A former Treasury secretary and Barack Obama economic adviser says Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin “must not stop” the Internal Revenue Service from releasing President Trump’s tax returns.
Lawrence Summers, who led the department from 1999 to 2001, wrote in an op-ed published by the Washington Post on Monday that it would be “inappropriate and probably illegal” for Mnuchin stop IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig from giving Trump’s tax returns to Congress.
“I would surely not have done it. Rather, I would have indicated to the IRS commissioner that I expected the IRS to comply with the law as always,” he wrote.
Democrats are trying to obtain Trump’s federal taxes, which he has refused to release. Trump has said he is being audited and therefore can’t release his tax returns and other White House officials have argued voters don’t care about seeing the president’s financial disclosures because he was elected without releasing them.
[Related: Romney calls on Trump release tax returns]
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., has requested six years’ worth of Trump’s personal and business tax returns from the IRS and Treasury Department.
Chairs of the congressional tax policy committees are legally permitted to request tax information without having permission from businesses and individuals. However, acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney vowed Sunday Democrats will “never” see Trump’s tax returns.
Summers said the IRS is prohibited from withholding information from Congress when requests, such as Neal’s, are made.
“The only conceivable argument that the IRS commissioner could make for not turning over the president’s return would be to suggest that the committee had no legitimate purpose relating to its work for requesting the return. This is an absurd argument with respect to Trump’s returns,” he wrote.
