Treasury Secretary Mnuchin denies House Dem's request for Trump's tax returns

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, in a letter Monday, denied House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal's request for President Trump's tax returns, saying the request lacked a “legitimate legislative purpose.”
“As you have recognized, the Committee’s request is unprecedented, and it presents serious constitutional questions, the resolution of which may have lasting consequences for all taxpayers,” the letter read.
Mnuchin told the Massachusetts Democrat he'd relied on the advice of the Justice Department. He concluded that the department was “not authorized to disclose the requested returns and return information.”
“The Department of Justice has informed us that it intends to memorialize its advice in a published legal opinion as soon as practicable. Out of respect for the deadlines previously set by the Committee, and consistent with our commitment to a prompt response, I am informing you now that the Department may not lawfully fulfill the Committee’s request,” the letter read.
The move, which was expected, is sure to set in motion a legal battle over Trump’s tax returns. The likely options available to Democrats would be to subpoena the Internal Revenue Service for the returns or to file a lawsuit.
Neal originally demanded access to Trump’s tax returns in early April under a law that said the IRS “shall furnish” the returns of any taxpayer to a handful of top lawmakers, including the chair of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee.
The White House and the president’s attorneys declined to comment on the deadline to turn over Trump’s returns. Trump already has signaled he has no intention of turning over the much-coveted records.
The president has long told confidants that he was under audit and therefore could not release his taxes. But in recent weeks, he has added to the argument, telling advisers that the American people elected him once without seeing his taxes and would do so again, three White House officials and Republicans told The Associated Press anonymously.
Fox News’ Mike Emanuel, Kelly Phares and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Ken Starr: Leak of Mueller's 'whiny' letter to Barr was an 'unforgivable sin'

Former independent counsel Ken Starr on Monday sharply criticized the leak of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's letter to Attorney General William Barr following Barr's summary of the Russia report, calling the release of the letter an "unforgivable sin."
"His letter, that was then leaked on the very eve of Bill Barr's testimony, was essentially, I believe, an unfair, whiny complaint," Starr argued on "The Story with Martha MacCallum."
Details of the March 24 letter went public shortly before Barr testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee in a tense hearing last week. Multiple news outlets reported that Mueller raised concerns about how Barr's conclusions from the investigation were being portrayed, before the Justice Department had released a redacted version of Mueller's report.
Starr also said Barr had been "obliged" to summarize Mueller's findings.
Democrats have urged Mueller to testify after his March letter leaked.
Barr skipped a House Judiciary Committee hearing last Thursday over the terms of the session, though he testified for hours a day earlier on the Senate side. He also has refused requests for the unredacted Mueller report, though he has offered access to a less-redacted version to certain lawmakers.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., in a letter to Barr last Friday, threatened to launch contempt proceedings and "seek further legal recourse" should the attorney general and Justice Department continue what he called a "baseless refusal to comply with a validly issued subpoena" for the full Mueller report.
Starr said Barr was trying to do the right thing, only for Mueller to set him up for criticism.
"Here comes Bob Mueller with this letter which is then leaked. That is, to me, the unforgivable sin. He, Bob Mueller, badly injured this attorney general and the attorney general didn't deserve that but, of course, that created its own huge firestorm including suggestions that the attorney general was totally mischaracterizing the report and so forth," Starr said.
Fox News' Brooke Singman contributed to this report.
Fox News' Martha MacCallum contributed to this report.

Nancy Pelosi Cartoons

Pelosi: Trump needs to lose so decisively in 2020 that he won't challenge the results

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is worried President Trump might not step down if defeated in 2020, according to a report published Saturday.
“We have to inoculate against that, we have to be prepared for that,” she told The New York Times.
She urged the Democrats to win the debate that matters most to many voters inside the party: electability. “Own the center-left, own the mainstream,” she said.
Pelosi also said that in order to beat Trump, liberals have to play at his level, and the best way to do that is to win big, so he can’t challenge the results.
“If we win by four seats, by a thousand votes each, he’s not going to respect the election,” she said. “He would poison the public mind. He would challenge each of the races. He would say you can’t seat these people.”
Last Wednesday, Pelosi pushed out a statement taking aim at the Trump administration in the aftermath of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report, blasting the president as “immoral, unethical, corrupt and unpatriotic.”
The statement kicked off by taking aim at Trump over his comments last week that he would “fight all the subpoenas,” accusing the president of “blanket, Unprecedented Stonewalling."
“The President has made clear that he will broadly defy requests for information from Capitol Hill. Trump’s obstruction extends to Democrats’ inquiries on issues that address the challenges facing American families from the Administration’s efforts to sabotage Americans’ health care to its cruel family separation policy,” the statement read.
Trump told Fox News last Thursday that he would not allow former White House counsel Don McGahn or other administration officials to testify. “They've testified for many hours, all of them. I would say, it's done,” the president said. “Nobody has ever done what I've done. I've given total transparency. It's never happened before like this. They shouldn't be looking anymore. It's done.”
Fox News' Catherine Herridge contributed to this report.

Mark Morgan: What to know about Trump's choice to lead ICE

President Trump’s latest choice to lead U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is a former Border Patrol chief under the Obama administration who has backed the president’s border wall.
Trump tweeted on Sunday that Mark Morgan “will be joining the Trump Administration as the head of our hard working men and women of ICE.”
He added: “Mark is a true believer and American Patriot. He will do a great job!”
Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan said in a statement that Morgan’s “record of service is needed to address the crisis at the border and support the men and women of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.”
ICE is the agency tasked with enforcing immigration law in the interior of the U.S.
Part of ICE’s mission is to arrest immigrants in the U.S. illegally, which has made it a symbol of Trump’s hardline immigration policies.
Midwestern Education
Morgan graduated magna cum laude from the University of Central Missouri with a degree in Construction Engineering; he got a JD from the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
His LinkedIn page says he is an “accomplished senior executive with 30 years of progressive experience leading people, driving strategic change, and creating an innovative culture with value-driven proven results.”
His bio also states his service: “U.S. Border Patrol/Customs and (Border) Protection, Federal Bureau of Investigations, Los Angeles Police Department, and United States Marine Corps.”
Morgan Supports Trump’s Border Wall
Morgan, who was named the head of U.S. Border Patrol in 2016, was ousted early in Trump’s presidency. Morgan was the first and so far the only outsider to lead the Border Patrol. He clashed with its union, which has had a strong relationship with Trump. Since Morgan left, he has defended Trump’s immigration policies and publicly declared earlier this year his support for Trump’s efforts to build a wall along the southern border.
Morgan wrote in an opinion piece for Fox News this past March: “It’s time to stop listening to those driven by a personal political ideology and arm yourself with facts, thorough analysis, and the perspective of credible experts. It’s an emergency.”
In April, Trump made his appreciation known, tweeting: “Mark Morgan, President Obama’s Border Patrol Chief, gave the following message to me: ‘President Trump, stay the course.’ I agree, and believe it or not, we are making great progress with a system that has been broken for many years!”
Morgan Saw Signs of the Growing Humanitarian Crisis Years Ago
Morgan told Fox News last January that starting in 2014, the demographics of the people coming across the U.S. border started to change.
“Meaning, we saw an influx in family units and unaccompanied minors,” Morgan said.
“It was then, also, across the aisle on both sides that referred to that as a humanitarian crisis.”
Morgan Thinks Immigration Laws “Are So Broke”
Just last week, Morgan told Fox News that the crisis at the U.S. border with Mexico has been getting exponentially worse.
“Right now if you grab a kid and come to our country illegally, you’re allowed in,” he said.
“They’re not even asserting credible fear claims, they’re not even asserting asylum now,” he said. “They don’t need to because our laws are so broke.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Cohen defends chicken stunt aimed at Barr, says it was planned night before

US Congressman Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., ate chicken during a hearing before the House Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. (Getty Images)

The Tennessee congressman who dug into a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken last week during a House Judiciary Committee hearing in an effort to take a swipe at Attorney General William Barr, who was absent, responded to critics in an interview Sunday and said the move was simply an attempt at "levity."
Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., told MSNBC that the chicken bucket was purchased the night before and was cold. He described the meal as not “wonderful.”
Cohen showed up on Capitol Hill with the bucket of fried chicken and a ceramic chicken statue to mock Barr for being “too chicken” after the attorney general did not appear for his scheduled hearing before the House Judiciary Committee. Barr was expected to testify on his handling of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia report.
The joke largely fell flat. Most notably, Jimmy Kimmel mocked the stunt and warned Democrats that using this kind of “sick burns” will cost them the presidential election in 2020.
"Wow, what a sick burn that is," Kimmel sarcastically said to his audience. "Trump's gonna win again with stuff like that, isn't he?"
"Late Night" host Seth Meyers mocked Cohen for his overly obvious message that Barr was a "chicken."
"Dude, if you want KFC, just order KFC. It's fine," Meyers told the Democratic congressman. "You don't need to tie it into the hearing."

California Rep. Eric Swalwell was slammed on Twitter Wednesday for posting about his decision to bypass a coffee shop inside Trump Tower and walk a couple of extra blocks. (Rep. Eric Swalwell / Twitter)

The move wasn’t the first time that a Democrat’s attempt at humor appeared to fall flat. California Rep. Eric Swalwell earlier this year posted a selfie on Twitter announcing that he refused to purchase a cup of coffee inside the Trump Tower in New York.

USS Lincoln strike group deployed to send Iran 'clear and unmistakable' message, Bolton says

The U.S. is sending the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group and a bomber task force to the Middle East in order "to send a clear and unmistakable message to the Iranian regime," National Security Adviser John Bolton announced Sunday night.
Bolton said the deployment was in response to "a number of troubling and escalatory indications and warnings" on the part of Tehran, but did not elaborate. Such deployments are rarely announced in advance.
"[A]ny attack on United States interests or on those of our allies will be met with unrelenting force," Bolton said. "The United States is not seeking war with the Iranian regime, but we are fully prepared to respond to any attack, whether by proxy, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or regular Iranian forces."

Aircraft parked on the flight deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln in this 2012 photo. (AP, File)

The strike group, which includes the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, the guided missile cruiser USS Leyte Gulf and destroyers from Destroyer Squadron 2, departed Naval Station Norfolk on April 1 for what the Navy described as a "regularly scheduled deployment." The strike force is under the command of Rear Adm. John Wade.
The USS John Stennis aircraft carrier strike group was in the Persian Gulf as recently as late March. The Stennis and USS Abraham Lincoln joined forces in the Mediterranean Sea in recent days.
The deployment comes less than a month after the Trump administration designated Iran's elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) a terrorist organization. In late March, the Air Force pulled its bombers from Qatar, one of the rare times since 2001 no bombers were deployed to the Middle East.
Last month, the Air Force deployed a task force of F-35 stealth fighter jets for the first time to the Middle East.  Last week, some of the advanced jets carried out their first air strikes against ISIS, the Air Force said.
Earlier Sunday, Axios reported that the Trump administration was preparing to announce a new set of sanctions against Iran on Wednesday, one year after the U.S. pulled out from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that the White House was considering sanctions targeting petrochemical and consumer goods sales by Iran, but Axios reported Sunday that the sanctions to be announced this week would target a different sector of the rogue nation's economy.
The U.S. Navy says there have been zero cases of “unsafe” interactions between its warships and aircraft and Iranian forces this year as well as last year.
The deployment also comes amid the bloodiest fighting in five years between Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip.
Last Friday, two Israeli soldiers were wounded by snipers from the Iran-backed militant group Islamic Jihad. Late Saturday, the Israeli military announced that an airstrike had killed Hamas commander Hamed al-Khoudary, a money changer whom Israel said was a key player in transferring Iranian funds to the militant group.
Fox News' Lucas Tomlinson, Kelly Phares and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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