Releasing Trump's Tax Returns Could Mean the Same for the Supreme Court? Don't Threaten Us With a Good Time!

The House Ways and Means Committee released the executive summary of a report on former President Donald Trump's tax returns late Tuesday, and the findings were about what you'd expect. The headline seems to be that the IRS was not conducting its mandatory audits of a sitting president while Trump was that president. Longtime viewers may remember that Trump used to promise he would soon release his returns, but they were under audit so he couldn't. (He could've.) After a while, he stopped even offering the audit excuse and just waged an all-out legal war to keep them out of public view. You'll be shocked to learn that the returns in question feature red flags regarding charitable contributions, "related party loans," and various deductions Trump has claimed since 2015.

But maybe the funniest element here has been the extended histrionics from House Republicans at the prospect that Trump's tax returns could be released. As a reminder, every presidential candidate since Nixon has voluntarily released their tax returns except Trump, the guy whose eponymous foundation and university have been shuttered for extremely above-board business practices, and whose flagship company was found guilty of criminal tax fraud earlier this month. If you're curious whether Joe Biden is getting shady kickback payments from Hunter Biden via his laptop or whatever, you could start your investigation by reviewing his tax returns for the last few years. They're posted on his website! But the public getting a look at the tax returns of his predecessor, Mr. Legal Man, is a national emergency.

It's such an emergency, in fact, that Rep. Kevin Brady took to the microphones to warn of the slippery slope we're toeing up to on this dark day in American history.

If the House Ways and Means Committee were to regularly publish the tax returns of "private citizens" who were not president of the United States less than two years ago, that would indeed be a problem. Business and labor leaders would be a problem, too. But the inclusion of Supreme Court justices here almost feels like a Freudian slip.

At present, the justices enjoy probably the most generous veil of secrecy for any major government officials, and they merely have the power to declare things legal or illegal at any time, sometimes without explanation. The Supreme Court justices are the only judicial body not subject to a code of ethics. Conflicts of interest are considered a non-factor, apparently, since Ginni Thomas's activism has not spurred Justice Clarence Thomas to recuse himself from January 6 cases. For years, Thomas and Antonin Scalia would visit conferences and seminars organized by, in at least one case, "a secretive network of Republican donors" led by the Koch brothers. Justice Alito has been accused of cozying up with anti-abortion and other conservative activists. Many of the justices have deep ties to the Federalist Society, which in turn has deep ties to powerful interests with business before the court. Releasing their tax returns might not tackle all this in the way a code of ethics might, but it would possibly offer some insight into whether Justice Brett Kavanaugh is still buying so many baseball tickets. Maybe it would reveal Justice Sonia Sotomayor has a similar predilection for Broadway shows! That's the beauty of transparency.

In other words, Mr. Brady, don't threaten us with a good time. I would support radical financial transparency for anyone who wants to hold federal elected office. It would be good to get a look at what members of Congress are up to, considering what we know already from their activities in the stock market. The basic principle here is that if you have the power to make policy, it's good for the public to know whether that policy is in your own financial interest. But typically, this is all being framed as pre-justification for future Republican retribution, including by the New York Times. Tit for tat! As usual, Republicans are cast as a kind of unstoppable force of inevitable dickitude, rather than fully grown adults in offices of the public trust continually making their own decisions. Democrats have put Trump on the same public footing as every other president and candidate since 1976? They'll pay for that! It should be exciting to see what kind of revenge House Republicans can fit in amongst their sleuthing of Hunter Biden's laptop and whatever else Shadow Speaker MTG decrees a priority.

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