Over the past 24 hours, the FBI executed a search warrant on Donald Trumps residence in Mar-a-Lago, and The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has ruled that the IRS must turn over Donald Trump's tax returns to the House Ways & Means Committee.
Needless to say, both of these, at least when executed against a former President* of the United States, are unprecedented.
As to the first, I do not believe that a violation of the Presidential Records Act would be sufficient to stage a raid. If I had to venture a guess, it would be that some of the documents are being used to grease the skids of some sort of deal between Trump, or Jared Kushner, and some foreign entities, which would merit an unnanounced FBI raid, as opposed to some Library of Congress lawyers showing up to the front gate with a court order in a U-Haul.†
As to the latter, the House Ways & Means Committee has the statutory right to request tax returns from anyone at any time, on the theory that since they write taxes, they are allowed to examine returns for loopholes and the like.
Of course, a detailed examination of Trump's taxes would undoubtedly reveal that the six times (twice thrice?) bankrupt real estate mogul is a crap-load poorer than he admits to.
I am intrigued.
*It's just an asterisk, no note.
†It's a Watergate reference.
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