After the Justice Department released an opinion late Friday saying that it’s okay for Donald Trump to hide his tax returns, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee Adam Schiff blasted the attorney general.
In a tweet late Friday, Schiff said there will be “very little” impartiality and independence left at the department once William Barr is gone.
“What is the President hiding in his tax returns?” asked the powerful Democrat. “And since when does ‘shall” mean ‘unless it displeases Trump’?”
What is the President hiding in his tax returns?
And since when does “shall” mean “unless it displeases Trump”?
And, perhaps more importantly:
What will be left of DOJ’s independence and reputation for impartial justice after Barr?
The answer? Very little. https://t.co/NItITJk5Rt
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) June 15, 2019
Schiff’s takedown of Barr comes after the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel announced an opinion late Friday – when nobody is paying attention – saying the Department of Treasury did the right thing by withholding Trump’s tax returns.
“For all the foregoing reasons, we believe that [Treasury Sec. Steve Mnuchin] reasonably and correctly concluded that the [House Ways and Means Committee’s] stated purpose was pre-textual and its actual purpose was simply to provide a means for public disclosure of the President’s tax returns,” the OLC wrote. “[T]he Secretary and other officials at Treasury faithfully implemented their duties under section 6103(a) in response to a request for a disclosure that would not be authorized under section 6103(f).”
Of course, as PoliticusUSA’s Jason Easley noted after the OLC announcement, “The law is very clear. If Ways and Means request (Trump’s tax returns), Treasury has to turn them over.”
The good news, as Easley added, is that the Trump administration is likely to lose this fight in the end as the matter makes its way through the courts.
Barr has forever tarnished the Justice Department
Through his shameless flackery of Donald Trump over the past few months, attorney general William Barr has forever tarnished the Justice Department in a way that won’t soon be repaired.
Barr has set the dangerous precedent that the attorney general is there to defend the president of the United States, not the rule of law.
From his whitewashing over the Mueller report to his ludicrous investigation into whether the Trump campaign was spied on in 2016 to his new approval of Trump’s tax return cover-up, this attorney general has shown that he is nothing more than a political hack.
William Barr might as well be walking around with a red MAGA cap on his head.
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