Trump sued for trying to cover up how he uses Oval Office to rake in cash from Trump Hotel

[Amica Nostra 4,803]

https://shareblue.com/trump-sued-for-trying-to-cover-up-how-he-uses-oval-office-to-rake-in-cash-from-trump-hotel/

 

The Trump administration is hiding the truth about how the president is using his hotel in D.C. for personal profit. Democrats are suing to get answers.

 

(AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

 

The Trump administration is trying to cover up how Donald Trump is using the presidency to personally profit from his D.C. hotel, so Democrats are suing to get to the bottom of it.

House Democrats, led by Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings, are seeking a range of documents related to Trump’s continued involvement with the Trump Hotel, including possibly receiving payments from foreign governments and foreign officials.

Unfortunately, they are being stymied at every turn. “The Trump Administration has refused all of our requests for documents about the Trump Hotel for the better part of this year,” Cummings said at a press conference.

 

In the lawsuit, Cummings is relying on a 1928 law that states that a federal agency “shall” produce documents requested by any seven members of the House Oversight Committee. Under the previous administration, said Cummings, the authority to seek these documents on this very issue was recognized by the same agency.

“But all that stopped on January 20,” Cummings added. “There is one thing, and one thing only, that has changed in this case – President Trump is now sitting in the Oval Office.”

Unfortunately, Republicans are actively hindering efforts to even obtain information from this administration.

“Republicans are essentially walling off President Trump from credible congressional oversight,” said Cummings.

At the press conference announcing the lawsuit, Cummings outlined just some of the obstruction from congressional Republicans and explained exactly why Congress must have answers about Trump’s potentially illegal profits from his hotel:

In this specific case, the lease for the hotel explicitly prohibits any “elected official of the Government of the United States” from taking or sharing in any benefit that “may arise” from the lease.

Yet, President Trump refused to divest his financial interests in the hotel before he was sworn in, as both Republican and Democratic experts recommended… We have no transparency – no ability to check for ongoing conflicts of interest or unconstitutional foreign payments.

At the moment, it is unknown if the Trump Hotel, “has become a conduit for foreign governments, lobbyists and other special interests seeking favor with the president to channel money to the Trump family.” But Cummings is determined to find out.

“We regret that we have to go to court to obtain these basic documents, which are clearly within our Committee’s jurisdiction,” Cummings said. “We would not be here today if Chairman [Trey] Gowdy and his Republican colleagues would do their jobs.”

South Carolina Rep. Trey Gowdy is infamous for wasting millions of taxpayer dollars chasing fringe conspiracy theories around the tragic deaths of four Americans in Benghazi. But he has thus far resisted any serious investigation into Trump using his office to personally profit. Instead, Cummings said, Gowdy is more interested in “aiding and abetting” Trump’s corruption.

Unlike Republicans, who have consistently cowered before Trump, Democrats are the only members of Congress willing to stand up to the corruption, greed, and willful disregard for the law of this administration.

Cummings and his fellow Democrats, meanwhile, are continuing to fight to hold this administration accountable, with our without the help of Republicans.

[ready4ONE 5,400]

Trump is personally backing a termination of the Estate Tax which should net his heirs hundreds of millions or more. I am sure the DC Hotel scam is chump change next to that obvious abuse of his Office.

[jg121783 3,915]

1 hour ago, ready4ONE said:

Trump is personally backing a termination of the Estate Tax which should net his heirs hundreds of millions or more. I am sure the DC Hotel scam is chump change next to that obvious abuse of his Office.

Yeah because only rich people have to pay estate taxes on property they inherit. Ending the estate tax won't help the middle class one bit. It is a big conspiracy to make Trump richer. Thanks for exposing the conspiracy. Now we can make sure both the Trump family and middle class Americans are taxed for property their family leaves them which by the way their family already paid taxes once on. How dare a middle class American inherit a house and not have to sell it to pay the estate tax they owe.

[eieio 1,594]

3 hours ago, jg121783 said:

Yeah because only rich people have to pay estate taxes on property they inherit. Ending the estate tax won't help the middle class one bit. It is a big conspiracy to make Trump richer. Thanks for exposing the conspiracy. Now we can make sure both the Trump family and middle class Americans are taxed for property their family leaves them which by the way their family already paid taxes once on. How dare a middle class American inherit a house and not have to sell it to pay the estate tax they owe.

Well said! 

[Voice of Reason 10,298]

I agree jg.  It's ridiculous that property such as land and vehicles be taxed many times over.  Why should my son be taxed if I sell him my car?  Or my heirs if I leave them property?

[jg121783 3,915]

If anything the estate tax discriminates against the middle and lower classes. If a rich person inherits property they likely have the capital to pay the taxes. When a middle class person inherits a house or farm for example from a relative they usually have to sell the property to pay the taxes. One could argue cutting the estate tax is a tax cut for the middle class.

[Ebunoluwa 6,136]

1 hour ago, jg121783 said:

If anything the estate tax discriminates against the middle and lower classes. If a rich person inherits property they likely have the capital to pay the taxes. When a middle class person inherits a house or farm for example from a relative they usually have to sell the property to pay the taxes. One could argue cutting the estate tax is a tax cut for the middle class.

What is your idea of middle class ?

[Ebunoluwa 6,136]

4 hours ago, IDWAF said:

I agree jg.  It's ridiculous that property such as land and vehicles be taxed many times over.  Why should my son be taxed if I sell him my car?  Or my heirs if I leave them property?

Are you a millionaire ?

[Voice of Reason 10,298]

4 minutes ago, Ebunoluwa said:

Are you a millionaire ?

Not yet.  Does that matter?

[ready4ONE 5,400]

9 hours ago, jg121783 said:

Yeah because only rich people have to pay estate taxes on property they inherit. Ending the estate tax won't help the middle class one bit. It is a big conspiracy to make Trump richer. Thanks for exposing the conspiracy. Now we can make sure both the Trump family and middle class Americans are taxed for property their family leaves them which by the way their family already paid taxes once on. How dare a middle class American inherit a house and not have to sell it to pay the estate tax they owe.

Trump is not middle class America, and the Estate Tax is not aimed at middle class America. Other portions of the tax plan could also easily be viewed as custom tailored to benefit Donald Trump but the Estate Tax pretty much is so obviously to his benefit a caveman could see it.

[Voice of Reason 10,298]

2 minutes ago, ready4ONE said:

Trump is not middle class America, and the Estate Tax is not aimed at middle class America. Other portions of the tax plan could also easily be viewed as custom tailored to benefit Donald Trump but the Estate Tax pretty much is so obviously to his benefit a caveman could see it.

Same with health care for Congress and the rest of our government.  It's not likely they would do something that is good for us that doesn't benefit them even more.

[Suss&Camm 2,213]

1 hour ago, jg121783 said:

If anything the estate tax discriminates against the middle and lower classes. If a rich person inherits property they likely have the capital to pay the taxes. When a middle class person inherits a house or farm for example from a relative they usually have to sell the property to pay the taxes. One could argue cutting the estate tax is a tax cut for the middle class.

The estate tax has a very high exemption (5.49 million/person) - meaning estates below that don't pay the estate tax. This voids your argument entirely. According to this report "Only the estates of the wealthiest 0.2 percent of Americans — roughly 2 out of every 1,000 people who die — owe any estate tax"

https://www.cbpp.org/research/federal-tax/ten-facts-you-should-know-about-the-federal-estate-tax

[Amica Nostra 4,803]

59 minutes ago, Suss&Camm said:

The estate tax has a very high exemption (5.49 million/person) - meaning estates below that don't pay the estate tax. This voids your argument entirely. According to this report "Only the estates of the wealthiest 0.2 percent of Americans — roughly 2 out of every 1,000 people who die — owe any estate tax"

https://www.cbpp.org/research/federal-tax/ten-facts-you-should-know-about-the-federal-estate-tax

And that is after a wealthier individual has leveraged trusts and other pre-death methods to transfer wealth to their family. With the proper planning a lot of wealth can change hands tax free.

[jg121783 3,915]

Part of my side business involves buying stuff from estate sales and I have talked to more than one middle class person who inherited a farm that their parents worked all their lives to pay off and the person who inherits the farm has to sell it to pay estate taxes. Sure they walk away with money in their pocket in the end but they lose the family farm in the process. I really don't see a legitimate reason to tax property more than once. I could maybe go for raising the minimum estate value that is taxed but as it is now middle class people are affected.

[Suss&Camm 2,213]

1 minute ago, Il Mango Dulce said:

And that is after a wealthier individual has leveraged trusts and other pre-death methods to transfer wealth to their family. With the proper planning a lot of wealth can change hands tax free.

Yea - the report also mentions this loophole:

 

"any wealthy estates employ teams of lawyers and accountants to develop and exploit loopholes in the estate tax that allow them to pass on large portions of their estates tax-free.  These strategies don’t benefit the broader economy; they only allow the wealthiest estates to avoid taxes. 

For example, some estates use grantor retained annuity trusts (GRATs) to pass along considerable assets tax-free.  The estate owner puts money into a trust designed to repay the estate the initial amount plus interest at a rate set by the Treasury, typically over two years.  If the investment — typically stock — rises in value any more than the Treasury rate, the gain goes to an heir tax-free.  If the investment doesn’t rise in value, the full amount still goes back to the estate.  Such techniques have been described as a “heads I win, tails we tie” bet.[8] 

The GRAT loophole enables wealthy estates to avoid extraordinary amounts of tax when stock or other assets rise in value quickly, as has happened frequently in recent years.  The tax lawyer credited with discovering the loophole estimates that it has allowed wealthy estates to avoid as much as $100 billion in estate taxes since 2000, or close to one-third of the amount that the tax raised over the period.[9]"