Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told a House committee on Tuesday that he is “not afraid of being fired at all” for cooperating with a congressional demand to review President Trump’s tax returns.
Mnuchin also defended his department’s coordination with the White House regarding the tax returns request, amid Democratic scrutiny. The law governing such requests indicates the Treasury secretary, not the president, shall cooperate with the congressional inquiry.
Mnuchin has said his department’s lawyers have consulted with the White House over such a request, though he maintains he insulated himself from those conversations.
“We would not ever ask for the White House’s permission on this, nor did they give us their permission,” Mnuchin said in testimony to the House Financial Services Committee. “We consulted as … I believe was appropriate of our legal department.”
[Related: Mnuchin will ‘follow the law’ on releasing Trump’s tax returns]
Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., one of the senior Democrats on the committee who questioned Mnuchin about his handling of the Trump tax return request, criticized Treasury’s consultation with the White House. It “certainly violates the spirit of the law, if not the letter of the law,” she said. The demand for Trump’s tax returns originated from the Democratic chairman of a separate committee in the House.
The Treasury secretary also denied a conflict of interest in his decision to lift sanctions on Rusal, a Russian aluminum manufacturer, denying ties to one of the company’s major shareholders affected his decision.
“I don’t think I’ve ever met a Russian oligarch, nor have I ever done business with a Russian oligarch,” said Mnuchin.
