term.
20
Respectfully, you ARE missing the point of the NYT editorial, which is to call the Republicans’ bluff about believing in greater government transparency, their false justification for releasing the memo.
For anyone who has been following the Russia issue, this relatively useless 'memo' might prompt some questions: Rep. Nunes, aren't you the same Rep. Nunes who tried to derail the Russia investigation last year? Are there any Republicans in positions of power who are honestly willing to let the investigation take its course? What will Republicans do if the investigation finds substantial evidence of Russian connections with the trump administration and obstruction of justice? Is the real reason trump won't show his taxes the concern that they will reveal he is 'in bed' with unsavory Russian types? One thing we don't have to ask about: the 'memo' will not make the Russia investigation go away.
30
The rhetorical irony in this editorial's questions is too subtle for Trump's diehard supporters to grasp. It's up to the Times and the other responsible news organizations to keep hammering at Trump and his GOP enablers on these issues - especially on the release of Trump's tax returns. And for members of Congress - on both sides of the aisle - to do the same. The Republicans have made transparency their cause. Now let's see how serious they are about it.
19
I completely agree. If Trump and his co-conspirators are really interested in transparency, which of course they are not, then releasing Trump's tax returns should have been the first item on the agenda. They insult our collective intelligence at so many levels, it is taking a toll on the citizens' self respect. If we allow this gang of "the worst and the dumbest" keep getting away with stunts like this, our self respect is destined to sink even lower.
16
'Since the Republicans are now on board with greater transparency, they will no doubt push President Trump to release his tax returns, as every other major-party presidential nominee has done for the past four decades, won’t they?' Get serious. This isn't about transparency. Or the Deep State. Or democracy. It's about winning. And Republicans will do whatever it takes, however ridiculous, to maintain their grasp on power.
27
The editorial's question presumes that the GOP is operating under longstanding norms and principles. Those are long gone. Republicans are not shamed by hypocrisy or restrained by rules. They have just one guiding principle: Win at any cost, even if that cost is our republic.
19
I know the request for Mr Trump's tax returns is dripping in irony, but the only test that has to be passed in partisan politics is expediency. The only way we'll see those is if they're exposed by a whistleblower.
4
The people against trump need to learn one thing. Stop expecting or demanding justice/honesty. The game that trump has shamelessly unleashed is called one upmanship. I don't know if it was an American political game before, but it is now. So the only way to make it work is to muscle him and his shameless followers out. Trump had always made it clear that he is not a hero but he is a villain. He feeds on bad publicity and people elected him for that. So although it may be counter-intuitive, he only grow stronger with each claim of crime against him.
7
I'm glad that the NYT Editorial Board has retained a sense of humor.
Unfortunately, too many of us have long since entered a world of dark dread and vitriol. We are justifiably fearing and experiencing the many levels of damage being done by SCP45 to our democracy, our institutions of oversight, justice and governance, our natural resources and health, and our culture as a nation engaged in a great experiment in human history.
I am hopeful that during his trial for money laundering and RICO offenses, some prosecutor and grand jury will finally demand that DJT release years of tax returns. Til that joyous day, we'll have to work hard to keep the US alive as a country we can be proud of.
18
Wish the Democrats had had some leverage and could have passed a bill tying release of the memo -- and not just this memo but all else that would have put it in context -- with release of the President's tax returns.
4
It would seem that the American electorate, or a portion, seem very gullible? We Americans have usually struck me as being a skeptical and practical lot with enough common sense to sort out issues of the day. It seems odd that without much questioning from this electorate many political issues are blown out of all proportion, eating up the time and energy needed for attempts to reach solutions for the real problems we face. Its seems much easier for Congress to inflame than it is to solve issues? We are part of either a food fight or soap opera. Where are the adults?
5
As we enter the "forest of mirrors", a Russian technique for obscuring scandal by asserting the supposed corruption of one's political opponents, I can't help but be stuck by the cynicism of the Republican party. Are GOP'ers really prepared to sell out the truth, their country's solidarity, and their own honor in the aim of keeping their powerful faux-populist monster in power? It's a rhetorical question. Anyone with even marginal observational and analytical skills sees they already have.
18
Every day, I feel more and more pessimistic about our nation's direction and future. Just when I think things won't get worse, they do. Analysts and commentators keep saying this or that is "unprecedented" and one week later, something else happens and we forget the last "unprecedented" situation. It is very depressing.
9
It's unfortunate that the Republicans by and large have gone straight to the least common denominator (Donald J.Trump) when it comes to integrity and principle. We are in a deeply disfunctional hyper-partisan era for the republic, which currently looks more like a kleptocracy.
7
True transparency would also mean writing nation-changing tax, medical system, and other bills in full sight, instead of behind the closed doors we’ve repeatedly seen in the last year.
Transparency would mean full analysis of bills before they are signed into law.
Transparency would been environmental impact studies before wiping out protections.
The list goes on and on and on ....
As does the hypocrisy.
17
My main thought is: what is Mr. Nunes really looking to receive from djt? I am again puzzled by the complete lack of moral fiber the republicans have. This opinion gets to the heart of the matter. POWER and Money at the expense of the American public.
12
There is absolutely no reason for trump’s tax returns to remain confidential. They should have been made public a long time ago. Why hasn’t special prosecutor Mueller obtained them as part of his investigation ? If Mueller does not obtain the tax returns his investigation will have been woefully incomplete.
8
Yes, Mr. Trump's presidency is a sham; never-the-less, we should not underestimate him - we did that once, and look what happened. To protect ourselves against his impulses, we need to understand how Mr. Trump thinks and, more importantly, what drives him. I believe Mr. Trump is driven largely by his own life experiences and by his strong narcissism.
First his experiences. With all his deficiencies, Mr. Trump does have some experience in marketing or "branding". By running a business, he must have learnt that, to be successful (or appear to be so), he needs to focus on his own strength and push the tasks in which he has no knowledge/qualification to others.
Now, his narcissism. In his mind, Mr. Trump must have established a strong relevance between the presidency and himself. Being a narcissist, he must have convinced himself that he is "a great president" since, in his view, there is a large marketing component in being "the president" and he is the only one who can be perfect for that area.
Now let's add to the above two basic marketing notions that guide most marketeers:
1. A clever marketeer can market anything, including himself/herself; and,
2. Reality is relevant to marketing only when it helps the selling effort. What matters is the PERCEPTION!
Defining Mr. Trump in terms of the above information is tantamount to having a model for him. Using this model, one can explain much of Trump's behavior; in particular, his lack of respect for truth.
3
With all your appropriate requests for more information, you have not raised a crucial question. Has Mueller relied in any way on the information gained pursuant to the FISA subpoena of Carter Page? If he has not, then even if the surveillance of Page was completely unlawful, it does not taint Mueller's investigation in any way. Also, the exclusionary rule which prohibits the admission at trial of information which was gained unlawfully applies only in criminal cases, not impeachment proceedings.
3
Surely you can't be serious about the tax returns. You know that the tax returns mean nothing at this point and giving them out is strictly voluntary. There's nothing that says it's a requirement of any candidate that they must submit their tax returns. Frankly, I think it's a waste of time. The majority of our representatives and senators are in the 1% and became rich after they entered Congress. Why aren't we investigating that scam? No, simply submitting ones taxes is a worthless effort and is meant to waste time. As far as I'm concerned it's no one's business. As for all those who continue to bash Mr. Trump, I ask you: how rich and successful are you?
1
If there is nothing in trumps tax returns, then why is he being so adamant about keeping them private. Probably because they will show that he is another bottom feeder using tax loopholes to feed his and his family’s wealth. There are plenty of examples trumps hypocrisy. But for someone who campaigned on draining the swamp, close examination will probably find a large disdain for the American taxpayers and everyone else who works for a living.
3
More than anything else, I am disappointed in Democrats' reaction to the release of the classified memo. Although some are calling their reaction "swift and furious", in reality it lacks substance. They appear content with calling the memo "cherry picking of information", without addressing the WH motivation, or the absurdity of Republican's justifications for aligning themselves with Trump, on the memo.
On BBC World News Senator Will Hurd outlined Republican's justification by the following statements:
1. It is the Congress's responsibility to shine a light on our government and the operation of our government;
2. I do not believe an American citizen should be subject to surveillance based on unverified information, circular reporting and rumors;
3. We made this public because this is a pretty big deal; that the potential erosion of civil liberties is potentially happening;
4. There was nothing in this memo when it was revealed that impacted the national security.
I would like someone ask the Republicans why they have not, or do not, apply these newly found principles to the case Edward Snowden? Didn't he acted to uphold the same principles?
And, regarding the statement that nothing in this memo is new, I respectfully differ with the Senator. Now every foreign government knows that FBI recruits ex-embassy employees of friendly nations for information gathering. The Republicans just made such individuals targets of US adversaries!
5
I am in favor of greater transparency in government right across the board.
It would start with campaigns and who has donated money to anyone's campaign. ( I am in favor of publicly financed elections of a short time ~ 6 weeks )
It would then lead to the voting laws, where everything would be clear as to who can vote, and what they need as far as identification. They would know when and where to go and there would be a national holiday to vote. ( I am in favor of mandatory voting by paper ballot via mail )
It would then lead to straight up and down votes on the House floor and Senate. All could sponsor a bill and\or amendments. ( THIS needs to be a requirement if Democracy is to be restored )
Finally throughout all of this process, there needs to be a free press that has access to all public officials and their financials and comings and goings. If one wants to lead us, then aye, they are going to be held to a much higher standard. That is the deal.
Of course, anything to do with the process of law needs to be fully transparent as to retain confidence by the people. ( especially for government )
Just a thought.
3
Mr. Trump is acting like he's very guilty and very afraid of what the investigations will discover.
As bad as that is, what concerns me more is the behavior of too many Republicans. Will the checks and balances our system is designed to provide actually work? What has happened to Republicans?
Our nation and the democracy we cherish is threatened. Why aren't Republicans standing up to defend it?
4
Please keep up this pressure to release Trump’s tax returns. It is appalling that the GOP has the gall to “reform” the tax code and never asked Trump to release his returns. At this rate, the Trump’s will become trillionaires while still in office.
1
Republicans need a president who is incurious, inattentive and incapable of thinking things through and can sign legislation, such as the "tax reform" legislation, that they want passed. They have their puppet in Trump and no one should be surprised that they want to keep him in power as long as they can. That's the memo.
2
In other words, they need a president who is exactly like their base.
Here is what flipping the House to Democratic control in nine months could do: a Democratic-majority appointed chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, or the the Senate Finance Committee, or the Joint Committee on Taxation - any of them may request the president's tax returns from the Secretary of the Treasury.
Trump has no power to prevent that request from being fulfilled, indeed, it is not required that he be notified before, during, or afterward. And if any one of those committees decides that releasing the returns to the House or Senate would be in the best interests of We the People they may do so, and again, Trump would have no power to stop them. None.
Exposure of Trump's tax returns would be a treasure trove of information, from multiple violations of the emolument's clause, to business relations with Russian mafia oligarchs with money-laundering stratagems. If the House flips to Democratic control, the Trump is flipped out of the White House.
3
Trump, his inner circle and the Republicans are consuming themselves in this murky affair. They are just showing their desperate attempt to cover their wicked and unscrupulous actions.
4
We can't have the tax return because then the real reason Trump is afraid of what the Mueller investigation will reveal becomes clear, money laundering. All Mueller needs to do is follow the money.
2
The GOP only believes in transparency when it helps them. The fact that they are on a mission to discredit our legal system and make it look like it is run on a political basis is really shameful. The fact is its not run on a political bases however they want it to be, they do all they can to rig it to favor the GOP and protect their dear leader, trump. When the dear leader was talking about people being ashamed he should of been refering to himself, his family and the GOP.
1
Excellent editorial. Yes, indeed. Give us more of this great transparency!
2
Let's assume, for the sake of argument, that Christopher Steele was opposed to Donald Trump's presidential aspirations. Let's also assume, for the sake of argument, that Steele's work was funded, in part, by Democratic operatives. If this information had been included in the wiretap application, would it have been denied? Highly doubtful, unless there also was reason to suspect that the information in the dossier was fabricated, which there wasn't. So the House Intelligence Committee's memo is about as reliable and significant as an inane tweet from Donald Trump.
2
The probability that Trump’s team colluded with Russia to win the election seems dim. These people can’t even agree among themselves (the leaks, the chaos, the dismissals). Furthermore, this team doesn’t seem to have a single coherent policy goal, aside from overturning every Obama-era accomplishment. It’s seems highly unlikely they had the organization or discipline to mount a sophisticated plot with the KGB. Clearly the reason for the panic in the WH is that Mueller is getting too close to Trump’s business. Everyone suspects he’s up to his eyeballs in dirty money. All those meetings with sleazy Russian oligarchs was probably about investment in the Trump organization. I keep hoping that, like a Greek tragedy, Trump’s tragic flaw, his hubris and ego (he wanted to be President!) will reveal all the criminal activity he’s hidden for decades, and bring him crashing to the ground. Let’s just hope the country doesn’t go down with him.
2
Astoundingly. Republican members of Congress have decided to play with the borderline with national treason. The WH has done so right from the beginning, and this we suspected, knowing Mr. Trump's dishonesty and the kind of campaign he ran. The only way out of this massive conundrum is through the removal of significant, in positions and numbers, Republican members through the 2018 election. Unfortunately, I doubt we can count on it. Only until the destruction that this at- east partially-rational party of the past reaches the masses in more dramatic ways than we see now, and in the parts of the country that elected them, we will retake the path of true American ideals again. I wish with all my heart that I am wrong about 2018. Perhaps some defeats would make that party regain at least some of its rationality, honesty and decor, which it did have to a very significant extent. Action is needed at the local level to undermine the authoritarian, hateful and chaotic government that evidently will keep festering under Mr. Trump. Local action is needed everywhere, when in elections and when not in elections.
1
I for one am encouraged. The release of the Nunes memo, with Trump's blessing, seems to me a clear sign that Trump is desperate to halt the Mueller investigation at any cost. The narrative that Trump, Miller et al are trying to forward is that the investigation is corrupt and that Trump has a legitimate reason for firing Mueller, which will happen in the next two weeks. The question then is, what then? Will it be a Saturday Night Massacre moment? Or just another blip in a long line of scandals that would have long ago derailed any other administration.
1
I don't understand these cries to publish tax returns when the President's financials have already been vetted.
As we learned with the leaked returns, most American's have a very limited understanding of the tax code, especially the pre-Trump tax code. American's with little understanding are easily swayed into histeria with false claims of tax fraud and abuse of "loopholes".
2
I think you are the one who is easily swayed. The best dupes are unaware. Put it on a t-shirt, "I've Been Conned by Donald Trump!"
We can only hope that Mr. Mueller has enough info to wrap the investigation up before anyone else gets fired. It really looks like following the money is the key. If we are hoping that Mr. Ryan or Mr Nunes will do the right thing we have proof positive now that their loyalty lies with Trump and not with their oath or our country.
2
Paul Ryan has been posing as a Boy Scout and legislator committed to good government for virtually his entire career.
But after carrying Trump’s water for the better part of the past two years, the mask is finally off,
As Speaker of the House, Ryan is an a position to secure the release of Trump’s tax return, the one which was supposedly under audit which he lied about releasing. Ryan could have done this a year ago, but he has refused to act.
Now he is supporting Republican efforts to close down Mueller’s investigation and "clean up' the FBI.
Ryan is an absolute disgrace. No Boy Scout or patriot is he.
5
I’m confused. I thought Carter Page was a low level aide who the Trump administration was distancing themselves from. Now it seems his role in the campaign was more significant. Can they have it both ways and do they really want to bring Carter Page back under their umbrella? Now more than ever I too would like to see Trump’s tax returns.
1
The Altered Memo Affair has underlined the reality that this president will break laws, and cause others to break laws, in order to protect his own financial interests, which are deeply allied with Russian oligarchs and gangsters. His interests prevent him from carrying out the duties of the presidency.
1
With regard to Trump's tax returns, you probably don't know that his returns from 2002 to 2008 were audited by the IRS and the audit lasted 8 years. Most likely, the audit of his recent returns is equally complex. It will question dozens of entries and find some that were inappropriate and some that were not.
Trump has surely been advised by his tax attorney not to disclose his returns. By contrast, his criminal attorney has told him to disclose everything and he has done so. It appears that Trump is following the advice of his attorneys. His criminal attorney appears to believe that he has nothing to hide. His tax attorney must think that the the IRS will find significant errors.
No other presidential candidate has been subjected to an 8 year audit. Under the circumstances, making disclosures could hurt Trump. But not disclosing exposes him to allegations of hiding. The tax attorney gave Trump his bottom line, and Trump seems to have agreed.
That, most likely, is the whole story on the tax returns. Trump is caught between a rock and a hard place and followed his lawyer's advice. You can reasonably attack him or reasonably excuse his decision. But suggestions that this is or was the crime of the century are grossly exaggerated.
2
Students of former Soviet Union are aware it collapsed from within; its institutions developed inability to respond to crisis/change, i,e., Afghanistan, perestroika and glasnost., et al.
Seems to me, Trump and republican Congress' undermining US institutions/traditions reveal their voluntary unwillingness to prevent collapse of US institutions.
3
In the final analysis, neither party comes out looking very good after release of this memo. First, as the Editorial Board of the NYT properly noted, the published memo utterly fails at delivering the bomb shell Trump and the GOP led the country to believe was coming. The description contained in the memo is a partial rendering of a garden variety investigation request. Someone on Nune’s staff merely inflated the importance of one element of the basis for probable cause and attempted to show systemic bias without identifying the other relevant information or the effect of the information outlined. But the democrats also failed the American people on this one. While I do agree that people unfamiliar with legal processes may give too much weight to this incomplete and biased report, the reality is that the poorly constructed narrative utterly fails at suggesting some great failing on the part of the investigators or the FISA court. By playing chicken little and setting us up for some sort of profoundly unfair disclosure, the dems gave entirely too much weight to this memo - and too little trust in the judgment of the American people. This memo should not have been released. Nor is it clear to me that the democratic memo should be released. We do undermine the investigative process by too much disclosure too early. But based on what we have seen thus far, there has been considerable ado about not much of anything.
"The party that demanded the release of Hillary Clinton’s emails as a central plank of the 2016 presidential campaign must support all of this and more, right?"
Right!
And ditto on all the other helpful suggestions for greater transparency.
I for one am especially looking forward to those Trump tax returns!
2
He has gotten away with so much that he ignores how much his hubris will cost him eventually. Our Constitution works ever so slowly, but it does work, if only it does so in time.
2
The Republican Party seems to have flexible positions on many issues - the deficit, transparency, support of Trump pre nom and post election, national security, whether Russia is a friend or foe, DACA etc etc. The only things they don't change on is that guns don't kill people, no healthcare for their citizens and tax cuts for the rich.
2
It has truly become a laughable disgrace. We aren't even trying anymore. And sadly, I feel we are losing to the forces of evil.
2
Yes, the tax returns, please. In addition, the hiding from the public White House Visitor Logs and not identifying how much the Trump family is earning from stays at Trump entities, and what it is costing to fly to Florida so often; just what is his family earning and costing the public, again, please.
This is off message, but I recall that an elderly gentleman who had traditionally done the announcing for many presidents at the swearing in ceremonies was dismissed. He was offered a seat but declined.
A small action that said much about what was to happen to us all! Should some of us dare to have the strength of that gentleman.
1
Strange question, but I was under the impression that the judiciary branch was put in place as a foil to the congressional and executive branches - another sign of a republic committed to not reforming the monarchy. Isn't releasing the memo despite the profound objections of the judiciary branch circumventing the only non-partisan branch of government committed to safe-guarding this exact type of information from this precise form of interference?
In other words, doesn't the DOJ partially exist in order to protect Americans from elected officials using the government for personal gain? To this Canadian, you guys seem less like a republic every day.
1
Can Meuller continue the investigation as a private citizen?
Can he bring a private prosecution?
Can he release findings so far, as a private citizen?
The American public should also know the real reason for the heads of the three Russian intelligence agencies - one of whom is sanctioned and barred from coming to the USA - to meet with CIA's Pompeo. Terrorism is a lame pretext.
Did they discuss how to put a stop to their interfering in our elections? Or more likely, strategize how to ensure Republicans remain in power. Did they finish setting up a direct comm channel between the trumps and Putin?
Like trump's taxes, I cannot trust because they can't and won't verify - for obvious reasons.
3
The release of his tax returns would probably clear up a lot of things. Don't expect a lot of things to be cleared up.
1
The Republicans have a far more selective idea about transparency. In the sense of, “We’ll select what information to release, and what to withhold.” Which really sounds a lot more like propaganda, than transparency. That seems in keeping with the through the looking glass world we are in, where up has become down, and day has become night.
1
I am in favor of greater transparency in government right across the board.
It would start with campaigns and who has donated money to anyone's campaign. ( I am in favor of publicly financed elections of a short time ~ 6 weeks )
It would then lead to the voting laws, where everything would be clear as to who can vote, and what they need as far as identification. They would know when and where to go and there would be a national holiday to vote. ( I am in favor of mandatory voting by paper ballot via mail )
It would then lead to straight up and down votes on the House floor and Senate. All could sponsor a bill and\or amendments. ( THIS needs to be a requirement if Democracy is to be restored )
Finally throughout all of this process, there needs to be a free press that has access to all public officials and their financials and comings and goings. If one wants to lead us, then aye, they are going to be held to a much higher standard. That is the deal.
Of course, anything to do with the process of law needs to be fully transparent as to retain confidence by the people. ( especially for government )
Just a thought.
3
But the most important of all these, is the tax returns. Therein lies the truth as we shall know it. Transparency reigns.
2
Nice piece. But don't just stick to implications. Tell it like it is:
The Republic party wants one set of rules for itself and another set for everyone else. What will Democrats do about that? Will Democrats continue to slink away and hide? Or will they finally display even a minimal amount of backbone?
Plato was right. Democracy enables its own demise by the freedoms it grants everyone, including to demagogues who then destroy it.
2
The memo is clearly based on Nunes conjecture since he didn't see any of the underlying evidence. The Democratic memo, not released and you can believe will be suppressed, is based on that evidence since Schiff did see the underlying evidence.
Moreover, the memo is all about an investigation of Carter Page. If some aspects of the Carter Page investigation could have been improved, what does that have to do with the Russia investigation as a whole and items as Trump Jr. and Mr. Kushner meeting with a Russian lawyer (spy) to discuss adoptions (the Clinton dirt). ("Mishandling" is unproven at this point; it is only claimed by an uninformed Nunes.)
Are we arguing that if one small portion of the investigation was poorly handled the whole thing needs to be closed down? That is the obvious Republican logic. Similar logic should apply to Mr. Trump. If Trump can be proven ever to have told a lie during his presidency (many), then his whole presidency should be shut down? That logic follows 100% and if not then Republicans should explain why. Or at least release the Tax Returns as promised (another lie).
Republicans prefer to cherry pick their "alternate facts" and impose those falsifications on the Democrats. So Republicans will tout their fantasy memo and refuse to let Democrats release theirs. I just hope this is obvious to the voters come November 2018.
1
Now that Trump and his Republican enablers have managed to, most likely, infuriate a substantial number of governmental employees, located in a variety of federal departments, with the release of the discredited Munes Memo, I would imagine the odds that Trump's income tax returns will be leaked have improved appreciably.
2
Long term jail sentences for Trump and everyone, everyone that has shilled for him this past year. They are all guilty.
3
This editorial raises some interesting and important questions, but it offers no justification for the failure of the FBI to reveal the biased nature of the evidence used to acquire the warrant, which McCabe has admitted was essential to obtaining the warrant. We should seek answers to the questions posed by the Times, but the Times and others must now stipulate to FBI misconduct and that we owe our knowledge of that misconduct to Mr. Nunes.
1
Of course, right! And of course they will have a serious change of heart when it is in their interest to do so.
We are discovering where the murkiest parts of the swamp are; just off to the right. It is time to drain that swamp and see what treasures lie buried in the muck at the bottom.
1