Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Wednesday that he plans to defy a congressional subpoena for President Trump’s tax returns and fight the issue in court, if the issue comes to that.
“We haven’t made a decision but I think you can guess which way we’re leaning,” Mnuchin told the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that oversees the IRS and Treasury Department, before adding that he thought federal courts should interpret whether Congress can obtain Trump’s tax returns. “This will go to the third branch of government to be resolved.”
For the issue to end up in court, the House Ways and Means Committee would need to sue Mnuchin over lack of compliance with a law, put in place following a nearly 100-year-old corruption scandal, that says the Treasury secretary “shall” comply with requests for tax information from the committee chairman. Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., subpoenaed Mnuchin and the IRS late last week to follow up on his initial request made in April.
[Read more: Contempt vote on hold as House takes ‘inventory’ of additional contempt charges against Trump administration]
Pressed as to whether an IRS rule mandating that the president and vice president be audited while in office applied to Trump’s businesses, from which he derives most of his income, Mnuchin said he wasn’t sure, but that Trump has publicly said he’s under audit.
“I would be happy in a smaller, nonpublic setting to go through with the appropriate congressional members what exactly the audit procedures are,” said Mnuchin. He added that he needed to check on whether the audit rule applies to Trump’s businesses and respond to Congress.
Mnuchin also said that IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig, as well as IRS chief counsel Michael Desmond, agreed with the decision not to hand over Trump’s tax returns.
But after questioning from Senate Democrats, Mnuchin also said he had not ordered Rettig not to respond to Congress, but that the IRS commissioner agreed with the approach separately.
“The commissioner has independently concurred with my decisions,” Mnuchin asserted.
