NorthJersey

In a tweet on Tuesday, Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr., wrote, “The cavalry has arrived.” The Paterson Democrat was referring to a meeting of the House Ways and Means Committee, but for many Americans across the nation, the cavalry is Pascrell.

The congressman, who just turned 80 in January, has become somewhat of a celebrity for finding a possible way to review the federal income tax returns of President Donald Trump. Congress has the power. It’s a little-known, little-used law that was expanded in the wake of the Tea Pot Dome scandal that rocked the Harding administration in the early 1920s. As Pascrell writes in a guest commentary in The Record and online at NorthJersey.com, “In 1924, Congress amended the law to vest authority to review federal tax documents in three congressional committees.”

That includes reviewing the federal tax documents of a U.S. president. In 1974, Congress did just that when in it reviewed President Richard Nixon’s taxes. It also used the law in 2014, when it made 51 taxpayers’ tax information public during an investigation into the IRS.

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So there is a precedent for a presidential review, but Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady, R-Texas, ignores it. On Tuesday, he said, “If Congress begins to use its powers to rummage around in the tax returns of the president, what prevents Congress from doing the same to average Americans?”

Pascrell is not asking Congress to rummage through private citizens' returns. He is asking Congress to determine whether the president of the United States is hiding potentially dangerous conflicts of interest. It is a legitimate and fair question that should be asked.

During the presidential campaign, Trump refused to release his federal returns, ignoring 40 years of tradition by presidential candidates of both major parties. He claimed he could not release his taxes because he was under audit. Yet he could have released them if he wanted to — he didn’t want to. And now, with disturbing reports of Russian interference in the 2016 election, as well as Russian officials' interacting with top Trump aides before the election, the question about Trump’s business interests is not a political one, but one of national security.

The president has not divested himself of his businesses. His sons run his companies. His often-touted new Washington, D.C., hotel, as well as his other resort properties do business with foreign nationals. His commercial buildings rent to foreign nationals. The breadth and scope of the Trump empire is unprecedented for a sitting president. The possibility that those far-reaching connections could affect his decision making in office requires full transparency to the American people.

This week, Pascrell was not successful in getting the Ways and Means Committee to investigate. Yet the legislative branch was designed as a check against the executive branch.

Unless there is public pressure on House Republicans to review the president’s federal tax returns, Congress will not act. The president must be free of conflicts of interest. He should not be susceptible to foreign influence because of personal financial holdings. And the stunning fall of Trump’s national security adviser, Michael Flynn, only heightens the need to know exactly who and/or what corporations or nations are linked to the president.

Pascrell is tenacious. He wrote, “I will not stop pressing this issue as long as the president’s business interests continue to present potential conflicts for the United States.”

We believe him.