Obstacles go up as Trump's line of defense against Democrats' probes

Trump walls of another kind

Shut out of power for the first two years of Donald Trump's presidency, House Democrats carried the banner of "the resistance." Since they reclaimed power, which includes the authority to pursue investigations, resistance has become the reflexive response of Trump's White House and his Republican allies. The big question: What are the Democrats going to do about it?

On Tuesday, White House counsel Pat Cipollone ordered his predecessor, Don McGahn, not to comply with a congressional subpoena demanding documents related to special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, reports Newsday's Laura Figueroa Hernandez. McGahn is a central player in episodes described by Mueller as potential obstructions of justice by Trump.

Cipollone argued that McGahn’s records were “legally protected from disclosure” in part because of the president’s right to assert executive privilege. House Judiciary Committee chairman Jerry Nadler contends Trump waived his right to executive privilege by allowing McGahn to talk freely to Mueller. 

Nadler has also scheduled a vote Wednesday to hold Attorney General William Barr in contempt of Congress for failing to provide the full text of Mueller's report. The Justice Department and the committee negotiated Tuesday in search of a compromise. Meanwhile, Ways and Means Committee chairman Richard Neal, rebuffed in a demand for Trump's tax returns, is discussing his next move with House lawyers.

Over at the Senate, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell called on Democrats to move on. "Two years of exhaustive investigation and nothing to establish the fanciful conspiracy theory that Democratic politicians and TV talking heads had treated like a foregone conclusion," he said.

A joint statement by Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi denounced McConnell's speech as "a stunning act of political cynicism and a brazen violation of the oath we all take." They said Mueller "laid out eleven instances of the President's obstruction and left a raft of unanswered questions about coordination between the President's campaign and Russia."

Pelosi's comments at a New York event reflected the Democrats' dilemma. She said Trump is “goading” Democrats to try to impeach him — "he's just, like, taunting, taunting, taunting, because he knows that it would be very divisive in the country.” But Pelosi also said ignoring congressional subpoenas is a potentially impeachable offense. For more, see Newsday's story by Emily Ngo.

Many unhappy returns

The New York Times reported Tuesday night that it had gotten hold of printouts of Trump's IRS tax transcripts that show the figures from his 1040 forms for the years 1985 to 1994. What they reveal, the report said, is that during a decade when he was boasting of his moneymaking prowess, his businesses were in a deeply red state every year, losing a total of $1.17 billion.

Based on IRS data about high-income earners, Trump appears to have lost more money than nearly any other individual American taxpayer, The Times found. He lost so much money that he was able to avoid paying income taxes for eight of the 10 years. It was not known, the report said, whether the IRS audits changed the results.

One Trump gambit that had fleeting success and earned him millions in the stock market was to suggest he was going to take over companies. He lost most, if not all, of the gains once investors stopped taking him seriously, the report said.

The Times said it obtained the information in Trump's returns from someone who had legal access to it.

The Times said the information doesn't answer questions raised by House Democrats who are seeking the last six years of Trump's returns to examine his recent business dealings and possible foreign ties.

Trump on Wednesday defended at Twitter length the old numbers and actions as "sport" and said "almost all real estate developers" did the same thing. 

Janison: Trump's tax mysteries

There's no doubt that Democrats would like to find a gotcha or two or more in Trump's tax returns, writes Newsday's Dan Janison, but you don't have to be partisan to wonder why he continues to hide them.

During the campaign, Trump promised to release copies of his filings. Then he reneged, claiming his filings were "under audit." Even if that's true, there's no rule that would stand in the way of his disclosing them. Speculation about his real reasons abound.

Will copies of his returns reveal what average taxpayers might consider some very slick schemes to avoid paying millions of dollars? Would Trump's tax forms show contradictions between his actual income and worth and what he reports to lenders? Could unsavory associations be revealed? If those suspicions are unfounded, Trump could rebut them by doing what every major-party nominee has done since the 1970s and release his returns.

No Barr talk for FBI's Wray

FBI Director Christopher Wray, appearing at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing, wouldn't echo Barr's Trumpspeak about the bureau's role in the Russia investigation.

Wray distanced himself from Barr, who recently used the term “spying” to describe aspects of the FBI's investigation of the Trump campaign, and from Trump, who has lambasted that probe as “illegal spying.”

“That’s not a term I would use,” Wray said. “I believe that the FBI is engaged in investigative activity, and part of investigative activity includes surveillance activity of different shapes and sizes." Asked if he had "any evidence that any illegal surveillance" into the Trump 2016 campaign occurred, Wray said he did not.

Wray, who became FBI director in 2017 after Trump fired James Comey, cautioned that he had his own thoughts about the FBI’s probe. But he urged senators to wait for a report from the bureau's inspector general that is expected to be released within the next two months. For more, see Tom Brune's story for Newsday.

Cohen fix for Falwell?

Among Michael Cohen's parting words before heading off to prison Monday was, "There still remains much to be told." Not just about his former boss Trump, it turns out, according to a report by Reuters.

Cohen said that months before Jerry Falwell Jr. endorsed Trump, the evangelical leader sought out the candidate's fixer to help with a personal problem: Someone had come into possession of what Cohen described as racy “personal” photos — the sort that would typically be kept "between husband and wife." Cohen told the story in a private conversation surreptitiously recorded by comedian Tom Arnold and reviewed by Reuters.

According to a source familiar with Cohen’s thinking, as Reuters put it, the person who had the photos and was demanding money destroyed them after Cohen intervened on the Falwells’ behalf. Cohen warned the person's lawyer that his client was committing a crime. But Cohen also told Arnold: “I actually have one of the photos. It’s terrible.” The Falwells, through a lawyer, declined to comment.

Protecting the brand

Trump ordered his re-election campaign to issue a blistering statement implicitly condemning a longtime political adviser who used his name to raise millions of dollars for an unaffiliated political group.

The president was "livid" when he found out the "Presidential Coalition" run by his former deputy campaign manager, David Bossie, was soliciting funds from Trump supporters and only spending a fraction on direct political activities, CNN reported. A report by the Campaign Legal Center and Axios found most of the money raised went to more fundraising, salaries for Bossie and others, two other groups he ran and, apparently, to buy books he authored.

The campaign's statement: "There is no excuse for any group, including ones run by people who claim to be part of our 'coalition,' to suggest they directly support President Donald Trump's reelection or any other candidates, when in fact their actions show they are interested in filling their own pockets with money from innocent Americans' paychecks, and sadly, retirements."

In an odd move, the statement named "one approved outside non-campaign group, America First Action." The Washington Post noted that candidate committees usually avoid actions that could be seen as promoting super PACs because coordination by campaigns with them are illegal.

What else is happening:

• Stocks got hammered Tuesday amid rising fears Trump will carry out his threat to boost tariffs on China later this week. A Chinese delegation is due in Washington Thursday for trade negotiations.
• Disagreeing with seven other nations bordering the Arctic that climate change poses a threat, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he is cool with melting polar ice caps. He saw opportunity for "opening new naval passageways" and forecast that "Arctic sea lanes could become the 21st century’s Suez and Panama canals.”
• After the Arctic Council meeting in Finland, Pompeo flew to Iraq for an unannounced visit amid rising U.S. tensions with neighboring Iran. The Pentagon deployed an aircraft carrier and Air Force bombers to the Persian Gulf, warning that Iran was positioning missiles that could be used against American forces in the region.
• Trump met with GOP senators to promote a new immigration plan spearheaded by Jared Kushner. It includes border security measures and proposals that would create a more "merit-based" system for accepting immigrants.
• Elizabeth Warren blasted Joe Biden for holding "a swanky private fundraiser for wealthy donors" in Philadelphia. That rankled some of the donors who recalled attending high-dollar events for Warren's 2018 Senate campaign, philly.com reported.
• As Biden began to address a rally in Nevada, a woman in the audience shouted, "You can hug and kiss me anytime, Joe." Biden, who has been chided for unwelcome physical familiarity with women he didn't know, laughed nervously, made the sign of the cross, and responded, "That's very nice, thank you," NBC News reported.