President Donald Trump may have just lost an important battle in his fight to keep his tax documents under wraps.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a bill into law on Monday that will allow Democratic lawmakers in Washington access to the president's highly sought after state tax returns.
The law — titled the TRUST Act — requires New York's commissioner of taxation to cooperate with investigations into elected officials by Congressional tax writing committees, which include the House Ways and Means Committee, the Senate Finance Committee, and the Joint Committee on Taxation.
"Tax secrecy is paramount — the exception being for bonafide investigative and law enforcement purposes," Cuomo said in a statement. "This bill gives Congress the ability to fulfill its Constitutional responsibilities, strengthen our democratic system and ensure that no one is above the law."
Under the law, New York will only be able to fulfill requests from Congress for Trump's state filings, which would, nonetheless, provide federal lawmakers and the public with significant insight into the New York real estate developer's financial holdings.
The bill was passed by the New York State Senate and Assembly in May.
"This is a momentous step in upholding the principle that top elected officials have a responsibility to be more transparent and accountable," State Assemblyman David Buchwald, who co-sponsored the legislation, said on Twitter. "It's a great day for transparency in government."
Breaking with a long standing norm, Trump first refused to release his taxes during the 2016 election, claiming he was under audit and then alleging that his taxes were not of concern to the American people. The White House has since bucked several attempts from congressional Democrats and activist organizations to obtain the president's taxes and examine possible foreign entanglements and fraud.
"For far too long, the Trump administration has attempted to hide Donald Trump's deeply concerning conflicts of interest by illegally blocking the release of his tax returns," Ryan Thomas, the spokesperson for the progressive advocacy group Stand Up America, said. "But now, New York has provided Congress a new route for getting answers on behalf of the American people—and all they have to do is ask."
Thomas urged Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.), who chairs the Ways and Means Committee, to immediately request the New York tax returns, adding that any "delay is an injustice to the American people who deserve transparency about Trump's foreign entanglements and massive conflicts of interest."
Meanwhile the New York Republican party claimed that the TRUST Act is a "brazen overreach" and is "a violation of the privacy rights" for all Americans, which would set a concerning precedent. "Assembly Democrats can warm to this illegal bill of attainder all they want but it will be met with a lawsuit," the Republican state committee added in a tweet in May.
The bill had been amended multiple times since its introduction to broaden its scope over elected official and policial party leaders, as well as to limit its application to average citizens.
The six-week delay from when the bill passed the state legislature to Monday’s signing was due to an extensive review of the legislation conducted by the governor’s office, Dani Lever, Cuomo’s communications director, said in a statement to Cheddar.
"Any responsible government would thoroughly review this bill … especially after this process and given how high the stakes are of this particular legislation," Lever said.
A bipartisan group of 43 representatives joined forces in a letter to President Joe Biden to remind the executive branch that it must seek the approval of Congress before authorizing a war — whether or not its in Ukraine as Russia continues its invasion. Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore. 4th District) led the effort and joined Cheddar News Wrap to explain. "It's time for Congress to get back the authority, which is vested to us in the constitution, not in the executive branch," he said. "The president. once we're at war, we speak with one voice with the commander in chief. But before that, it's up to the American people and Congress whether or not we're going to become engaged in a war."
Chris Konstantinos, Chief Investment Strategist at RiverFront Investment Group, explains why he remains encouraged about the S&P and the state of the market despite the major indexes closing mostly lower on Monday.
President Joe Biden will be delivering his first State of the Union address on Tuesday night, and with so many issues from Ukraine to inflation, everyone will be focused on what he might say. Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y. 11th District) joined Cheddar News to discuss what she thinks the president should address. "I think what he hasn't done yet is go after the gas, the oil, the minerals, the mining industries, that is incredibly important," she said. "There's still some banks there that are not sanctioned. He needs to go after all the banks, but I also think that providing the equipment that Ukraine needs to continue to protect its capital and its country are incredibly important."
As Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, one of its few big allies remaining appears to be China. Gordon Chang, Asian affairs expert and author of "The Coming Collapse of China," joined Cheddar News to discuss what might be behind China's support for Putin's current strategy. “I think China is looking at what Putin did yesterday, which is to raise his nuclear forces on a higher alert level,” Chang stated, “If they see that Putin gets away with his nuclear threats, which he's been making over the last three or four days, then I'm sure that Beijing is going to ramp up its threats as well, and it could ramp them up against any number of different countries with which it perceives it has a problem with"
Joel Rubin, president of the Washington Strategy Group and former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, joins Cheddar News to discuss the Russia-Ukraine tensions and the new sanctions President Biden placed on Russia.
Officials from Ukraine and Russia have begun meeting along the Belarus border to discuss a potential end to the ongoing invasion, even as the fighting continues to drag on. Rep. Al Green (D-Texas 9th District) joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, what to expect from President Joe Biden's State of The Union Address, and the nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson for the Supreme Court. "I'm still hopeful, and I hope that Mr. Putin will understand that he has united the world against him," Green said of the new round of peace talks.
Within hours of Russia's first attack on Ukraine, President Joe Biden addressed the nation by stating that the White House will impose wider sanctions on Russian banks. These sanctions could result in damage to the Russian economy. Host of "Oh My World" on Youtube and Former Spokesperson for the U. S. Mission to the U. N. Hagar Chemali, joined Cheddar to discuss more.
