The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ARE RIGHT TO DEMAND THE PRESIDENT RELEASE HIS TAX RETURNS” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Justice was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E514-E515 on April 20, 2017.
The Department is one of the oldest in the US, focused primarily on law enforcement and the federal prison system. Downsizing the Federal Government, a project aimed at lowering taxes and boosting federal efficiency, detailed wasteful expenses such as $16 muffins at conferences and board meetings.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ARE RIGHT TO DEMAND THE PRESIDENT RELEASE HIS TAX
RETURNS
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HON. SHEILA JACKSON LEE
of texas
in the house of representatives
Thursday, April 20, 2017
Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, every year at this time tens of millions of Americans are completing their tax returns and rushing to the nearest post office to mail them before the deadline.
No one likes to pay taxes but the vast majority of Americans voluntarily comply out of their respect for law and because paying taxes is one of the responsibilities of citizenship.
That responsibility is placed upon and assumed by struggling wage earners to the wealthiest individuals in America.
And that even includes the President of the United States.
Americans have the right to expect and to know that the leader of their country, and the most powerful person on Earth, is paying his fair share of taxes that fund the government he heads, the Armed Forces he commands, the nuclear arsenal he controls, the Secret Service protection he receives, and the White House he lives in.
And that is why thousands of persons took to the streets last Saturday in peaceful protest to demand that the President of the United States do what every President since Gerald Ford in 1976 has done.
And that is to release his tax returns while in office.
Trump is the first President since Watergate to refuse to release his tax information to the public.
Full release of Trump's tax returns will provide the public with clear information as to his potential conflicts of interest and entanglements with foreign governments and businesses.
A recent Washington Post-ABC News poll found that 74 percent of Americans, including 53 percent of Republicans, believe Trump should release his tax returns.
All roads lead back to the President's tax returns, and the light they can shine on his actions.
As chief steward of America's extensive domestic, global, and national security interests, the fidelity of the President of the United States to the national interest must never be subject to question or doubt.
Trump's extensive financial interests in more than 100 companies operating in more than 18 countries and on five continents potentially represent major conflicts of interest between his personal financial interests and the national interests of the American people.
A preliminary analysis of Trump's extensive financial arrangements reveals dozens of potential conflicts of interest.
For example, Trump has received more than $10 million from his interest in the Trump Towers Istanbul in Turkey, a country with which the United States has extensive, complicated, and politically sensitive military and diplomatic relations.
Since August 2015, Trump's business organizations have registered eight separate companies connected to hotel deals in Saudi Arabia, which is located in one of the world's most critical geopolitical regions.
Based on the limited and inadequate financial disclosures he has made to date, it appears that Trump's business organization is financially dependent upon, and obligated to, Deutsche Bank, its biggest lender, which happens to be negotiating a multibillion-dollar settlement over housing-crisis-era abuses with the Justice Department, a deal that will be finalized with Justice Department officials appointed by Trump.
Companies owned or controlled by Trump's organization also owe hundreds of millions of dollars to the state-owned Bank of China and to Wall Street interests.
The American people are entitled to assume without hesitation or doubt that when the President of the United States meets with foreign leaders and dignitaries that he is motivated only by what is in the national interest and not the private, pecuniary interests of himself, his family members, or his business enterprises.
That assurance cannot be provided when the President of the United States has enormous financial stakes in the enterprises operating in those same foreign countries and refuses to release his tax returns for examination by the public.
It is for this reason--to ensure that the President's loyalty will always be to the nation he leads--that the Framers included the Emoluments Clause in Article I, Section 9 of the Constitution, which provides that: `no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.'
According to leading experts in ethics, a prohibited emolument would include, for example, anything from a foreign government that benefits Trump, such as providing favorable tax, zoning, licensing treatment for his real estate holdings or enhanced security to protect his business operations.
The financial interests of Trump are extensive, complex, and inter-
connected with the interests of foreign leaders and countries.
They are all-encompassing and time-consuming.
But they pale in comparison to the global, diplomatic, economic, and national security interests of the United States, which supersede the interests of any one person or corporation.
As the Scriptures teach, you cannot serve two masters.
And that is why, Mr. Speaker, I believe the President must make a choice, either he should:
1. release his tax returns and divest all of his financial interests; or
2. relinquish the office he holds due to his inability to `take care that the Laws be faithfully executed' and `to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.'
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