Attorney and activist George Conway told MSNBC’s Deadline: White House that the federal judiciary will likely trash President Donald Trump’s legal arguments for withholding tax exemptions from some schools and nonprofits, like Harvard University.
“The whole point of the rule of law is that everything applies both ways. If one party can do something to the other party … then when the shoe is on the other foot, the other one can do the same thing,” Conway told anchor Nicolle Wallace. “But that’s not how a narcissist like Donald Trump thinks. He thinks the law applies in his favor, but against everyone else.”
Federal law prohibits a U.S. president from directing the IRS to conduct an investigation or audit, and no evidence has yet emerged that Harvard has done anything to lose its tax-exempt status, as Trump has ordered.
White House spokesperson Harrison Fields told reporters: “Any forthcoming actions by the IRS are conducted independently of the President, and investigations into any institution’s violations of their tax status were initiated prior to” Trump’s public call for tax-exempt status to be revoked.
Trump more recently appeared mindful of not looking like he personally directed the IRS to pull Harvard’s exemptions.
“… I’ve looked at — a lot having to do with it — I’m not involved in it,” Trump stammered during a press conference yesterday. “It’s being handled by lawyers. I’ve read about it, just like you did, but tax-exempt status is a privilege and it’s been abused by a lot more than Harvard.”
Moments earlier in the same interview he’d responded, “Because I think Harvard is a disgrace,” when asked “why are you considering changing the tax status of Harvard?”
Conway says if Harvard launches a suit against the government over the move, the law will likely side with the vaunted Ivy League university.
“This isn’t going to work, okay? This is serious. [Trump’s] just manifestly promising here to violate the First Amendment because you can’t just selectively pick the people you want to take a benefit away from, or impose a burden on, on the basis of their political views or whether they like you,” Conway said. “It is manifestly violative of the law and … if he does this, he’s going to lose again and again and again. And at the end of the day, he’s not going to help himself. But, you know, he may do it anyway because of his inner rage at institutions that he thinks are better than him.”
Conway added that Trump’s ivy league ire may stem from more than just enmity at schools’ alleged progressive bent.
“Maybe it has something to do with the fact that he had to, pay someone to take the SAT to get into an Ivy league school. I don’t know,” he quipped.
Source: Alternet / Digpu NewsTex