The workings of the New York Senate on Wednesday produced a vote on a bill geared toward making President Donald Trump‘s state tax returns available for viewing by members of Congress, even as the U.S. Treasury denies demands for the president’s federal returns.
On a day when President Trump’s tax returns were already the subject of discussion–and his tweets had much to do with that–New York lawmakers voted of 39-21 to send the bill to the state Assembly. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) reportedly supports the bill, which is called the TRUST Act.
Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee have tried to get their hands on President Trump’s tax returns. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin rejected the effort, but later Tuesday the New York Times published a report on 10 years of Trump’s tax information. The Times said Trump lost more than $1 billion between 1985 and 1994. Trump “lost so much money that he was able to avoid paying income taxes for eight of the 10 years,” the report said.
While that fight continues, New York lawmakers orchestrated an effort to help Congress obtain at least some tax records.
Sen. Brad Hoylman (D) said New York had a “special responsibility to step into the breach.”
New York Republican Party Chairman Ed Cox slammed the legislation in an interview with NBC News, attributing the outrage to “Trump derangement syndrome.”
Cox said that this a targeting of one person dressed up as a legitimate legal endeavor.
“No matter how they dress it up for legal purposes … and they’re trying different wordings to do it, this is aimed at one individual, the president of the United States, with the purpose of re-litigating the 2016 campaign in which the people of the United States knew that he had not released his tax returns and they still elected him president of the United States,” Cox said. “They want to re-litigate an issue that’s already been decided by the people of this country.” Cox eventually accused Democrats of attempting to strip Trump of his “rights and privileges” as a citizen of New York to “keep his tax returns here private.”
[Image via Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images]
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