Republicans In Congress Vote Against Requiring Trump's Tax Returns

Today Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee voted to block the Democrats from requiring the U.S. Department of Treasury to release President Trump’s tax returns. This was reported by The Chicago Tribune, The Hill, and multiple other news agencies.

Democratic Representative Bill Pascrell of New Jersey proposed the release of the returns in a letter to the committee’s chair on February 1st. The request is based on Section 6103 of the Internal Revenue Code, which was last used to obtain President Nixon's tax returns.

House Democrats framed the issue as a matter of national security. Trump has repeatedly claimed that he has no business dealings with Russia. Democrats acknowledged that have no evidence otherwise. Given the recent resignation – or firing – of National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, Democrats assert that the American people deserve to know that Trump does not have connections to Russia – either assets there, or debts with Russian individuals, businesses, or banks.

However, Scott Dworkin, author of The Dworkin Report and senior adviser to the Democratic Coalition Against Trump, has reported that Trump has 249 businesses registered in the Russian Federation.

In addition, Donald Trump, Jr.,  who, with his brother Eric is a trustee of trump businesses for the duration of Trump’s presidency,. has talked about business projects in Russia. In a video on the Democratic Coalition website, made in 2012, he spoke to an interviewer in Latvia:
 
“I’ve been there many times, and I have spent quite a bit of time in Moscow looking at deals."

"And what do you do in Russia? What kind of projects?"

"It depends, I mean the things that I’ve looked at thus far, I’ve looked at everything from resorts to hotel, I was there last summer looking at a potential golf development, because that’s a big part of what we do also, high-end gold courses and championship type golf courses, a big part of what we do now is the hotel world, building, managing, branding high-end hotel assets, so any of those things would be possibilities.”

In another video on the Democratic Coalition website, Trump himself discusses his relationship with Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation, while Trump was in Moscow in 2013 for the Miss Universe pageant. Trump was co-owner of the Miss Universe pageant. He sold his shares in 2015.
 
“So when we talk about what the current politics are back at home, we know there is a tense relationship between President Obama and Vladimir Putin … do you have a relationship with Vladimir Putin? A conversational relationship or anything that you feel you have sway or influence over his government?"

"I do have a relationship and I can tell you that he is very interested in what we are doing here today … I do have a relationship with him … He’s done a very brilliant job in terms of what he represents and who he’s represented … he has eaten our president’s lunch  …Putin has been able to show a certain leadership that our people have not been able to match.”
 
The Miss Universe pageant was held in Moscow in 2013, financed by Aras Agalarov, an Azerbaijani businessman who spent $20 million bringing the pageant to Russia, according to promotional materials from his company, the Crocus Group.

The Crocus Group information can be found here.
http://crocusgroup.com/press-center/news/749/

Trump has marketed Trump Vodka  to the Russian market, specifically in Moscow, with at least one commercial containing an image of a statue of Vladimir Lenin. The commercial, on the Democratic Coalition website, has the Lenin image at 29 seconds.
​
The commercial can be found here.
https://www.democraticcoalition.org/leaks
 
The list of Trump registered businesses in the Russian Federation can be found here.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1SqqL_KIUv8DOZVtEjglcXCFYYNU0eK6afypmaqT65LQ/edit#gid=0

The complete Trumpleaks reports can be found here.
https://www.democraticcoalition.org
 
 The Chicago Tribune article can be found here.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/politics/ct-democrat-effort-trump-tax-returns-20170214-story.html
 
The Hill article can be found here.
http://thehill.com/policy/finance/319438-house-panel-votes-against-requesting-trumps-tax-returns
 
 A list of Republican Representatives who voted against demanding Trump's tax returns has been assembled by the Twitter group @natlsciservice. The list can be found here.

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