Trump hit by an accidental "accidental" investigation of a day

In one day, Democrats in the House demanded Donald Trump's tax returns for six years, set about retrieving his financial statements for a decade, and prepared to issue a summons to appear before the report. Mueller full of the Ministry of Justice.

Top House legislators and Democratic aides said the three-headed attack was more accidental than expected, but it is also clear that April 3 marks a turning point for the new Democratic majority. In less than eight hours, the Democrats in the House have embarked on a real investigation of Trump, an investigation that the White House and Republican leaders have described as useless, open to partisanship and major distraction in the country's affairs.

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Democrats in the House, however, consider the Trump investigation – even though special advocate Robert Mueller has not found any clear evidence of illegal conduct or collusion in his investigation of Russia – constitutes their prime duty.

Representative Richard Neal (D-Mass.), Chair of the Ways and Means Committee, immediately rejected Mr. Trump's application to the IRS for six years of his personal and professional tax return. Trump returned to the argument that he was still under audit, but also indicated that he was not in a mood to comply with Democrats' demand.

"Is that all? We are under audit, despite what people have said, and we are working on it," Trump told reporters, "I am still under audit, it seems, but I have been many years because the numbers are high, and I guess when you have a name, you're audited, but as long as I'm not audited, I would not be inclined to do it. " IRS, the current Presidents and Vice-Presidents are audited.

But Neal said the application was well within the rights of his committee and he urged the IRS to comply with the April 10 deadline.

"I've presented today to the IRS Commissioner." [Charles] Rettig has applied for six years of the President's personal tax returns as well as those of some of his business entities, "Neal said in a statement. "We have completed the necessary preparations for an application of this magnitude and I am confident that we respect our legitimate rights in law, law and oversight."

Neal added, "I take the authority to make this request very seriously and approach it with the utmost care and respect. This request is about politics, not politics; my preparations were made on my own path and schedule, entirely independent of other congressional and administrative activities. "

Some of the hardest-pressed Democrats on ways and means were pleased with Neal's decision, saying that Trump's tax returns should have been published months or years earlier, as did other presidents .

"Americans have the right to know if their president is compromised or corrupt," said Representative Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.). "For most of his adult life, Trump used his power to protect himself from control or accountability. Submitting tax data in the light of the sun can finally hold him to both. "

Pascrell insisted that Democrats were "legally and morally prepared".

"If they want a fight, he says, they will fight."

House and Senate Republicans strongly opposed Neal's decision, calling the attempt "militarization" of the congressional tax bill.

Senate finance committee chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) criticized "political fishing expeditions" and said he would not support Neal's request. Like the Ways and Means Committee, Senate finances can request tax returns from any individual.

"I think that a person like me who had an equal opportunity-based approach to control, treating Republican administrations in the same way as democratic administrations, speaks of itself", said Grassley in a statement. "I will not, therefore, support efforts to strengthen the power of tax preparation committees to access tax returns for political purposes." Such action would be unprecedented. "

Texas Republican Representative Ways and Means, Kevin Brady, was even more adamant in his objections: "This particular request is an abuse of the statutory authority of the Tax Reporting Committees and violates the spirit and guarantees of Section 6103 of the Internal Revenue Code as provided by Congress. "

Neal's letter to the IRS arrived just hours after Parliament's representative, Elijah Cummings (D-MD), said the Trump accounting firm had asked the committee to issue a subpoena to appear before Send to the legislator 10 years of his accounts. Cummings said the firm had the intention of handing over the documents once the summons had been obtained, which he had promised to do quickly.

"They told us that they would provide the information pretty much when they will have a subpoena," Cummings said. "And we will give them a subpoena."

Cummings had formally requested the documents in a March letter referring to earlier testimonies of Michael Cohen, Trump's former lawyer and mediator, before the Oversight Committee. Cummings had asked the firm to provide this information by Wednesday.

Maryland Democrat's comments come shortly after the Judiciary Committee approved the assignment of the full Mueller report, a decision likely to trigger a legal confrontation between the White House and Congress, but Democrats insist on the need .

"We need to make things harder for future presidents," said Representative Jerrold Nadler (DN.Y.), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, while his panel voted to give him the power to "get things done". assign the full report. "We need a full account of the president's actions to do this work."

The representative of the judiciary, Doug Collins (R-Ga.), Rejected the Democratic movement as being of political superiority.

"Without facts on their side, the Democrats have put all their hope in the optics," Collins said.

Representative Dan Kildee (D-Mich.), Who sits on the House of Commons Committee on Ways and Means, said Wednesday's trio of democratic control movements was a coincidence.

"It was just a question of work being done by the president being completed," Kildee said of Neal. "There was not really any timing for all of this, it's not like something was coordinated." with the lawyer of the House.

"The fact that we do them is significant," added a prominent Democratic aide. "But the fact that we do them the same day is not. It's just accidental that it happened that way.

Democrats in the House also use their powers to attack Trump's policy. Earlier Wednesday, the House voted to formally condemn the White House's legal efforts to dismantle Obamacare, forcing eight Republicans to appear in court to oppose their own president.

The Democratic leaders will also force their members, in the coming days, to unequivocally condemn Trump's threats to close the US-Mexico border, which is another unified front against the White House.

But it is under Trump's supervision that the Democrats will make the headlines, and this is the area where their base has urged them to act aggressively.

"The three committees and the chairs made it clear that they were seeking voluntary cooperation in response to their requests for information or testimony," said Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), Member of Committees intelligence and surveillance.

"This is a sign that surveillance has finally taken place there," Krishnamoorthi added. "We were elected by majority in part to do the checking and balancing in addition to getting things done. … I'm not surprised what happened today. "

Anita Kumar contributed to this report.