The White House yesterday branded Democratic efforts to obtain Donald Trump’s tax records “political games.”
The House Ways and Means Committee formally asked the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to provide six years of Trump’s personal tax returns and the returns for some of his businesses on Wednesday as Democrats try to shed light on his complex financial dealings and potential conflicts of interest.
The request by chairman Richard Neal is the first such demand for a sitting president’s tax information in 45 years. The unprecedented move is likely to set off a huge legal battle between Democrats controlling the House and the Trump administration.
Neal made the request in a letter to IRS commissioner Charles Rettig, asking for Trump’s personal and business returns for 2013 through 2018. He asked for the documents in seven days, setting a 10 April deadline.
Trump told reporters on Wednesday he “would not be inclined” to provide his tax returns to the committee. White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said on Thursday morning that the White House “is not interested in playing a bunch of political games like the Democrats in Congress clearly want to spend their time doing.”
Asked again later Thursday for his response to Neal’s demand, Trump didn’t provide a direct answer.
“They’ll speak to my lawyers; they’ll speak to the attorney-general,” he said at the White House.
Democrats insist that obtaining Trump’s tax filings falls within their mandate of congressional oversight. Republicans have denounced it as a political witch hunt and invoked privacy concerns.
“We have completed the necessary groundwork for a request of this magnitude, and I am certain we are within our legitimate legislative, legal and oversight rights,” Neal said in a statement on Wednesday evening.
Representative Kevin Brady of Texas, the senior Republican on the Ways and Means panel, denounced the move as “an abuse of the tax-writing committees’ statutory authority.”
“Weaponising our nation’s tax code by targeting political foes sets a dangerous precedent and weakens Americans’ privacy rights,” Brady wrote in a letter Wednesday to Treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin, who oversees the IRS. “As you know, by law all Americans have a fundamental right to the privacy of the personal information found in their tax returns.”
Louisiana Republican Steve Scalise said “a lot of Americans are shocked” that Congress can review tax returns, “whether it’s a blue collar worker or president of the United States.”
The legal battle set to ensue could take years to resolve, possibly stretching beyond the 2020 presidential election.
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