New York State has reduced pardon powers of Trump

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The New York State has firmly passed legislation in recent days that limits the pardon powers of the U.S President and reduces his ability to withhold his tax returns from U.S Congress. On Wednesday, the state’s senate voted in favor of a bill that requires local agencies to comply with requests for state tax returns from the heads of Congress’s House ways and means committee, the Senate finance committee or the joint committee on taxation. New York’s senate also voted to support legislation that allows state prosecutors including attorney general Letitia James to file charges against certain members of the president’s orbit if they have received pardons for federal crimes.

Those who received presidential pardons would need to be members of the president’s family, former employees, or there must be a clear and present conflict of interest in order for New York state to invoke its new so-called “double-jeopardy loophole”. The senate’s tax return legislation is expected to pass in the state assembly before the Governor Andrew Cuomo (a prominent opponent to Trump) signs it into law. It means Trump’s home-state could be the first to provide Congressional committees probing the president’s financial dealings with copies of his tax returns after the president defied modern precedent by refusing to disclose his returns.

It clearly indicates the state’s attorney general could soon be able to file new charges against Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who the president has suggested he may pardon. Manafort is a former New York state resident currently serving a prison sentence over bank and tax fraud charges, as well as for witness tampering and failing to disclose lobbying work. New York has been one of the most important states to have served as a form of checks-and-balances against Trump’s administration, launching subpoenas for multiple banks the president has been known to deal with and new investigations into his finances.