Democrats can start impeachment hearings now, there is enough “there” already to make a relatively strong case for impeachment to the American public. Trump has engaged in numerous instances of obstruction, for starters, and his unlawful refusal of complying with Congress’ demands to produce papers and having members of his administration testify before House Committees are ongoing.
BUT, the much better and stronger case to be made for Impeachment, in my view, is to be found in Trump’s financial dealings. To that extent we have had, back to back, two rulings that are, in their scope and tone, highly problematic for Trump. In addition New York State passed a law that makes it easy for Congress to obtain Trump’s state tax returns. I think if you connect the dots across Trump’s financial dealings he is taking lots of pains to keep covered up you will have a strong case for Impeachment, one the American people will get behind, because it will show criminal money laundering, tax evasion, false reporting of income and assets, and the like, the type of crimes that landed Paul Manafort in jail. It is quite likely, IMHO, that Trump has engaged in criminal behavior that is easy to prove once the documents are available and even easier for the American public to understand.
Connecting the dots from Trump’s loan application to Deutsche Bank and Capital One and Trump’s tax returns from the same time frame is going to show that Trump, simultaneously, on one hand exaggerated the Trump organization’s income and assets to look profitable and healthy to a prospective lender in an effort to secure loans and credit lines while simultaneously claiming massive losses and negative income for IRS tax income purposes, making the Trump organization look like it was losing money year over year to avoid paying any income taxes whatsoever. Obviously, you can’t be profitable and healthy at the same time as you are unprofitable and losing massive amounts of money. Felonious tax fraud is against the law, as is falsifying income and asset information on loan applications. From the looks of it this appears to shape us as a good case for charges of tax fraud and tax evasion as well as money laundering crimes.
1. The first ruling came on Monday when U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta squashed Trump v. Committee on Oversight and Reform, 19-cv-1136, U.S. District Court, District of Columbia (Washington). Mehta instructed Mazars, Trump’s accounting form, to turn over all of Trump’s tax returns to Congress. Trump has appealed the ruling, but the ruling is likely to stand.
Democrats Closer to Seeing Trump Finance Records With Ruling
2. The second ruling came down on Tuesday. Judge Edgardo Ramos ruled that Deutsche Bank and Capital One can give Trump’s financial record to Congress, a move the Trump team tried to block.
Judge says Deutsche Bank, Capital One can give Trump financial records to House Democrats
In both instances the judges were very clear with their strong worded rulings that Trump had no leg to stand on in his efforts to block release of his financial records.
The way both rulings came down, with both judges essentially accusing Trump’s lawyers of bringing frivolous motions meant to stall and obstruct, means that these rulings are unlikely to be overturned on appeal and that it won’t take very long to get these records to Congress.
3. Also, NY state is now in a position to provide Congress with all of Trump’s state tax returns, thanks to the passage of a new law:
NY state passes bill allowing Congress to request Trump's tax returns
The reason Trump is trying to hide his financial records and prevent the release of them, and the reason Democrats are so focused on getting a hold of them is due to what they are going to show to Congress and the American people. Likely tax fraud and tax evasion, money laundering, falsifying loan applications, and that’s just for starters. Once the American public is presented with obvious evidence of criminal wrong doing by Trump the case for Impeachment becomes inescapable and obvious.
In my view there is no reason impeachment hearings can’t begin already. They can, and probably should start now. However, the stronger and truly criminal case to be made for impeachment is likely contained in those financial documents Trump is feverishly trying to block from being released and Democrats are very keen to get their hands on. I think there is a calculation going on with some in Democratic leadership that once the real dirt comes out on Trump’s illegal financial dealings then you will have the American public move strongly into the “Impeach Him” camp as well as House Democrats moving in that direction, along with more Republicans. They should start Impeachment hearings now, using as the precursor Trump’s obvious flaunting of the law as he engages in blatant obstruction of Congress, in the process trying to circumvent the rule of law, ever day. They can then fold the criminal case of tax fraud and money laundering into the already underway Impeachment discovery process.
Either way, the REAL STRONG case for Impeachment, the evidence contained within the coveted financial records that Trump engaged in criminal acts that could well land Trump in prison along with his buddy Manafort, is still ahead of us as we are starting to see Trump’s tax returns and Deutsche Bank/Capital One loan documents.
This is just getting started, people. Put on your seat belts and get ready for a wild ride into Trump’s shady and highly criminal financial dealings that make everything else we’ve seen so far seem like small potatoes.