Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is continuing his feud with the House Financial Services Committee. Last month, Mnuchin had a contentious hearing during which he condescended to Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters and attempted to explain her job to her as he demanded to leave early. Waters told him that if he insisted on leaving early, he’d have to come back for an entire second day, though he then withdrew his offer to return voluntarily.
Mnuchin has also now informed the committee that he will not be complying with their request for Donald Trump’s tax returns to be provided. He’s already missed two set deadlines for that release, so this isn’t really surprising, but it does all but guarantee the issue will head to court.
Mnuchin wrote in a brief letter to Congress that the request for Trump’s tax returns is “unprecedented” and that there are questions “concerning the lawfulness of [the] request.” In reality, there is a law stating that the treasury secretary “shall furnish” the returns once they’re requested. Also, what is unprecedented (at least going back about four decades) is Trump having not already produced his tax returns.
There is a law. It is written down. It says Mnuchin shall furnish the returns upon written request. Mnuchin is breaking this law. We don’t need to ask whether there is a legitimate legislative purpose. That’s for investigations where there’s no existing law. Here, there is a law. https://t.co/aR5Wc7FTxq
— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) May 6, 2019
Mnuchin’s refusal to comply with the congressional demand has inspired a number of trending hashtags, including #ArrestMnuchin and #LockMnuchinUp, both of which are sentiments I can get onboard with.
In fact, if we’re locking this guy up, can we maybe enact some retroactive vengeance for past crimes and should-have-been crimes? Because while refusing this congressional demand is certainly a crime, Mnuchin has a long history of far worse crimes against humanity.
For starters, there’s that time he foreclosed on a 90-year-old woman over a payment discrepancy of 26 cents. And when he had a woman’s locks changed during a blizzard. And any of the other 36,000 foreclosures he oversaw during his time running lending company OneWest, which earned him the nickname “the foreclosure king.” (He really hates that title, by the way, so definitely make sure to call him by it as many times as possible if you ever happen to run into the foreclosure king out in the world.)
Other should-be crimes include being rude to Maxine Waters, working at Goldman Sachs for 17 years (drain that swamp, am I right?), posing like a Bond villain with a sheet of fresh cash, and producing Suicide Squad.
What I’m saying is Steve Mnuchin is an awful human being.
Donald Trump loves surrounding himself with people with a long history of criminal and otherwise terrible behavior. (Just ask Michael Cohen, who started his three-year prison sentence yesterday for tax, bank, and campaign finance crimes, in which Donald Trump is implicated.) It’s like he’s trying to build a wall of criminals around himself so thick that Democrats will either fail to break through or just give up trying.
Trump: I’m doing crimes
Mnuchin: I’m doing crimes
Barr: I’m doing crimes
Pelosi: *
— Oliver Willis (@owillis) May 7, 2019
(image: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
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