we are hearing from the treasury department, releasing their semi annual report.hey have reframed from naming china a currency manipulator, something they have not done since 1994, and they have expanded the list of u.s. trade partners under review to 21. when it comes to the watch list of these fx reports, it is italy, ireland, malaysia, and vietnam now on the monitoring list. also, the u.s. says the nine countries require close attention on currencies. they are also saying there are no major trading partners that are a currency manipulator, and what is interesting right now is that the u.s. has lowered two thresholds for the manipulators. they have three criteria based on the 2016 trade facilitates facilitationade and enforcement act, and they have lowered the thresholds for two of them, including that the current account surplus has to exceed 2% of gdp instead of 3% of gdp as in the past, but once again, the u.s. treasury again refraining from naming china a currency manipulator, something it has not done since 1994, and even if it was designated a currency man

the irs and the treasury department saying, no, we're not doing it. and the top lawyer at the irs, we're not allowed to know. the irs will not give us a straight answer about whether or not their top lawyer is recused from participating in that fight because he used to advise the president on his taxes. we've been asking him for three days. we'll keep going. we'll ask do more. watch this space. l ask do more. watch this space what is that? uh mine, why? it's just that it's... lavender. yes it is, it's for men but i like the smell of it laughs ♪ let's see, aleve is than tylenol extra strength. and last longer with fewer pills. so why am i still thinking about this? i'll take aleve. aleve. proven better on pain. (music throughout) >>> joining us now here on person -- on person -- in set. on person in set is senator amy klobuchar of minnesota. she also serves on the senate judiciary committee which i fell in love with this week because of its list of questions they published last night about things that should be asked about robert mueller's report. sena

of a different relationship, private banking basically, hey, don't push this forward to the treasury department. at least that's the department that said stop the reporting to the treasury department. is this consistent with what you have done in the past? some of your investigative reporting based on the transaction, excuse me, the bank history with the trump family as well as jared kushner? >> well, we know for a fact that donald trump has been involved in money laundering in the past, fined for it. we know that deutsche bank is fined over $600 million just for laundering money for russian al garks a al gorks and are nondenial denials. the trump organization said we never heard of this. why would you? it was locked up in the bank. the bank said we didn't stop anyone. the story makes it clear. tammy mcfadden pushed it up and then the career went badly after that. so in addition, "the times" has a pregnant line in it. it say that is there are other, quote, politically connected people end quote who also were swept up and it's clear that david enrich, a very good reporter at "the new york times"

two, they can hold treasury department, irs, steve mnuchin in contempt.egal process of suing the executive branch to try to obtain these under that relatively obscure provision of irs law that allows the ways and means committee to look at a president's or anyone's tax returns. so this is -- we're about a third of a way down this road. the next step will be treasury saying, kn"no," then the ball wl be in richard neal's court, the chairman of the ways and means committee. again, all those three options, subpoena, contempt, legal will all be another step. none of those will be final. the white house will fight this tooth and nail to the very end, maybe all the way up to the supreme court. >> i suspect you're right. bianna golodryga, the president now says, and he said it via twitter, that robert mueller should not testify before, but the senate chairman, lindsey graham says he's open to testimony from the special counsel. so do you expect we will hear from mueller directly? >> the president was open to it before he wasn't open to it. so that constantly chan

court fight over the sitting president's taxes and the treasury department and the irs defying blackter law that says the president's taxes have to be handed over. the irs and treasury department saying no, we're not doing it and the top lawyer at the irs we're not allowed to know. the irs will not give a straight answer whether or not the top lawyer is recused from participating because he used to advice the president on his taxes. we would ask for three days to keep going. we'll ask for more. watch this space. going we'll ask for more watch this space (music throughout) what's going on? it's the 3pm slump. should have had a p3. oh yeah. should have had a p3. need energy? get p3. with a mix of meat, cheese and nuts. rheumatoid arthritis or psoriatic arthritis. when considering another treatment, ask about xeljanz xr, a once-daily pill for adults with moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis or active psoriatic arthritis for whom methotrexate did not work well enough. it can reduce pain, swelling, and significantly improve physical function. xeljanz xr can lower your ability to fight

this ponce from the treasury department, what do you make of it legally? and if you don't think it would hold up legally, if that is your answer to this, how long would it take to adjudicate something like that? >> so legally, i don't make much of this, and i'd be interested to see what the legal argument they present. the letter today indicates they're getting an opinion, a formal opinion from the justice department and that will be forthcoming. so i want to see what the legal basis is for them denying the tax return. the statute is quite clear here. it says the treasury department shall provide the requested tax return upon written request by the requisite members of congress who have provided that written question. the right people have made the request in the right format. so pursuant to this statue, the treasury department is supposed to provide it. in terms of how congress now enforces the statute, i think they're going to have to go to a federal district court and effectively sue in a civil enforcement proceeding to effectuate their power pursuant t

this letter came from a top official at the treasury department. it is the latest effort by the trump administration to really put the pressure on iran and enforce sanctions in europe, which has continued to support the nuclear deal president trump pulled out of last year. this latest letter from the treasury department makes it clear that any companies which work with this european work around could themselves face sanctions. it would be parlayed -- that would be pretty debilitating. the u.s. is ramping pressure up on any country that decides it still wants to do business with iran. one of theknow that companies the u.s. is naming. do we have any more details on who the u.s. might sanction or how the u.s. might go about europe? that it was this vehicle was created to try it to avoid using the u.s. financial system or the u.s. dollar to do business with iran. if you are a company based in europe and wanted to do trade with iran, you would work with to sticks -- was in sticks barter with iran to get goods in and out and keep your company doing busin

so the justice department in their response, actually, the treasury secretary in his response cited thetice department saying that in fact they're not saying there's a good reason for it. i honestly think, wolf, the reason they want president trump's tax returns is to go through it and try to further embarrass him. we have to file something every week on march 15th or may 15th, which is our statement of economic interest. you can know everything i'm worth, every asset i hold in debt, the president has done that also. so this is just, i think, an example to further try to embarrass the president without a real reason to get these things. >> it comes as the trump administration, congressman, has also missed today's deadline to provide the unredacted mueller report to congress. does it bother you to see the power of the house of representatives diminished in this way? >> well, i obviously think we are an equal branch of government, and we have a lot of rights that are equal or in some cases greater than what the president has. now, here's a situation with the mueller report. chairman nadle

to turn over the tax returns after steven mnuchin, the treasury department, told richard neal that this was not a legitimate legislative request and denied turning over those tax returns. in a letter sent to the irs and the treasury department, richard neal says compliance is not discretionary under any circumstance, even if the taxpayer is under audit. what richard neal is arguing here is that they need this information because they are considering whether they need legislation in order to look into how a president's tax returns are being looked at by the irs. republicans have said this is all politics and they dispute that notion. but nevertheless, richard neal is citing a provision in the tax code that says the treasury secretary shall furnish these tax codes to the house ways and means chairman when it is requested. wolf, this is a largely untested area of law. both sides of girding for an ultimate court fight and who wins is a question that we just can't answer at this point, wolf. >> the administration is stonewalling congress on almost all of its requests. house democrats have al

i mean the irs is part of the treasury department. the president installed his chief fund-raiser from his campaign as head of the treasury. that itself is little unusual. but then beneath him as head of the irs the president installed a somewhat obscure california tax lawyer who just happened to have written an op-ed in "forbes" during the 2016 presidential campaign that argued that donald trump definitely shouldn't ever show anyone his tax returns. that was sort of a fringe view during the 2016 presidential campaign from either party. there's decades of precedent from every president and every presidential candidate in the post-watergate era that they release their taxes, and everybody knows the good reasons for it. all the other candidates in 2016 on both sides of the aisle all released their tax returns. trump even felt compelled to say during the campaign, even if he didn't mean it, he felt compelled to say at one point that of course he'd release his tax returns. it would be crazy not to. everybody knows that a presidential candid

it is threatening penalties against the european union in a treasury department letter. we will bring you more on this in just a few moments. back to the bottom market. morgan stanley strategists say the u.s. yield curve clearly indicates a downturn is coming, as well as rising recession risk, regardless of the trade outcome. joining us to discuss is cr invest the management cio -- is cr investment management's cio. is this all about a recession coming? guest: if you are referring to the collapse we have seen an interest rates, i think it is a little bit of an overreaction. markets have gone from thinking everything is flawless to know everything is hopeless. really, there is just an increased probability of a

the problem is the treasury department is part of the executive and the mnuchin is the head to the treasurycon pungs -- >> these are scary times. the fact that the treasury is a black hole should scare everyone. what if this had gone tot treasury and disappeared. >> there's no oversight. if mnuchin won't provide it to congress, anything that comes up is not going to get there. you're sort of a lawless situation. >> we know to put a button on this, that the house intelligence and financial services committees have subpoenaed deutsche bank and others for information into trump's finances. the president and the trump organization have sued the bank to prevent them from handing over any of this information, so we wait to see if perhaps this puts more pressure on the bank and what these committees and congress are able to get their hands on. ladies y ladies, thank you. i appreciate both of you on all things deutsche bank. this girl is safe after a bold kidnapping in broad daylight. how a doorbell camera and a good samaritan helped save her. mascaa from l'oréal paris. voluptuous volume. intense l

this warning coming from the treasury department and the state department earlier today saying thosed to nicholas maduro within the defense and security divisions could have sanctions coming their way down the line. the treasury department says this has to do with the recent arrests of members of the national assembly. we'll go back to earlier this week on wednesday. venezuelan forces aligned with nicholas maduro. juan guaido and other nations at this point recognize as rightful leader of venezuela. wednesday evening in florida, president trump continued to throw the u.s. government support behind guaido. >> we also recognize the legitimate government of venezuela and we forcefully condemn the socialist brutality of the maduro regime. our hearts are united with the people of venezuela. >> back in september of 2018, the trump administration, the treasury department sanctioned nicholas maduro's defense minister but notable today, shepard, no one specific individual or individuals was identified by the treasury department essentially. they're putting those within the defense and securit

that's the news, the treasury department, steve mnuchin saying the treasury department will not complydemand from the house ways and means committee to turn over six years of the president's tax returns. phillip, zerlina and susan, thanks. >>> we started to talk about this a minute ago. buzz the road to the white house go through the white house? indiana senator joe donnelly joins me next. (music throughout) what dit looks like georgeailure having a busy day. ♪ the beat goes on george has entresto, a heart failure medicine that helps his heart... so he can keep on doing what he loves. in the largest heart failure study ever, entresto was proven superior at helping people stay alive and out of the hospital. it helps improve your heart's ability to pump blood to the body. don't take entresto if pregnant; it can cause harm or death to an unborn baby. don't take entresto with an ace inhibitor or aliskiren, or if you've had angioedema with an ace or arb. the most serious side effects are angioedema, low blood pressure, kidney problems, or high blood potassium. ♪ the beat goes on ask your do

so pursuant to this statute, the treasury department is supposed to provide it. in terms of how congress now enforces the statute, i think they're going to have to go to a federal district court and effectively sue in a civil enforcement proceeding to effectuate their power pursuant to this statute. as i said i think their legal authority is clear. we'll see what the treasury department on behalf of the president asserts in response in terms of how quickly this could happen. it strikes me as a purely legal question. so it could be decided fairly quickly by a court. there are provisions for expedited appeal to the district of columbia court of appeals and even to the united states supreme court if necessary. >> plausibly, is it something we're sitting here in may of 2019? the election is in about a year and a half. plausibly, could it all be resolved one way or another before that election? >> on this narrow legal issue, i think so. unless the district court finds there are factual issues that need to be aired. if it's a fairly legal interpretation in terms of the

this has been something that the treasury department has been working with the business community on.ury secretary is testifying that he met with walmart executives pertaining to tariffs, so we should note a large portion of athletic wear companies are also writing to the treasury department earlier, coming out against those tariffs. in the senate, there are top democrats working with republicans to try to provide tariff offramps, but this is something discussed in the halls of congress daily. vonnie: kevin cirilli, think you for that. you can continue to watch -- thank you for that. you can continue to watch live on your bloomberg. guy: let's figure out exactly what is going on. we have the pound lower. the dax is trading recently flat. the cac down is a little more, this as we head toward trading in europe. this is bloomberg. ♪ vonnie: live, from new york, i'm vonnie quinn. guy: and in london, i'm guy johnson. this is bloomberg markets. let's get caught up with the latest bloomberg business flash. some of the biggest doors we are watching, let's kick things off with the man who ran

if the treasury department/irs does not comply, what recourse does house ways and means have? >> el with, we need to hold the treasury secretary and the internal revenue service commissioner in contempt and proceed to court to enforce that contempt. we also have something called the power of inherent contempt in which the congress can protect its authority by condition fining or restraining someone who's in contempt. it's not something we've had to use in a long time but we never had a president like donald trump who so abuses and shows such contempt for our constitution and system of checks and blasss that preserves our democracy. >> but then going through the channels of the courts could take years and running out the clock seems to be exactly what this administration might be trying to do, and so how do you see it would be beneficial to house ways and means if, you know, contempt, going through the court system could take years? >> you're so right because their whole strategy is to run out the clock, to hide the truth from the american people for as long as they possibly can

that's in direct conflict with a memo that we now know a treasury department employee wrote that said that the treasury secretary doesn't have a choice. he must turn over those records. so this is about a career employee of the treasury department versus barr's partisan, political department of justice. as a former federal prosecutor who worked for the department of justice, i'm embarrassed about this attorney general. >> if you go out and unpack the damage barr did to the actual letter of the mueller report, it really justifies closer scrutiny, this is what the mueller report said on obstruction. it says this, the incidents of obstruction were carried out through one on one meetings in which the president sought to use his official power outside of usual channels, viewing the acts collectively can help to illuminate their significance. mueller also makes clear that perhaps congress should be the one to determine how that should be handled with this. with respect to whether the president can be found to have obstructed justice by exercising his powers under article ii of the constitut

upon a written request the treasury department shall turn over the records including tax returns. that doesn't mean the committee can release them publicly. now on the other hand, the treasury department is going to argue that congress has no legitimate legislative purpose for these returns. >> but the tax code doesn't suggest you need any legislative purpose. you can request the tax returns of any u.s. citizen. >> you got it. the argument against releasing them is the structural constitutional one. it's a general creative argument that in this particular situation congress needs a legitimate legislative purpose. but in this case you have a specific statute that says thou shalt turn over those returns. this argument by the treasury is a general one, a constitutional one, but it might not override the specificity in that federal statute. >> what happens now? it seems as the trump administration is punting everything. everything will be held up in the court system. how long does this go on? at what point do they have to abide by subpoenas. at what point does trump administration hav

the treasury department enlist the help of the department of justice as the treasury department in thatid it had quote legal concerns about what the house ways and means committee was asking for. in fact at one point in that lear steve mnuchin said the decision quote, that would set a precedent that will reverberate for years to come. we await the letter or response from treasury secretary steve mnuchin. president trump says he will not release tax returns while he is unaudit. as a matter of routine dating back to water beat, at least the watergate era the vice president and president are routinely audited by the irs. we'll await the final response. ashley: 43 minutes and counting. blake, thank you very much. melissa: michael cohen, president trump's former attorney is beginning a three-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to charges of lying to congress among other things. cohen speaking to the press as he departed his new york city apartment saying quote, there still remains much to be told. i look forward to the day that i can share the truth. i don't know, i feel like he has b

treasury department provide them with president trump's tax returns in the coming hours. mr.p has refused for years to release his returns and now we are waiting to see if the treasury department can and will override his wishes. so let's take a closer look now at all of this with cnn legal analyst ross garber. he teaches law at tulane law school. congressional deadlines coming up in just a few hours from now. let's start with the request for attorney general bill barr to provide congress with an unredacted mueller report. what are the legal requirements for him to do this and what are the possible legal ramifications if barr decides not to comply? >> so, the house has actually asked for an unredacted copy of the mueller report and then all of the background materials underlying that report. now, one of the issues there is that the report and the underlying materials contain what's referred to as grand jury materials, information that is related to the taking of evidence by the grand jury. by law the attorney general actually can't disclose that information. there's all sorts

even be an issue in my mind and there were plans to do that back in 2016 the united states treasury department announced plans for replacing president andrew jackson's image on the $20 bill with maybe the best known leader of the underground railroad harriet tubman congressman kakko says the plan's ground to a halt after inauguration day from the trump administration came and i think coming out fall by the wayside so kakko has introduced the harriet tubman tribute act of 2019 which would require the treasury department to stick with plans to put tubman on the $20 bill by 20 21st lisa page, the interim director of africana studies at george washington university says the move is not without controversy. i think americans are still ashamed of their the legacy of avery and will continue to be ashamed of that legacy. >>some americans choose therefore not talk about a doll that i want to think about it a page says if the bill were to become reality would be a fitting tribute to a trailblazer for freedom and a patriotic american heroine. >>she was called for all of her work and abolition she was a s

we see that the subpoena was delivered to the treasury department on friday. they have given one week for the treasury department, the irs to comply with that subpoena. and then alicia, we're headed to court. that is the next move by house democrats if the treasury department does not adhere to this particular subpoena. and then a court, federal judge has to decide whether or not this is a legitimate request coming from the house ways and means committee chairman. he's relying on section 610.3 of the federal tax code. he says there's a legitimate legislative purpose for his inquiry, but again, this will be decided by a federal judge initially and may ultimately be decided by the u.s. supreme court. >> so heading to the courts, that's just one of the threats out there. the other is impeachment. i want to put up a quote given to the hill by who it calls a democratic lawmaker who sits on a committee investigating the administration. it reads, this is a democrat, impeachment would be a suicide mission for us. it would guarantee trump reelection, possibly cost us t

the agency says the memo was never forwarded to the treasury department. willie, again, a more back and forth about trump's tax returns. i guess the big question here will be, what happens next? does this memo mean something actually has to happen? >> right. does steve mnuchin have to respond to this in some way? let's bring in one of the reporters behind posting this document. policy reporter for the "washington post," jeff stein. let's talk through this a little bit. this memo was written, you report, in the fall at irs by a lawyer, but never made it to treasury department. is it fair to say treasury secretary steve mnuchin was not aware of the memo and didn't know about this policy? >> that is what the treasury department told us in a statement, that mnuchin never reviewed the memo. we'll try to get to the bottom of that. mnuchin is testifying on the hill today, and i am very confident that lawmakers will try to press him and ask that very question that you just posed, which is a good one. >> so is this, jeff, binding in any way? is this an opinion writ

. >>> the battle between the white house and capitol hill the treasury department refuses toand house democrats president trump's tax returns. and the judiciary committee is makes to hold attorney general william barr in contempt of congress for not handing over the full mueller report. wll have more onboth of these developing stories coming up in a few minutes. >>> great britain is celebratinh the birtf its newest royal. iconic landmarks around london were lit up blue last night just hours after the world learned of the birth of prince harry and meghan markle's first child. the proud new dad, prince harry, says he could all see the new baby in the coming days. we're also waiting to lrn his name. it's a boy. >>> it 4:37. new, d.c. area restaurants are being celebrated as some of the best in the country. several were honored at the james beard awheds. are the oscars for the food world. rising star chef of the year went to the chef at kith and kin. best saint for mid-atlantic,nd this is two years in a row a d.c. chief has won. the mid-atlantic spans the region including philadelphia. th

along with subpoenas to the irs department and the treasury department, included a three page letter that pushed back on several of the trump administration's arguments bolstered by the trump justice department as to why they would not comply with the request include there was not any legislative intent and the president remained under audit. one of things noted was compliance is not i under audit. when you track back through this now month long process, exchanges of letters between the treasury department and the ways and means committee, you understand that this is likely setting up a case for court. this is both sides laying the ground work for the fights to come. subpoena is a step in that process. there's not a lot of consideration that they will actually get compliance with this subpoena but it's an important step in that stage by stage process to get to court a crucial court fight to come over six years of the president's personal tax returns as well as business tax records as well. this has been a crucial issue for democrats not just over the course of the last couple of month

targets the treasury department says that it risks losing access to u.s.cial system unless it cuts iran off. we welcome mark kimmitt, former decade -- deputy general, and a retired u.s. general. he is coming to us from washington. it is great to have you with us. gen. kimmitt: thanks. david: what do you make of john bolton statements and what do you make more generally of what seems to be an increasing war of words between iran and the united states? gen. kimmitt: it is clear that the united states has concerns with iran. it is clear we are using "all the elements of national power" to bring iran to the negotiating table, everything short of war. while it would appear that there is increasing tensions, i think everybody on the ground -- i returned from the region last monday. i think everyone on the ground is taking a sober minded approach to this and being very careful. david: what are our options? as a practical matter, there was talk about sending troops, you know this far better than i do, it would be a nightmare to have a ground war over there. gen. k

part of the basis for that decision not to comply comes from the justice department. the treasury secretary said now in multiple letters that justice department provided an opinion frp tfrom the office of legal counsel. that opinion has not been made public despite the treasury department saying it would be made public. it's safe to say it will be the basis for a future court case. it's not officially decided. saying he would talk to council about next steps. he did tell my colleagues that me believed both sides have made up their mind. it is time to go to court. >> joining us democratic congressman. he's a member of the arms services. thanks for coming in. >> pleasure. >> let's talk about the house ways and means chairman. he says he's going to go -- he's going to have to go to court now because the treasury department has decided they will ignore this congressional subpoena for six years of the president's tax o t returns. this could drag on maybe beyond the 2020 election. >> i hope not. it doesn't say may. it says shall. it's part of our oversight. there is no excuse and hopefu

to provide those but of course the treasury department reports to the president so that's not something that they have direct control of but they can work with these intermediaries including deutsche bank which has lent the trump family three hundred million dollars plus they owe he owes three hundred million dollars plus to his family to launch a bank over twenty years so that is the best way to do. what happened in the watergate scandal which is to follow the money if you want to figure out intent if you follow the money and what about the fact that it's the father and his children in this in this lawsuit it's. just the business that they're all partners you know they're invested in and yet the president has said time and time again leave my children. right i mean those are his two red lines right his finances and his family but the truth is that through are inextricably linked because it is a family business it's not a publicly traded company because of that it's not subject to the rules of the securities and exchange commission in the same way that a publicly traded company would be

they have issued subpoenas to the irs, treasury department. one deadline came and went. there's a new deadline of may 17th. if the subpoenas are ignored, what is the next step, potentially? is it contempt for the treasury secretary or anybody else? if so, does that matter? >> right. so, what's at the heart of this is that the treasury -- the ways and means committee has asked for the tax returns of the president and his businesses. they have a right under specific statute to do that. the white house is pushing back, actually, the treasury department on behalf of the white house pushing back saying there's no valid, legislative purpose for this inquiry and therefore, we are not going to reply. they have subpoenaed it. it will now go to court. if he contests, it is held in contempt and the court has to make a decision as to whether or not congress is acting within its authority to demand that, which the statute authorizes and whether or not if they don't do it, there's, you know, the possibility of contempt and jail for it. >> complying contempt is taking seriously. how do

democrats are giving the irs and the treasury department until friday to turn over six years of the president's personal taxes, and democrats are considering multiple contempt charges against trump administration officials, including u.s. attorney general william barr for not turning over the unredacted version of the mueller report. >> here the trump administration has decided to say a blanket no, no to any kind of oversight whatsoever, no witnesses, no documents, no nothing, claiming executive privilege over things that it knows there is no basis for. there's no basis executive privilege over hundreds of thousands of documents regarding events that took place before donald trump was president. you can't have a privilege, an executive privilege when you're not the executive so they know that vast categories are inapplicable to the privilege here, so they are just stonewalling. >> cnn's jeremy diamond is at the white house for us. jeremy, another big week of subpoenas and deadlines for the trump organization. does it also mean a week of compliance or ignoring? >> reporter: it certainly doesn't

own employees, and they do not file them with the government and do not file them with the treasury department. now, what exactly was the nature of these suspicious transactions that deutsche bank employees were identifying and red flagging? we don't know yet. i mean why during the campaign would kushner companies be paying russian individuals in a way that caused anti-money laundering specialists to write up suspicious activity reports? i have no idea. kushner companies denies any wrongdoing. the president himself is naturally denouncing the fake news, enemy of the people, but that's any day that ends in y. deutsche bank for their part, they're denying they did anything wrong here either, despite their multiple employees and former employees saying they weren't even following their own supposedly newly strict rules about this sort of thing. but this kind of bombshell reporting from "the new york times" does give you some indication of what everybody is so freaked out about, right? about why the president may have hired a whole new fleet of lawyers to keep his financial records from places lik

. >> so let's go to the way the treasury department is run.ht now, i'll draw your attention to a very simple illustration. under donald trump we can put up on the screen. you in the red zone there, goldman sachs. >> yes. >> as part of treasury department leadership. if you go back in the obama era, we had former goldman sachs executives running treasury then. you go back to bush, also goldman sachs. you go back to bill clinton, also goldman sachs. in a warren administration, would there be a former goldman sachs executive running the treasury department? >> nope. is that a pledge? >> yes, oh absolutely. but let me tell you why. the problem we've got right now is a revolving door between wall street and washington that causes everybody to be on guess for wait a minute, the next time this treasury secretary puts forward a proposal, is it because it really helps the economy, helps the american consumer, helps the american homeowner, or it is because it helps their former and possibly future employer? let's just do for one second the gary cohn exa

it doesn't say will only furnish the tax returns if there's a purpose to it, that the treasury departmenttty clear. it's there in black and white and the fact the justice department is justifying a different stance under the drkz of attorney general barr and the fact steve mnuchin is treasury secretary is taking a different stance is an indication of how far they have strayed from the rule of law and serving as protecters of donald trump. >> we've seen all of this stone wall flumg white house. i'm wondering if it's pushing some democrat des to impeach and say impeachment is the only option. yard the court ruled the president's accounting firm has to hand over the doxuments. does letting the process play out sound like a better strategy to you? >> i guess we could argue the fact we had a court ruling so quickly in one of these cases suggests that maybe the strategy can work over the next few months if in fact the courts do rule this expedishesly and allow the house investigation to proceed and there are traps involved in rush nothing to impeachment. you -- some cynical minds expect that by

quote, the department of the treasury has consulted with the department of justice concerning the lawfulness of the committee's unprecedented request. we have determined the committee's request lacks a legitimate legislative purpose and pursuant to section 61-03, the department is, therefore, not authorized to disclose the requested returns. the department of justice has informed us that it intends to memorialize its advice in a published legal opinion as soon as practical. so the request went up under federal statute from congress to the treasury department. treasury brought it to the justice department and the answer came back to congress. no, no we are not giving you what you say the law requires us to give you. you will not be surprised to hear that chairman neil is sticking with this. he noted to want in a statement, quote, the law provides clear statutory authority for the chair of the ways and means committees to request and receive access to tax returns and return information. the law by its terms does not allow for discretion as to whether to comply with a request for tax returns. e

the treasury department and the irs got slapped with a lawsuit from the new york attorney general for allegedly failing to respond to information requests, the same democratic attorney general who promised to use every area of the law to investigate donald trump and his family. shannon: thank you very much. house committee is voting this week to hold the attorney general in contempt as anticipation over a public testimony from the special counsel is growing by the minute. let's bring in senior advisor to donald trump's 2020 campaign, great to have you here tonight. i want to play something where all these things are playing out on the hill, senator john kennedy says it is time to get serious. >> i think that both sides in this doubling down on stupid. i think both sides need to sit down and negotiate what the administration can provide and what the house actually needs. this is a dangerous game that is being played. shannon: the president said he is okay with whoever wanted to testify now tweeting he didn't think it was a good idea for the special counsel to show up. >> reporter: i ag

it is that dynamic that the treasury department is having to maneuver through, and secretary mnuchined patients on how the dynamic is playing out. vonnie: i want to ask you about the headline if you will miss ago that somebody familiar with the president's thinking says he will delay a decision on tariffs on european auto imports. what can you tell us about the president's thinking on trade these days? kevin: the tariffs have become front and center in terms of how this white house has had to referee the replicant party. he is facing intense pressure from republicans, not just democrats, urging him to back off and recalculate on the issue of tariffs. guy: can i just ask you about what is happening elsewhere on capitol hill? we have the transportation committee meeting on boeing and the grounding of the 737 max. i see some headlines adjusting boeing hasn't exactly been forthcoming when it comes to delivering documents. is there a sense of frustration here? kevin: there is frustration in terms of how the house transportation committee feels. two big points, the house transportation com

he served at the world bank and at the treasury department as the emissary to china. welcome back.stion, is there something less of an incentive because the markets are not all that roiled by what happened. >> you are right about that, david. been made they have their responded tension between the u.s. and china escalating. if you look back over the week, the market is down somewhat. this week, you have the white house saying they were not moving ahead with auto tariffs, primarily for germany and japan. that was a relief for the market, a signal that president trump is not pursuing trade wars in every direction, just concentrating on china. the market is down a little bit but it seems to have absorbed that. david: also reporting from bloomberg that the president is ready to relieve tariffs on steel and aluminum from canada and mexico. maybe pulling back on another part and the markets are liking that. played from the chinese side. we heard overnight from the semi official channels over there, and it sounded like pretty tough talk. saying we can weather this thing, we are not going

the treasury department has that this is about working against counterfeiters, it is a security issue, the president's credits are not buying it. >> of course they are not buying it because their default is always the race card. they desperately want donald trump to be a racist. we see he has done more for the african-american community than the previous president who was the first african-american president actually did. it is about security and nobody is saying it's not going to happen. no one is saying harriet up and will not be on the $20 bill. it will just take a little longer because they want to make sure it is done the right way. it is a 4 step process and one of those steps is to make sure the bills are very secure so until that happens why would we want harriet to been on a $20 bill that could be re-created easily by anybody. i think this is a little bit of overreaction but not shocking from the democrats. >> you know the president has been pointing out the former vice president has issues that some want to discuss with him about race, on busing, reparations, affirmative act

businesses that this notice, victoria, by the commerce department, says it would defer to the treasury departmentave been deemed undervalued and it also specifically says the movie is not aimed at any central—bank action that results in currency swings and according to people familiar with the administration's internal deliberations, this move to include the new currency tool has been pushed by mr ross and white house trade advisor peter navarro since the early days of the trump presidency and this latest initiative could also ramp up, victoria, the pressure on china to compromise with the united states on a trade agreement. —— trump. victoria. thank you. now let's brief you on some other business stories. what might be the retaliation? china may have tested its nuclear option in the trade war, we are talking about government bonds, it sold $20 billion worth of us government bonds in march and if china sold its $1.2 trillion in us treasuries, it could raise borrowing costs in america, weakened the dollar and plunge global markets into chaos. bloomberg has the story that we were just talking about

. >> the treasury department just released a response asking for the president's tax returns, in his response he says that it presents. constitutional questions, a resolution which may have lasting effects for a number of taxpayers, the department of justice released their findings saying that the committee must have legislative pursuit under purpose to ask for the president tax returns, the treasury department says, the committee lacks that for him to turn that over. they cannot lawfully fill the request in order to get the tax returns to the committee. the other thing they are watching is china, president saying the u.s. president treasury secretary mnuchin saying they will go up $200 billion with the chinese goods friday morning at 12:01 a.m. also they will start the process to add additional tariffs on $325 billion with additional chinese products, basically everything china imports in the united states will be turfed, the additional 325000000025%, that process is within the next two days to get those tariffs imposed, the tree technically wealth this week however, the trade deleg

democrats are giving the irs and treasury department until friday to turn over six years of the president's personal taxes, and they're considering multiple obstruction charges. >> the trump administration has decided to say a blanket no to any oversite whatsoever, no witnesses, no documents, no nothing. claiming executive prifl for something they know there is no privilege for over the hundreds of thousands of documents. you can't have an executive privilege when you're not the executive. they know that vast categories are inapplicable to the privilege here, so they're just stonewalling. >> jeremy, another big week, subpoenas, deadlines for the trump administration, but will it still be more of the same? >> it certainly appears that way, fredericka. the battle lines are drawn, and the fight is ongoing, a couple key dates to look out for this week. don tuesday, a federal judge is expected to rule in the subpoena issues by the house oversite committee seeking the president's financial records from one of his former accounting firms. on friday, the deadline for the house weighs and means subp